From the Mouth of Babes: The [Business] Advisory Councils Run the Reinvention Show

Thanks to people who attended the Reinvention Task Forces presentation recently held at Malcolm X College, we gained a better perspective of who has the veto power at the Reinvention castle. A CCC headquarters employee that caters to the members of the Advisory Councils explained their role to some of the presentation attendees when asked why the Advisory Councils did not have a presentation on that day if they were listed in parallel with the Task Forces in the Reinvention website.

Paraphrasing what the employee said:

1-    The Advisory Councils (AC) are constituted by people in the business and “civic” communities, in highly placed government circles, and by the aristocracy of community leaders who have high-level connections with the business and the government powerbrokers. (Not actually her words, but the most accurate translation.)

2-    The AC meet periodically, and also hear presentations by the Task Forces and the CCC administrators, where they provide “recommendations” on what needs to be changed, added or dropped. In other words, they are the ones that give the seal of approval.

So who are the AC? According to the Reinvention website (http://reinventingccc.org/task-forces/advisory-council/):

Advisory Councils

The City Colleges Reinvention initiative also relies on external expertise to guide the Task Forces in helping to make City Colleges a world-class institution. The five advisory councils, composed of recognized leaders, are:

·         Community Advisory Council

o    Martin Castro, President and CEO, Castro Synergies, LLC

o    Phillip Jackson, Executive Director, The Black Star Project

·         Civic/Foundation Advisory Council

o    Lester McKeever, Managing Principal, Washington, Pittman and McKeever, LLC

o    Whitney Smith, Program Manager, Joyce Foundation

·         Business Advisory Council

o    Jerry Roper, President and CEO, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce

o    Omar Duque, Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

·         Academic Advisory Council

o    Brian Fabes, CEO, Civic Consulting Alliance

o    Jesse Ruiz, Board Chair, ISBE

·         Capital Planning Advisory Council

o    James Frankenbach, former President, Rush North Shore Medical Center

o    Elzie Higgenbottom, CEO, East Lake Management & Development

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Careful inspection of the listed members reveals that business people comprise 70% of those listed and that they populate every single council, even the community one. We must keep in mind that an additional and key structure of business and billionaires’ control over the Reinvention are the so called “Partners.” Again as listed in the Reinvention website, they are (http://reinventingccc.org/partners/):

Partners
Foundations

We are grateful for the support Foundations are providing to fund our activities. Sponsors include the Searle Funds at the Chicago Community Trust, the Joyce Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Pro Bono Support
The Civic Consulting Alliance is playing a critical role in supporting our efforts and has recruited a number of professional services firms who are contributing to our efforts on a pro bono basis. Firms providing pro bono support include:
 

·          Accenture

·          KPMG

·          McKinsey & Company

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We have spoken before about some of these so called partners, in particular the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Accenture and the Civic Consulting Alliance. We pointed out that the Civic consulting Alliance is the pro bono arm of the Commercial Club of Chicago, the most influential pack of business leaders and CEO’s in Illinois. As we will detail in an upcoming post, the Commercial Club of Chicago is the most influential force in the Reinvention tragedy and in the whole of Chicago.

So there you have it folks, the real driving and decision making force behind the Reinvention are Chicagoland’s business leaders and their allies.

PEARL