Byrd-Bennett Confronted Emanuel Aide When Questioned on No-Bid Contract

June 24, 2013 has a special place in the hearts of many Chicagoans.

That’s the night the Blackhawks, the city’s beloved professional hockey team, scored two goals in 17 seconds in the waning moments of Game Six of the Stanley Cup Finals to bring the city of Chicago the second of what would eventually turn into three world championships in the last six years.

But while the city of Chicago was celebrating their hockey heroes, the then-CEO of Chicago Public Schools was outraged. June 24 was also the night, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, that Barbara Byrd-Bennett confronted Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s education aide via email in response to questioning her on a $20.5 million no-bid contract between CPS and Wilmette-based SUPES Academy, the CEO’s former employer.

I cannot be second-guessed like this,” Byrd-Bennett wrote Emanuel aide Beth Swanson at 8:58 p.m. on June 24. “The level of micro-managing by people who have no track record and have not lead [sic] or managed anything is in some way insulting.”

“Either people think I can do this or … what do they want?” she concluded in the email.

Two days later (and two before the Blackhawks’ parade that year), the SUPES deal was unanimously approved by six school board members, all appointed by Emanuel.

Byrd-Bennett and SUPES’ co-owners, Gary Solomon and Thomas Vranas, face charges of wire fraud and mail fraud in the kickback scheme, which would have netted Byrd-Bennett 10 percent on all no-bid contracts approved for SUPES.

Byrd-Bennett is expected to plead guilty at her arraignment on Tuesday. She could face as much as 20 years in prison.

more via the Chicago Sun-Times