A Peek Behind the Door of CTPF Racism & 'Cabal of Evil'
By Jim Vail
The Chicago Teacher's Pension Fund (CTPF) has been hit hard with accusations of racism and whistle blower complaints which the president of the fund called a "cabal of evil."
It's bad enough that the mayor of this city who is no friend of public pensions said she's concerned.
So what the heck is going on with a fund managing $11 billion in pensions for Chicago teachers?
Second City Teachers took a closer look at this swirling scandal by interviewing the key players connected to the brewing racist allegations and complaints to get their take on who is responsible.
Jeffery Blackwell was re-elected the president of the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund at the last board meeting in November. He ran on the Core ticket, which leads the Chicago Teachers Union.
Blackwell first read a letter this summer to the board of trustees outlining his alleged problems of racism at the fund.
Blackwell's speech put the fund in the limelight.
Blackwell told Second City in a phone interview that the problem lies with trustees Tina Padilla and Maria Rodriguez. He made allegations that Tina and Maria interrupt their meetings constantly and Tina questions the expertise of the fund's chief investment manager Angela Miller May.
"They hijack our meetings," Blackwell said, "and question everything she does."
Padilla was the Investment Chair committee person for the past nine years who would ask questions regarding investments to the investment team. Blackwell appointed Phil Weiss as the new investment chairperson to replace Tina at the November 2020 meeting.
Padilla and Blackwell are both backed by the Coalition of Rank & File Educators. Tina was first elected to the fund in 2011. Maria Rodriguez is a retired teacher trustee who has served on the board as both a teacher and retired teacher trustee. She is an independent.
Padilla did not respond to Blackwell's accusations. She told Second City that her only concern after recently getting re-elected is her fiduciary responsibility to the pension fund.
"I am here to make our pension fund grow, and that is it," she said by phone.
Rodriguez contested Blackwell's accusation that the two hijack the pension board meetings.
"No one can interrupt the meetings because the president has control of the mics," Rodriguez told Second City Teachers. "It's simply not true."
What Padilla and Rodriguez do do, and anyone who has attended a pension board meeting can attest, is ask important questions about finances and members services issues. And that can be a problem to some, Rodriguez says.
Rodriguez asks questions about members concerns involving delayed health insurance subsidies reimbursements and 1099R's being sent late to retirees, similar to W2's for current teachers and other employees.
Padilla has a strong finance background. She asks very detailed questions about the fees certain funds charge and other financial information that other trustees do not ask. Those questions can be construed as challenging the fund's investment team.
Padilla and Phil Weiss, who upset Core on the Members First ticket and who also possesses a strong financial background, won their three-year terms to serve as teacher trustees probably because they know a lot about finance.
But knowing a lot can also make a lot of enemies if that person is not quiet. Blackwell confirmed, as well as other trustees, that Padilla had her sights on becoming the president of the fund. That battle for the presidency could have made the two bitter enemies, even though they both are backed by Core.
The stakes were high enough in the last pension board meeting that the founder of Core and the former CTU chief of staff Jackson Potter, who most likely put the slate together, attended the pension board meeting.
But perhaps the key player who helped create this toxic situation on the Chicago Teachers Pension was the former executive director, Charles Burbridge.
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| Former CTPF Dir. Charles Burbridge |
He ran the fund from 2015 until he resigned two months ago.
Burbridge was a curious choice to lead the fund. He had worked with former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, who fought hard to gut teachers' pensions and privatize the public schools under Mayor Richard Daley. Vallas engineered the pension holiday that turned a fully-funded teachers pension into a woefully funded teachers pension.
When he started Burbridge immediately set up his own team at the fund, who would be loyal to him. According to one memo, he set up a team of 30 new managers and directors, many making six figures. It is believed that many of these people are the ones filing whistle blower complaints and other accusations against the trustees asking questions.
Burbridge and Padilla did not get along.
Blackwell, on the other hand, said Burbridge did 'an incredible job'.
The minutes from one board meeting going back to the spring of 2018 will show that Burbridge made an official apology to Tina Padilla. It must have been bad enough that he was forced to go on the record to say he was sorry, something people in power are loath to do.
According to one insider, 20 staff members have left the fund in the last three years, indicating the CTPF is no different than a poorly functioning school under toxic leadership. As the Chicago Board of Education has taken more control of the schools, the amount of teacher turnover has increased under abusive principals.
According to the Public Schools Teachers's Pension and Retirement Fund of Chicago Actuarial Valuation Report June 30, 2020, when Burbridge started in 2015 the fund was 53.7% funded and each year it dropped 1-2 percent in funding to the current 45.4%.
The fund's woes can't be solely contributed to Burbridge, but to a variety of factors, including CPS and the state not making its proper contributions.
At the November 10, 2020 meeting Rodriguez was quoted as saying, "We want to hit the reset button" with respect to the staff-trustee battle that's been roiling the pension's operations.
The trustees will be voting on a new executive director in the next six months. Hopefully, the new leader will right the ship that appears to have drifted off into troubled waters and guide her back onto the path to pension stability and racial harmony.
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