Former schools official: Ackerman steered contract
The Philadelphia School District's onetime top procurement officer says former Superintendent Arlene C. Ackerman, despite her frequent denials, personally directed the awarding of a $7.5 million no-bid contract for surveillance cameras to a small minority firm, and sought to deflect responsibility because she had a "personal relationship" with the company's president.
John L. Byars, in a civil-rights lawsuit accusing Ackerman and several senior aides of libel and slander, says he was made the "scapegoat" for the controversy that erupted after The Inquirer disclosed in late 2010 that Ackerman had pushed aside a suburban firm in favor of IBS Communications Inc., then based in Mount Airy.
The district subsequently suspended him and then sought to fire him "for having exercised his First Amendment rights by speaking out to the FBI about this matter of public concern," according to the suit, pending in U.S. District Court.
Ackerman on Monday again denied steering the contract to IBS.
