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Proviso Probe

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Charles Flowers arrested

Daily Southtown (Duaa ElDeib):

Regional Supt. Charles Flowers was charged today with theft by the Cook County state's attorney's office....

Flowers turned himself in about 1 p.m. to sheriff's police in Maywood. He was accompanied by his attorney, Tim Grace.

I linked to ElDeib's article first because he's been the most vigilant about covering Flowers at the Regional Office of Education.

The following media outlets also have coverage:

Chicago Breaking News Center (Matthew Walberg)
WBBM 780 AM
Chicago Public Radio (links to an interview with Flowers)

What to say?

Having dealt with Flowers and his staff, I can attest to the office being run in an unprofessional manner.

I did a small amount of work for the ROE making video recordings of meetings. While Flowers and his staff were accustomed to manufacturing thin excuses to eat and drink on the office credit card, it was difficult to get them to pay me relatively small amounts of money for recording meetings.

On one occasion I arrived to record a meeting which necessitated leaving another job early. I arrive to complaints from various people, including Flowers. I was accused of not returning phone calls. Apparently, one of Flowers' assistants had given him the wrong number for me.

Members of Flowers' staff claim the office has never had sufficient resources to fulfill its mandates without either going in to debt or getting subsidies from the Cook County Board. This is probably true, however, mismanagement and misprioritized spending were a problem.

Based on what I saw of putting meals on the credit card and an attempt to put a bar tab on the credit card, it seems credible that Flowers and his people got sloppy and crossed the line and spent taxpayer money on stuff that was clearly personal expenses.

Flowers has been abyssmal at handling the media. He has avoided taking questions from Duaa ElDeib and in one instance Flowers' sister called and left a snotty voicemail.

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