CTPF Censure

Chicago Teachers Pension Fund Censures 3 Minority Board Members

By Jim Vail

CTPF Vice President Trustee Mary Sharon Reilly was reprimanded for
being a racist on the pension fund which resulted in an apology.

Core and Members First trustees on the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund teamed up to punish and publicly admonish three of its minority board members and reprimand a fourth white member for being a racist.

Members First teacher trustee Phil Weiss, who upset a Core candidate in the pension fund election last fall, introduced the motion on behalf of pension fund president and interim director and Core trustee Jeffery Blackwell to censure the three trustees Gervaise Clay, Tina Padilla and Maria Rodriguez for disrespectful and unprofessional behavior on the fund.

Weiss proceeded to read the resolutions at the May 20 pension board meeting like a judge handing down harsh sentences. He warned of harsher penalties in the future should they not follow the board's guidelines to correct their actions.

"Whereas the Board of Trustees censured Trustee Maria Rodriguez on Sept. 19, 2019, for conduct towards Fund employees, and a fellow Trustee that was aggressive, hostile, unprofessional and disrespectful behavior."

He did not state what the aggressive or hostile action that occurred two years ago was that necessitated the public shaming.

The same resolution was read out to all three trustees. Guilty trustees Tina Padilla and Gervaise Clay both ran on the Core ticket while Rodriguez was an independent.

A reprimand resolution was also read out loud by Weiss to trustee Mary Sharon Reilly for racist behavior toward another trustee.

Clay wanted to know why the board choose to punish her and the other two minority trustees more harshly than the white trustee who was admonished for being a racist.

Weiss quickly replied that it was because Reilly apologized.

Clay countered at the meeting that she had no idea what she was supposed to apologize for nor was she given the chance to do so.

Reilly will be running in the next pension board election on the Core ticket. The interesting question will be if Core, which has made the fight against racism the center of its platform, will still back Trustee Reilly in the next election.

The trustees who voted in favor of the censure resolution included President Blackwell, teacher trustees Jackie Price Ward, Jim Cavallero, and Phil Weiss, retired principal trustee Jerry Travlos, and retired teacher trustee Mary Sharon Reilly. The Chicago Board of Education trustees Miguel Del Valle and Dwayne Truss abstained, while retiree trustee Lois Nelson was not present for all three votes. Rodriguez, Padilla and Clay all voted no to their censuring.

The same vote pattern repeated in passing the reprimand resolution against Mary Sharon Reilly, although Padilla and Clay showed a sign of party solidarity (all three are Core members) by abstaining rather than voting yes with the other trustees.

The guilty must attend two trustee sensitivity training sessions and refrain from any further alleged aggressive, hostile, unprofessional or disrespectful conduct, and make a public apology at the next board meeting. "If not, there may be more serious consequences," Weiss warned at the meeting.

Tina Padilla told her executioners they had no evidence about any of the accusations. 

"This is misrepresentation and fraudulent," she told the board, adding she will be getting an attorney. "This whole board is out of order!"

Rodriguez said during the board meeting that she and Gervaise Clay had not been interviewed before the resolution to censure them.

The kangaroo court board meeting last week resulted after President Jeffery Blackwell warned last summer that there was a "cabal of evil" permeating the pension board where a culture of intimidation, misinformation, discrimination, slander, misogyny, fearmongering, blatant racism and retaliatory actions are prevalent.

But Blackwell himself has shown a contempt for ethics when he voted himself in as the interim director of the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund (CTPF) while he continues to serve as a trustee who oversees the fund's operation. 

"Jeff made a scandal where there is none and is creating controversy that is unnecessary," a former pension board trustee told Second City Teachers. The trustee said the pension fund has been a beacon in minority hiring and is to be commended for this.

Which makes this latest show trial at the pension board that more resembled a kangaroo court in a Kafka novel all the more bizarre.

Padilla and Rodriguez are both female Latinas while Clay is an African American female. And they are at the center of Blackwell's charges of racism and misogyny? Meanwhile, their executioners are Phil Weiss, who is white, and Jeffery Blackwell, who is African American. They are also both males!

Do you get the feeling we're not in Kansas anymore?

Anybody who closely follows the CTPF meetings will see that there is a political element to this latest purge and public shaming. The fund was recently hit with a lawsuit by a current employee (we incorrectly reported that the lawsuit filed against the fund was by a former employee while in fact he still works for the fund). Accountant Albert Thomas accused the pension board management of retaliation after he pointed out accounting errors dating back to 2012.

One trustee questioned the timing where the actions allegedly happened one or two years ago. Both Clay and Rodriguez are up for re-election this year in November.

Rodriguez, Padilla and Clay are the only trustees who regularly challenge the leadership and ask questions on behalf of the members. Blackwell has been observed by this reporter to make snide remarks to show his contempt for the three female trustees. For example, during the last board meeting after the censure and reprimand resolutions passed, Blackwell said in response to an apology from one of the convicted trustees for asking a question out of order: "That's okay, we're accustomed to it." Other trustees who support Blackwell will join in the subtle bullying of Padilla, Rodriguez and Clay. One trustee mockingly told trustee Rodriguez, "Are you chastising us?"

Amazingly, these remarks followed a roughly two hour presentation by a consultant about what constitutes racist and unprofessional bullying in the workplace. 

"Clearly this is a political witch hunt for power and control of the CTU and CTPF," Trustee Maria Rodriguez said. "Core and Members First are vying for control of both the Chicago Teachers Union and the Pension Fund, while members are the victims and only three women on the Board of Trustees are asking questions to ensure transparency at the Fund."

She noted at the meeting that she and the other guilty ones were not allowed to have an attorney to refute the allegations.

"We don't rubber stamp everything, we're strong women" Rodriguez said at the meeting. "We were not allowed to bring an attorney. We didn't even know the allegations. This is unbelievable."

Weiss said the censure and reprimand resolutions will be published in the CTPF newsletter.

The Chicago Teachers Pension Fund has been losing money every year  and is currently underfunded at near 45 percent. Members First ran on the promise to stop the fund from hemorrhage more money, while Core boasted that the CTU restored the pension levy to stop the funding decline that resulted from years of the board of education not paying into the fund.

The business community represented by Greg Hinz of Chicago's Crain Magazine is closely following the teachers pension fund's latest saga. There are people inside the fund feeding him information about the infighting - a dangerous strategy. Hinz uses this information to write why the teachers pensions which he says cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars should be nixed because of scandals like this. He represents multi-millionaires, not teachers!