Cost to taxpayers for Ford Crown Victoria and hybrid Ford Escape: At least $1,800 a month, not including driver's salary
Tribune reporters
In mid-October, Chicago Public Schools chief Ron Huberman made a special trip to Springfield to implore legislators to restore funding cuts that were aggravating an already painful budget season.
What he didn't mention to legislators was how he got there, in the literal sense. The school chief drove himself in a 2009 Ford Escape hybrid that costs taxpayers more than $800 a month. That vehicle is in addition to the Crown Victoria that Huberman rides around in while in Chicago; the school district leases it for about $1,000 a month, not including the driver's pay. Huberman, who was appointed in January of last year, makes $230,000 a year.
While previous school chiefs Paul Vallas and Arne Duncanboth had a car and driver, neither had an additional vehicle leased for them by the nation's third-largest school system. For that matter, the leaders of the nation's two largest school districts don't have that perquisite either.
In a tough year for the city's schools, with nearly a thousand layoffs expected and millions of dollars in program cuts, some are questioning the necessity of two cars for a CEO who has made his name by trimming inefficiencies.
"I would say that's hypocritical," said Jackson Potter, a teacher at Social Justice High School and co-chairman of the teacher's advocacy group Caucus of Rank and File Educators. "[Teachers] are expected to get to work on their own. The CEO should lead by example".
District officials disagree.
Huberman's car and driver can be used by his senior staff, spokeswoman Monique Bond said. His personal car is to get to and from work, weekend events and school-related trips to Springfield, she added. Bond said Huberman worked at least 36 weekend days in 2009 , and has taken a handful of trips to Springfield.
"The decision to lease a vehicle for the purpose of driving to early morning and late evening meetings and work-related functions as well as weekend events was based on efficiency," Huberman said in a prepared statement. "The job of the CEO involves a significant time commitment outside of standard business hours".
The school district spends more than $800,000 a year for leased vehicles, including gas and maintenance, according to data obtained by the Tribune through a Freedom of Information Act request. The majority of that spending is on vehicles for the warehouse distribution, food service and operations departments.
When Education Secretary Arne Duncan was the head of Chicago Public Schools, he did not have a second car from the district. Instead, he relied on a car and driver to take him to and from official business on weekends.
Paul Vallas, who led the school district before Duncan, also relied solely on the car and driver. If he needed a vehicle over the weekend when the driver wasn't working, Vallas said, he would take the car home with him. And if he was starting early, he'd drive his own car to and from the office.
Ramon Cortines, the head of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second-largest, gets a driver and a 2006 Ford Taurus but no additional leased vehicle. When his driver can't take him places due to overtime restrictions, Cortines drives himself around in the Taurus, said spokesman Robert Alaniz.
In the country's largest school district, the New York City public schools, Chancellor Joel Klein has a Chevy Malibu and driver available to him for school-related functions at all hours, but no separate vehicle to get around, said spokesman Danny Kanner.
Bond said Huberman typically begins his day around 7 a.m. and doesn't end until 8 p.m. on average. She says it doesn't make sense to have a driver make trips to his home, and that it's more cost-effective to have a separate car.
According to a review of district employees' use of taxpayer-financed cars, Huberman's is the most expensive. Eighteen officials at the school district have leased vehicles. Though he drives the same vehicle as two other district officials, Huberman's Escape costs about $900 more a year. That's because it is a hybrid version, Bond said.
Chicago Tribune
