Ex-judge: Charter-school operator UNO needs ‘robust’ policy against conflicts
By DAN MIHALOPOULOS Staff Reporter dmihalopoulos@suntimes.com May 23, 2013 7:06PM
Juan Rangel, CEO of the United Neighborhood Organization | Brian Jackson~Sun-Times
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Updated: May 24, 2013 2:21AM
The United Neighborhood Organization needs to adopt “robust conflict-of-interest” policies in the wake of a scandal that’s jeopardized tens of millions of dollars of state funding for UNO’s network of charter schools in Chicago, a retired federal judge hired by the politically influential group urged Thursday.
Former Judge Wayne Andersen also recommended that UNO — which relies largely on funding from the Chicago Public Schools for its charter operation — require sealed, competitive bidding for contracts for its schools.
UNO commissioned Andersen’s review, hiring him for $800 an hour, in response to reports in the Chicago Sun-Times that prompted Gov. Pat Quin
n last month to suspend the remaining payments to the group from a $98 million state school construction grant.
Those reports revealed that $8.5 million of the state funding went to companies owned by two brothers of Miguel d’Escoto, a top UNO executive who resigned his $200,000-a-year post in the wake of the stories, and that UNO did not follow the sorts of procedures that
