$154K schools job for ex-Daley aide :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: City Hall

$154K schools job for ex-Daley aide

CPS | Lumpkin gets outreach post despite tax hikes, job cuts

November 5, 2009

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com

Despite a burgeoning financial crisis that has forced a $43 million property tax increase and hundreds of job cuts, the Chicago Board of Education has found a $154,000-a-year job for an all-purpose mayoral troubleshooter.
Barbara Lumpkin, 59, will serve as deputy CEO for external affairs for the Chicago Public Schools forging partnerships with the business community to support school programs. The job has been vacant for nine months -- ever since Lumpkin's predecessor retired.
"We need to continue to do outreach to major corporations. We cannot function without fulfilling those responsibilities. We have high-level jobs like this that we always intended to fill," said CPS spokeswoman Monique Bond.
Schools CEO Ron Huberman found the job for his former City Hall colleague two years after Lumpkin resigned as Mayor Daley's $169,452-a-year chief procurement officer, leaving behind a department that has struggled to boost black contracting and weed out minority fronts.
Lumpkin is the City Hall equivalent of a utility infielder. She has also served as Daley's city comptroller, budget director and city treasurer following the conviction of Miriam Santos.
In 2005, her name turned up on city documents as one of four official

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