By John Dempsey, WLS-AM News
(CHICAGO) The Inspector General for the Chicago Public Schools has reportedly advised the school board that it should fire School CEO Forrest Claypool. The Chicago Tribune and Sun Times both quote sources who say Inspector General Nicholas Schuler is making the recommendation because Shuler says Claypool lied during an ethics investigation.
Schuler has conducted an investigation into Claypool’s hiring of his friend and former campaign contributor Ronald Marmer as the CPS General Counsel.
Schuler’s staff found that Marmer used his former law firm, Jenner and Block, to do legal work for the school system at the same time the firm was making severance payments to him, a violation of CPS ethics rules. The Schuler probe also found that Claypool tried to interfere with his ethics investigation.
The Chicago Teachers Union is calling on Claypool to be fired. CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey told “The Big John and Ramblin’ Ray Show” on WLS, “Forrest Claypool falsified public documents in order to hide unethical conduct. It’s a basic rule. Don’t make a no-bid contract with a law firm at the same time that same firm is paying your General Counsel.”
Claypool went on to say, “He went to six different lawyers and asked the lawyers ‘Can I do this contract that I want to do?’ And they said ‘Don’t do it.’ And well then of course they’re lawyers so they billed them for the advice and so he went back to a couple of them and said ‘I need you to change the bill so it doesn’t appear as if I’m asking you for that advice.’ Because then he went and he finally found a seventh law firm which said ‘Yeah you can do it’, so he went ahead and did the contract.”
Claypool has formally apologized for reworking an invoice to one of the law firms he paid for legal advice on the Marmer issue. During a formal interview with Schuler the CEO said he “did not recall” asking for such changes.
Claypool is a longtime friend and ally of Mayor Emanuel, who released a statement Wednesday, saying in part, “Forrest made a mistake. But he was also big enough to stand up, and publicly apologize for it. I think we should all take a deep breath before making snap judgements about a man with a sterling reputation.”
However Sharkey says Emanuel’s response is not good enough.
“You know this is Rahm Emanuel’s handpicked school boss, and he should fired, and if Emanuel won’t do that, then Emanuel should be fired.”
@ 2017 WLS-AM News
