State lawmakers to investigate misdirected church grant, pardon

A panel of state lawmakers plans to probe a $1 million grant mistakenly awarded by Gov. Rod Blagojevich to a Chicago school, while also investigating the circumstances in which one of the facility's administrators was given a gubernatorial pardon.

The governor pledged this week to correct the embarrassing bumble, after his office gave $1 million earmarked for a historic fire-damaged Chicago church to an unaffiliated private school operating inside the facility.

This week, the governor promised another $1 million grant to Pilgrim Baptist Church, which was gutted by a fire in 2006.

The Loop Lab School, which received the money instead, used the cash to purchase a condo in downtown Chicago.

"This is crazy on a number of levels," said Rep. Jack Franks, who is chairman of the committee that will hold hearings on the grant next month. "I think (the governor) was so hell-bent on the press pop and being the white knight that they did no due diligence, and the money was squandered."

Further frustrating officials are connections between the school's new building and the grant-giving state agency to indicted businessman Antoin "Tony" Rezko, whose influence-peddling trial is under way.

The Chicago Tribune reported that the head of the agency that awarded the grant had worked for Rezko, though the newspaper did not specify in what capacity. The owner of the condo property purchased by Loop Lab also was a Rezko business associate, the Tribune reported.

Lawmakers also plan to examine how the criminal record of a Loop Lab director was expunged by the state last January.

Chandra N. Gill, a Chicago civil rights activist, was convicted of aggravated battery in 2002 after getting in a fight with a police officer while chaperoning a high school trip in Champaign.

The felony was expunged while she was represented by a Chicago attorney brought in at the request of Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., who said he believed the conviction was unfair and would have prevented Gill from working as a school administrator.

"It was just insane. So this is not raucous behavior or stealing," Jackson said.

William Quinlan, Blagojevich's general counsel, said they had gotten a recommendation from the Illinois Prisoner Review Board. The governor looked at it and the administration felt she fit the criteria of people they thought should get pardons "to allow them to go out and continue to do the good work that they have been doing," he said.

A home telephone listing for a Chandra Gill could not be found Wednesday morning.

Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said Gill's pardon was "completely unrelated" to the grant the school received from the state.

The state is investigating how the school received the cash, and it remains to be seen whether the school, which is currently closed, will be allowed to keep it.

"We're reviewing the school's compliance with the grant agreement," Ottenhoff said. "If they're not operational by the next school year, then we'll look into options for recovering state funds."

Meanwhile, a lawyer for a former kindergarten teacher who won a sexual harassment claim against school told the Chicago Sun-Times she intends to seek some of the grant money to cover $40,000 in damages the state ordered the school to pay.

In 2006, a state panel ruled the school retaliated against the teacher after she complained about inappropriate touching by the school's former personnel manager.