THE WATCHDOGS: Key figure a ‘conduit’ for ousted CPS CEO, former Rahm aide says

Gary Solomon, whose company’s $20.5 million, no-bid contract is at the center of a federal investigation that cost former Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett her job, pushed for her hiring and then regularly communicated with Mayor Rahm Emanuel’’s top education adviser on Byrd-Bennett’s behalf, emails obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show.

Solomon’s emails to Beth Swanson, Emanuel’s then-deputy chief of staff for education issues, were so frequent that Swanson described him in an interview Friday as “Barbara Byrd-Bennett’s conduit — an extension of her team who pushed for her hiring.”

“When I would ask Barbara for information, she would have Gary send it,” said Swanson, who left City Hall last year for a post with the Joyce Foundation.

The Emanuel administration has tried to distance itself from Solomon and the lucrative deal that CPS gave his SUPES Academy consulting firm soon after Byrd-Bennett, a former SUPES employee, got the top schools job in October 2012.

But the emails show City Hall knew of Byrd-Bennett’s relationship with Solomon more than a year and a half before SUPES Academy was given the contract to train CPS principals.

They show Solomon was pushing City Hall in early 2012 to hire Byrd-Bennett as the city’s chief education officer — second in command to then-schools chief Jean-Claude Brizard.

Solomon negotiated some of the terms of Byrd-Bennett’s deal to take that post, according to the emails, and later passed along a series of her complaints to City Hall once she was in place at CPS.

In March 2012, Solomon emailed Swanson to complain that high-level CPS officials had met Byrd-Bennett in a hotel bar and kept her out late to speak at length with her.

“They kept BBB up til after midnite, complaining…the(y) do not trust me, do not trust you, do not trust JC, do not trust anyone but BBB. Went off on me, went off on you,” Solomon wrote to Swanson.

Reached late Friday, Swanson described Solomon as a “serial networker who emailed constantly.”

Her email responses show that, rather than soliciting information from Solomon, Swanson largely offered terse replies to his queries.

Solomon’s first email to City Hall on Byrd-Bennett’s behalf came in January 2012 while Byrd-Bennett was still employed by SUPES and another company owned by Solomon and Thomas Vranas called Synesi Associates. In that Jan. 28, 2012, email, Solomon discussed Byrd-Bennett getting the No. 2 job at CPS with Swanson.

Solomon asked Swanson who might get the job.

Swanson replied, “What about Triple B?” That was the mayor’s nickname for Byrd-Bennett, who, as a SUPES employee, had been serving as a mentor for Noemi Donoso — who held the post at the time.

“She would do it, and she would nail it,” Solomon responded.

In May 2012, Byrd-Bennett got the job.

That was shortly after Solomon had emailed Swanson a copy of Byrd-Bennett’s resume and biography. He also sent along a suggested job description for the post that he appeared to have edited and annotated, plus a detailed “BBB CPS Wish List Wish List.”

“One thing we have not discussed is the amount of time BBB will spend in the district as part of this agreement,” Solomon said in notes in red at the bottom of the “wish list” document. “I think we are going to need to be clear in the number of days per week/per month that BBB is on site, versus the time she is going the work remotely, yet is entirely accessible to district personnel on any and all CPS issues.

“Finally, under a separate document, I am sending a list of questions or items that Barbara would like to review as soon as possible.”

Throughout the rest of 2012, Solomon continued to email Swanson with notes apparently sent on Byrd-Bennett’s behalf, according to copies of the communications that City Hall provided Friday in response to a Chicago Sun-Times public records request that was made in early May.

That October, Emanuel promoted Byrd-Bennett to replace Brizard, his first schools CEO, whose star had fallen in the face of a teachers strike.

When it came time to look for a new chief education officer, Swanson said, “Barbara’s name came up, and I knew Gary and her were very close and had worked together.

“I just want to reiterate this point: Gary forwarded me the contract, continued to follow up on details, and my role was to have awareness of CPS matters.”

In an earlier interview, Brizard said Solomon was “instrumental” in Byrd-Bennett’s getting the top job at CPS.

Swanson said she raised questions about Byrd-Bennett’s relationship with Solomon before SUPES got the no-bid deal in June 2013.

“When I learned of the $20.5 million contract just before the CPS board meeting, I asked a number of questions about it,” Swanson said. “But this was the board’s decision, and they were comfortable moving forward.”

Earlier this year, in mid-April, federal subpoenas were sent to CPS seeking records concerning Byrd-Bennett, three of her top aides, Solomon, Vranas and their companies.

Byrd-Bennett immediately took a paid leave of absence and later resigned, effective June 1, from her $250,000-a-year job as CPS’ CEO.

No one has been charged. Federal authorities have declined to discuss the investigation.

Two of the Byrd-Bennett aides named in the subpoenas resigned at the end of June. The third was laid off.

Solomon and Vranas boasted to CPS as they made a case in September 2012 to be hired without any competitive bidding, as is usually required for major contracts like this one, that they’d been “instrumental in recruiting much of the CPS leadership team to Chicago.”

“Working with both the Mayor’s Office and the Department of Talent and Human Resources, we have been heavily involved in recruiting the current Chief Executive Officer, both the former and current Chief Education Officer, and the current Chief of Staff, as well as many of the Chief Area Officers and building principals,” they wrote on SUPES letterhead, referring to Brizard, in a document they emailed to Swanson with a note reading, “as per Barbara.”

Solomon and Vranas declined to comment Friday.

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A spokesman for the two men, Dennis Culloton, said in an email: “There is a pending investigation into CPS, therefore it is not appropriate to address your detailed questions.”

CPS spokesman Bill McCaffrey and Byrd-Bennett’s attorney, Michael Scudder, also declined to comment.

Asked why the Board of Education approved the SUPES deal despite Swanson’s questions about Solomon’s ties to Byrd-Bennett, mayoral spokeswoman Kelley Quinn declined to comment.

Contributing: Dan Mihalopoulos