CPS food director reportedly accepted gifts from firm she recommended

Chicago Public Schools food director reportedly accepted gifts from firm she recommended


2 businesses gave 3 employees at least $86,000 in gifts, investigation says

By Joel Hood, Chicago Tribune reporter
12:52 AM CDT, March 18, 2012

Around the time Louise Esaian took over as chief of food services at Chicago Public Schools in 2007, Chartwells-Thompson Hospitality launched a pilot program to provide free breakfasts to students at a city elementary school.

Four years later, the breakfast program had grown to serve 199 public elementary schools, and Esaian urged the school board to take it districtwide, crediting the program with improving the "intellectual, emotional, social and physical development" of schoolchildren from low-income families.

The board unanimously approved the expansion despite strong opposition from many parents, increasing Chartwells' multimillion-dollar contract with CPS by about $10 million.

Now, Esaian and two members of her staff are accused in a report by CPS inspector general James Sullivan of accepting at least $86,000 in gifts from Chartwells and another vendor, Preferred Meals Systems, that have combined food contracts at CPS in excess of $75 million.

Esaian told the inspector general that the gifts didn't influence her decisions at CPS, according to the report, which came out last week. But the appearance of conflict in such situations is inescapable, said Laurence Msall, president of the government watchdog Civic Federation.

"Even if it only affects the appearance of the procurement, it has a corrosive impact on the public's trust and the perception of how government decisions are made," Msall said. "These ethics codes exist because too often governmental officials are confused about what is in the public's interest and what is in their private interests."

The inspector general report does not make note of the expansion of Chartwells' breakfast program. But at the same time the school board was considering, and ultimately approving, lucrative contract extensions for Chartwells and Preferred, the report says Esaian was being wined and dined at upscale Chicago restaurants, lavished with birthday gifts and NFL tickets for her friends and family.

The district's ethics policies restrict CPS employees from accepting gifts worth more than $50 from businesses that contract with the district. Esaian, who oversaw bidding and managed the food vendor accounts, said she was aware of the policy but didn't think the gifts she got from the vendors crossed the line, according to the report.

Esaian joined CPS after years at a private company in the hospitality industry, where she said such gifts are a standard way of doing business, according to the report.

That may be true in the hospitality industry, experts said, but even private businesses are increasingly clamping down on the exchange of gifts to avoid the appearance of a conflict and to protect their reputations.

"Many, many publicly traded companies have codes of conduct that place dramatic limitations on how their employees can interact," said Gretchen Winter, executive director of the Center for Professional Responsibility in Business and Society at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "A lot of it is a commitment to the core values of an organization and about actual or perceived conflicts of interest."

The rules are even more strict at governmental agencies because taxpayer money is at stake, said John Paul Rollert, an adjunct assistant professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago.

"In a private company, the risks of that behavior are going to be borne by the company itself, whereas (at a public agency), the risks are borne by the public, the taxpayer," Rollert said. "The fear is that you end up with people making decisions about contractual matters and about expenditure of public money in their own best interests.

"You're indirectly enriching yourself through the expenditure of public funds."

Sullivan's report chronicled dozens of instances where it said Esaian met with officials from either Chartwells or Preferred for dinners and drinks. In addition to candy, flowers and liquor, company executives allegedly bought Esaian a $250 spa gift card at Macy's on her birthday and a $140 etched crystal hologram of her parents.

Sullivan declined to comment on his investigation. His report does not accuse Esaian of criminal wrongdoing because there was no evidence that these companies directly benefited from these gifts or this access to CPS' top food officer.

Bob Bloomer, a Chartwells vice president who oversees its contract with CPS, is alleged to have personally bought many of the gifts for Esaian and her staff. Bloomer declined to speak to the Tribune. According to the inspector general's report, he told Sullivan his job is to make clients happy, and he said Esaian never turned down an offer for a free meal or drink.

The inspector general's report does call for disciplinary action against Esaian and closer monitoring of the relationship between CPS and its top two food vendors. The report says CPS needs tighter controls on the contract procurement process and a more robust ethics department to investigate questionable behavior by its staff.

Esaian could not be reached for comment. CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll released a statement saying that the district took these allegations against Esaian and other food service staffers seriously and that "appropriate corrective actions will be taken in the immediate future."

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-cps-vendor-gifts-0318-20120318,0,708170.story

Editor's note: Why is this Shark not surprised about this Chicago-Cook County corruption? And the "appropriate corrective actions"...nothing!  Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

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