Chicago board president's suicide tied to City Hall/Olympics corruption

In the run-up to the Olympic Games, the mayor and school board president Michael Scott forced CPS principals, teachers, and students to turn out for rallies to support the mayor's failed campaign to make Chicago the Olympic City. Now we know why.

While serving as school board president, Scott negotiated key components of the $1.2 billion Olympic Village plan and had a long business relationship with developer Gerald Fogelson, who was vying to build the village. Scott served as a $10,000/month consultant on a condominium project near the proposed athletes village, a development that would increase in value if the city had won the Olympics. The city owns more than 750 properties in the immediate vicinity of two proposed Olympic venues, Douglas Park on the West Side and Washington Park on the South Side.

Scott lost a ton of money when his consulting fees from Fogelson were cut off after the bid failed. This combined with Scott's despondency over other failed business dealings is now being explained as a prime reason for his suicide.


Big questions still remain:

1. In January, when the Police Department initially released the reports of its investigation into Scott’s death in response to media's Freedom of Information Act requests, it blacked out much of the documents — including the previously undisclosed details of Scott’s consulting deal. The Better Government Assoc. later obtained  the same heavily redacted police reports. The BGA now argues that leaving out so much of the police findings violated state law, and the police ultimately agreed to release some of the previously withheld information. But why not all?  Is police superintendent Jody Weis looking out for the mayor's interests here?

2. Who else from the school board and other city agencies and departments had conflicts of interest around the Olympic Games campaign? Anybody currently on the board? Anyone currently campaigning for mayor? Just asking.

3. How long until we know results from other investigations of misconduct and mismanagement of school funds by Daley's hand-picked board of bankers and developers, including misuse of school board credit cards?

4. Is this the reason, or one of the reasons why Daley wants a business person rather than an educator in charge of the schools?

5.  Do we need a clearer example of why City Hall's corrupt politics and the administration of the public schools ought to be kept miles apart rather than all under the autocratic control of the mayor?

Daley appoints another fixer as board president

Daley said he does not "condone any misuse of taxpayers' money by anyone, no matter who it is."--Clout Street

Mayor Daley has appointed another of his trusted political manager/fixers to become the next president of the the Board of Education. Mary Richardson-Lowry, a corporate lawyer from the power-house Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw law firm, served as a City Hall counsel and Daley-appointed building commissioner. She also led the transition team for then-incoming County Board President Todd Stroger. She brings with her, no background in public education except for the fact that (like Arne Duncan) her mother was a teacher.

According to Catalyst,

Richardson-Lowry left the building commissioner post days after an accident at the John Hancock Center, where scaffolding plunged more than 40 floors to the ground during a wind storm and killed three women. But a city spokesperson said Richardson-Lowry’s departure had nothing to do with the accident.

Richardson-Lowry comes to a school board in the midst of a major scandal and her appointment will do little to change CPS image as an annex of City Hall, rife with corruption and patronage. The last two board presidents, Michael Scott (who committed suicide in November) and Rufus Williams, are the subject of investigations surrounding the misuse of funds. Daley's appointed schools CEO Ron Huberman recently revoked credit cards from 89 CPS bureaucrats. As one would expect, the current investigation is being carefully run by another Daley-appointed lawyer.

Richardson-Lowry's appointment should help keep a lid on the investigation and make sure that there's a firewall between it and the 5th floor of City Hall.

Sun-Times: Mike Scott took heat for Daley

One of mayor's "fixers"

City Hall reporter Fran Spielman, writing on death of School Board President Michael Scott, in this morning's S-T:

Daley values loyalty above all else and trusts just a precious few. Scott earned the mayor’s trust by taking enough heat for Daley over the last 30 years to earn an asbestos suit. Scott knew better than anyone that the mayor’s fixers operate best in the shadows outside public view. He also knew what former Chicago Schools CEO Paul Vallas obviously did not — that anybody who commanded more headlines than Daley would eventually be run out of town.