Editorial: Rufus Williams — 'process,' 'independent hearing officers', and hypocrisy
Editorial: Rufus Williams — “process,” “independent hearing officers” and hypocrisy
Anyone who believes that the hearing officers who just completed the rituals of this round of school closings, consolidations, etc. were “independent” has a fine sense of humor. And anyone who believes Chicago Board of Education President Rufus Williams when Williams talks about “respect” and “process” doesn’t know how to spell the word hypocrite. At the “hearings” between February 4, 2008 and February 16, 2008, there were at least five hearing officers — Fred Bates, Ellen Douglas, Michael Hernandrez, and Respicio Vazquez. Half the “independent hearing officers” — Respicio Vazquez and Michael Hernandez — are from the same law firm. They are currently partners in the law firm of Franczek Sullivan PC. Franczek Sullivan is the labor relations law firm for CPS. Franczek Sullivan negotiated all of the union contracts for CPS last summer (both the Chicago Teachers Union and the other unions) and was paid about a half million dollars for that work.
Additionally, Franczek Sullivan has been paid between a half million dollars and a million dollars per year in business from the Chicago Board of Education for at least the past ten years (as we’ve reported from time to time here in Substance). The firm also receives large amounts of business from other entities in the Daley empire (although we usually only pay attention to CPS spending).
Even though the labor negotiations of 2007 were over by January 2008, the Chicago Board of Education continued paying huge amounts to Franczek Sullivan. It’s not that CPS is facing a shortage of lawyers. The entire 7th floor of CPS headquarters at 125 S. Clark St. is the “Law Department.” These are the attorneys who work for CPS and their support staff. As we’ve reported exclusively in Substance for the past decade, CPS has expanded the total number of lawyers working for it since Mayor Daley took over the schools in 1995. CPS has also been expanding the number of politically connected lawyers in other departments as well — despite the fact that Arne Duncan goes around town prattling about “deficits” and claiming that he has “cut administration”.
The month before the hearings, on January 23, 2008, the Chicago Board of Education voted unanimously and without discussion to approve another payment to Franczek Sullivan in the amount of $200,000 (Board Report 08-0123-AR2, which is now available in the Action Agendas of the Chicago Board of Education).
January 23 was the same day that Rufus Williams was telling irate parents from Edison, Gladstone, and Abbot (the few schools that had gotten wind of the plan to screw them and had mobilized a presence for the Board meeting) that they should respect what he called “the process.” What Williams did not tell the parents was that “the process” had already been completed once CPS had approved all the necessary changes in policy (especially those governing “turnaround,” “underutilized schools” and overcrowding) during the previous six months.
What was left of “the process” Williams kept babbling about was the rubber stamp hearing officers hearings. According to the January Board Report for Franczek Sullivan, the most recent $200,000 was for “general litigation, labor negotiations, consultation and strategy developments.” Hearing Officer Michael Hernandez is a partner in Franczek Sullivan PC.
Hearing Officer Respicio Vazquez is a partner in Franczek Sullivan PC.
As partners, their annual income is based, in part, on the value of the work their firm does for the Chicago Board of Education.
Vazquez presided over the hearings on Irving Park Middle School, De La Cruz, Andersen, and Edison School (and possibly others, as this was written, Substance was still waiting for the complete hearing officer reports compiled at CPS). Hernandez presided over the hearings on Roque de Duprey elementary school and Harper High School (and possibly others, as this was written, Substance was still waiting for the complete hearing officer reports compiled at CPS). Does anyone want to try and explain how these two guys were “independent” hearing officers when one of their firm’s largest clients (in terms of annual dollar billings, going back more than ten years and continuing into 2008) is the Chicago Board of Education?
Don’t partners in major law firms get paid based on the total revenue of those firms, or has something changed since I was working in law years ago? Respicio Vazquez and Michael Hernandez are not technically employees of the Chicago Board of Education. In a way, they have an even better deal — the firm they partly own is one of the largest outside contractors for CPS and have been since Mayor Daley took over CPS 13 years ago. There are more than 20,000 attorneys in Cook County. One of the main offices of the American Arbitration Association is less than a mile from the headquarters of the Chicago Board of Education. Yet Rufus Williams and his staff managed to pick two attorneys as supposedly “independent hearing officers” who have a major conflict of interest. And the rest of the media ignore these facts and treat Williams and CEO Arne Duncan as if they were telling the truth when they lie to parents, students, teachers, and the rest of us.
This editorial was originally published in the March 2008 edition of Substance
