Mayor Brandon Johnson’s handpicked school board was blocked from modifying Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez’s duties by a Cook County Judge on Tuesday, giving the embattled schools chief a victory as he battles with City Hall over the district’s future.
Judge Joel Chupack granted Martinez a temporary restraining order against CPS board members after hearing arguments that they obstructed Martinez’s performance of his job duties.
The Tuesday hearing — which lasted over an hour and a half — included an assertion by Martinez’s lawyer William J. Quinlan that CPS board members appointed by Johnson met with the teachers union but not their own team while negotiating the teachers contract Monday.
“They’re not shy about the interference. They’re brazen. They’re bullish. And they’ll tell you that,” said Martinez’s attorney Quinlan of Quinlan Law Firm LLC before the judge.
The testimony came during a court hearing sought by Martinez to stop the board from removing his powers. He was fired on Friday but given six months to continue on the job. In firing the CEO, the board also voted on a resolution that modified his duties and responsibilities.
The hearing was in many ways the fallout of that modification vote, following months of back-and-forth between Mayor Brandon Johnson, the Chicago Teachers Union and CPS amid ongoing teachers contract negotiations. Quinlan filed a lawsuit in the Cook County Court last Friday to prevent the board from firing the CEO, and then amended the complaint early Tuesday morning.
“The CEO, is the ‘sole representative of the Board’ authorized to conduct such negotiations,” according to the complaint.
In contrast, the complaint said, “nothing in the School Code or the Board Rules permits individual Board members to participate in such negotiations.”
Jeremy Glenn, the lawyer representing the board, said the board was acting in its duties to attend negotiations Monday, adding “all contracts should be subject to approval by the Board of Education,” under board rules for collective bargaining agreements.
“This is an employer, employee relationship,” Glenn said. “Can you imagine a situation where an employer who is approving a contract is not allowed to get updates?”
Quinlan focused most of his testimony on the school board’s decision to attend teachers contract negotiations on Monday. He said the presence of the board members at negotiations made it so Martinez could not “effectively do his duty.” He told the judge it was “an emergency” since the board just voted to fire Martinez and now could do anything to push through a new teachers contract. The current teachers contract expired in June.
“My concern is if they continue to obstruct the negotiations, it will change the tenor to a point where we can’t go back,” Quinlan said.
Martinez, for his part, expressed alarm that the board members were collaborating with CTU. Though he was fired, he still has 180 days as acting CEO.
“(The board) didn’t even go to my team. They went directly to CTU, and even went after to strategize,” Martinez told the judge. “They feel empowered … They have the mayor and the board. And so they’re telling my team to agree.”
Three board members — President Sean Harden, and members Olga Bautista and Frank Thomas — were seen by the Tribune exiting the teachers union’s headquarters Monday afternoon.
In a Tuesday afternoon news conference, CTU president Stacy Davis Gates denied that the board members walked into the bargaining session with the union’s negotiating team in order to talk with them: “They caucused with CPS. They didn’t caucus with us.”
She also sought to use Martinez’s temporary victory in court to argue that the ball is in his court and his court alone when it comes to settling a contract.
“It’s kind of simple at this point. Pedro’s in charge. The board is not in charge. The mayor is not in charge,” Davis Gates told reporters. “So Pedro being in charge means that people don’t get to say ‘collusion.’ People don’t get to say ‘lack of integrity.’ People get to say that this contract is being bargained with the Chicago Teachers Union and Pedro Martinez.”
Asked what teams they met with during contract negotiations, Thomas said both CPS and CTU. But Martinez asserted Tuesday in court that the board members went directly into a room with the teachers union.
At the courthouse, Judge Chupack sided with Martinez after adjourning for several minutes.
“What’s been raised is the defendant’s obstruction to Mr. Martinez performing his obligations,” Judge Chupack said. “The court finds that Mr. Martinez has established that his duties as chief executive officer have been diminished, not merely modified.”
He requested the lawyers come to terms on clear language distinguishing the board members’ roles in contract negotiations versus the CEO’s.
“Do you think you’ll have an order now, or do you think it will be Thursday?” he asked.
“Today,” murmured CPS CEO Martinez.
“Do you think you could hand-write something out?” Chupack asked later.
The conflict dates back to September when the mayor asked CPS CEO Martinez to take out a $300 million high-interest loan to cover a new proposed teachers contract and a pension payment previously paid for by the city. Facing deficits of around $500 million in each of the next five years, Martinez said the loan would be fiscally irresponsible.
Johnson then gave directives for Martinez to resign, according to an internal memo obtained by the Tribune. The mayor’s board resigned in October around the dispute, and Johnson — a former teacher and union organizer — appointed a new board.
The court hearing occurred several hours after a leaked memo from a CPS official revealing Johnson remains on a “CTU leave of absence” from CPS. That means Johnson can return as a CTU teacher, after negotiations have wrapped up.
Quinlan handwrote an injunction that he handed to the judge before signing off for the holidays. A preliminary injunction hearing is scheduled for Jan. 9 at 3:15 p.m.
Chicago Tribune’s Gregory Royal Pratt contributed.
