Clown time is over? Fraud whistleblower asks Ronald McDonald House Charities to investigate what happened to $125,000 awarded to Save-A-Life for phantom Chicago Schools program and why records were "prematurely destroyed"

Chicago Schools CEO Arne Duncan, unknown woman, SALF founder/president Carol J. Spizzirri, and Ronald McDonald, January 12, 2005. According to a recent San Diego Reader article, Duncan called Spizzirri - a twice-convicted shoplifter who fabricated medical and college credentials and whose late daughter took out a protective order against her - "one of my heroes."

In a January 5 letter to the Inspector General of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), fraud whistleblower Peter Heimlich requested an investigation into what happened to $62,000 paid to the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF) to provide first aid training to students.

The lion's share was $49,000 arranged and signed off by then Schools CEO Arne Duncan for a matching grants program with Ronald McDonald House Charities in which SALF was contracted to train 18,000 students over two school years. (For years, Duncan was close to SALF and even appeared as an animated pitchman on SALF's website.)

The problem - for CPS and for Duncan, now Secretary of Education - is that the training may never have happened.

Yesterday the problem landed on the desk of Martin J. "Marty" Coyne, president and CEO of Ronald McDonald House Charities via another investigations request letter from Heimlich. The opening paragraphs:

This letter is to request that your company initiate a review to determine if $125,000 awarded to the Save A Life Foundation Inc. by Ronald McDonald House Charities and by Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chicagoland & Northwest Indiana was properly administered.

Further, this is to request a review to determine if the destruction of related financial and other records, confirmed in an e-mail sent last year by Doug Porter, CEO of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chicagoland & Northwest Indiana, was premature and constitutes a violation of Ronald McDonald House Charities’ Records Management Policy.

If such reviews are conducted by your company, this is to request that upon completion all relevant documents and findings be made available for public inspection.

Here's Heimlich's letter on Scribd. Click here to download a copy.
Heimlich asks McDonald's House to review $125K Save-A-Life grants, destroyed files (+receipt conf.)


Here's a highlight:

(In a) July 4, 2010 e-mail, Doug Porter, CEO of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana wrote:

I’m sorry to report that those records being 6+ years old have been destroyed. We do not have any files left on this grant and given that we had turned down any future requests, never in a million years did I think they would ever be relevant again. But again, the records that you had (we discussed) seemed to be accurate. That $37,500 from our local chapter (matched by global) in 2004 was the only one I recall.

This appears to be a clear violation of the records retention guidelines as stated in Ronald McDonald House Charities’ Records Management Policy

Grant Administration - Administration of donations made by RMHC to other organizations - including applications and agreements. While Active + 10 years thereafter

McDonalds Charities Chicagoland CEO confirms $37,500 payment to Save-A-Life Foundation; records destroyed

Ouch.

What about Mickey D customers debating whether or not they should drop the change from their Happy Meals into the donation can next to the cash register?

(Past) and potential future donors to Ronald McDonald House Charities may harbor concerns as to whether their donations have been or will be properly administered. Given the uncertainties associated with the administration of the $125,000 RMHC awarded to SALF and what appears to be the premature destruction of related financial records, donors may harbor concerns regarding whether RMHC employees properly administered those funds. Donors may also harbor concerns regarding RMHC employees' relationships with SALF.

So how to determine how many Chicago Schools students received SALF first aid training courtesy of the $125,000 from RMHC?

Heimlich's letter offers this helpful suggestion with names of some folks who may not be lovin' it:

Should your company wish to locate that information, you may wish to contact members of SALF's 2009 executive board; former SALF employees Sid Blustain and Dane Neal, both named in SALF's October 14, 2004 press release about the CPS training program; and Saquan Gholar who, according to CPS records, was SALF's “Education Training Coordinator” for the program. Please find attached a list with contact information for these individuals.

Huffington Post: Chicago mayoral candidate Gery Chico says SALF lied about him, but ignores questions about investigations, potential perjury charges

Last week the Huffington Post finally pried a response from the seemingly bashful Chicago mayoral candidate Gery Chico about his ties to the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF), the "shady nonprofit" now reportedly under investigation by the Illinois Attorney General's Charitable Trust Bureau.

In Gery Chico Save A Life Foundation Connection: What Was His Role At Troubled Charity? by reporter Will Guzzardi, Chico was asked some of the same questions blogger Lee Cary has been asking him for months.

Since November, Chico and his media rep Brooke Anderson have been dodging Cary, but somehow found time to respond to the HuffPost. To be precise, they responded to one question and ignored others.

This dodge 'em is a far cry from earlier times when Chico - who Chicago Public Radio calls "the ultimate insider" - apparently couldn't say enough about the organization. For example, when he was president of the Board of Education, he "was instrumental in bringing SALF to the Chicago Public Schools." So says his wife Sunny, who served on SALF's Educational Advisory Board.

Check out this weird 1999 presentation to the school board by SALF founder/president Carol J. Spizzirri, reportedly a twice-convicted shoplifter who fabricated medical and educational credentials for herself. Chico and fellow board members Paul Vallas and Dr. Tariq Butt were so deeply moved by her stream of consciousness rap ("Children come into this world very greedy. They want to be fed, they want their diapers changed"), they rolled out the red carpet for her organization.

Don't miss Chico's enthusiastic response to her performance starting at around the 4:00 mark and culminating with, "I don't think we can afford to do anything but do this (SALF program)."




Four years later Chico and the missus were still on board:
Arne Duncan, Gery & Sunny Chico appear at 2003 Save-A-Life Foundation annual conference

"Stating that he will fight for the SALF programs, Mr. Chico said the training is not a luxury -- but a necessity."

And here's an interview show with Chico sharing a couch with Spizzirri and trumpeting his wholehearted support for SALF, circa 2003:



That was then. More recently, when it comes to SALF, he and Mrs. C have been playing hide and seek.

The Huffington Post wanted to know about SALF's claims that Chico had been a member of the organization's Board of Directors, published in an Annual Report...

...and on SALF's website:

Here's the takeaway from the HuffPo story:

A 1999 resolution signed by Gery Chico, then the president of the Chicago School Reform Board of Trustees, certified that Save A Life had trained 10,000 students in the city, and was training another 23,000 that year through volunteer programs.

...When asked about Chico's involvement with the foundation, campaign spokeswoman Brooke Anderson flatly denied his involvement. "Gery wasn't on this board," she said. When presented with page 53 of the above document, Anderson responded, "That link you sent is wrong. Gery was not on that board."

According to Maura Possley, the deputy press secretary for the Illinois Attorney General's Office, a nonprofit misrepresenting the makeup of its board of directors in an annual report would be perjury, a Class 3 felony.

The Huffington Post asked the Chico campaign if it was willing to accuse Save A Life of perjury, and if so, whether it would be willing to publicly call for an investigation into the matter. So far, his campaign has not responded on that question, despite several further attempts at contact.

...It is unclear at this point why Chico would deny he was on the board, or, if indeed he was not, why he would be unwilling to press for further investigation given his forceful campaigning on ethics reform.

It's not enough that he's promising ethics reform? He's supposed to take action, too?

Sheesh, talk about your elevated expectations.

Just because Chico and his wife were involved for years with a charity that received $62,000 in unaccounted-for money from the schools and millions more from IL taxpayers, and is now under state investigation, and which may have have committed perjury by falsely claiming he was on their Board of Directors, what do you expect him to do? Write letters to oversight agencies requesting investigations?

Tomorrow Chicago voters will decide if Gery Chico - who promises "more openness, transparency and accountability in city government," meanwhile scuttling away from this opportunity to walk his talk - is fit to be their new mayor.

Elevated expectations indeed.

Since her husband Gery is apparently hiding, Lee Cary asks Sunny Chico about her ties to SALF

Click here for source document, April 24, 2003 SALF press release

Sent via e-mail to nely@spcconsultingllc.com and faxed to (312)306-9997

February 7, 2011

Sunny Chico, President
SPC Consulting, LLC
737 N. Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60611

Dear Ms. Chico,

Last year I wrote a string of articles about the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF), a Chicago-area nonprofit with which you and your husband Gery were associated. In recent months, I've sent Mr. Chico several letters requesting his answers to some straightforward questions, but I've never received a response.

In my most recent correspondence, a January 26, 2011 e-mail, I asked him to confirm claims made about you by SALF and statements attributed to you by SALF. Here's a copy of that e-mail: http://to.ly/9zsK

As you can see, I informed Mr. Chico that if I didn't receive his reply, I'd contact you to attempt to obtain the information. Since I haven't heard from him, I'd appreciate your answers to the following questions.

According to an April 23, 2003 SALF press release, you were a member of SALF's Educational Advisory Board.

1) Is this accurate? If so, which years were you a member of that board?

The same press release attributes this quote to you:

"My husband Gery (former President, Chicago Board of Ed.) was instrumental in bringing SALF to the Chicago Public Schools in 1998. Since then the program has saved so many lives here in Illinois, many by those same children who were trained, proving that children can make a difference. Being committed myself to education, I know that the Save A Life Program is right in line with Secretary Paige's goals for expanded health related education, especially education that saves lives. It is exciting to see something that has begun in Illinois, being embraced by other states that need it...this is only the beginning."

2) Is this quote accurately attributed to you? If so, regarding your claim that "the (SALF) program has saved so many lives here in Illinois, many by those same children who were trained," would you please direct me to any such cases?

Please feel free to provide any additional related information or comments.

Thank you for any help and I'd appreciate receiving your answers in the next few days. If you require more time, please let me know in the next few days and I'll do my best to accommodate your schedule.

Sincerely,

Lee Cary
Little Elm, TX
lee.cary@att.net
PHONE # REDACTED

SALF founder/president Carol J. Spizzirri and Educational Advisory Board member Sunny Chico present SALF award to Mississippi Governor Ronnie Musgrove (2003)

Click here for links to dozens of broadcast and print reports about the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF), including stories about SALF being investigated by the Illinois Attorney General and SALF founder/president Carol Spizzirri (pictured above), reportedly a twice-convicted shoplifter who fabricated medical credentials and a college degree, and whose daughter took out a protective order against her based on allegations of physical abuse.

Also see "Are these documents the reason Gery Chico won't answer questions about the Save-A-Life Foundation?," SALF Exposed! blog, 1/27/11
SALF officers Sunny Chico & Carol Spizzirri present award, 4/24/03 press release

Lee's 1/7/11 questions to Sunny Chico re: the Save-A-Life Foundation

Are these documents the reason Gery Chico won't answer questions about the Save-A-Life Foundation?

Gery Chico accepts award from SALF founder/president Carol J. Spizzirri, reportedly a twice-convicted shoplifter who claimed non-existent medical credentials and a bogus college degree. (Source document here.)

At the end of last year, political writer Lee Cary asked Gery Chico a few non-confrontational questions about the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF), the Chicago-area nonprofit reportedly under investigation by the IL Attorney General and, according to this letter, also by the feds.

Lee wanted to know what the man who wants to be Chicago's next mayor had to say about investigations of an organization with which Chico and his wife were affiliated. Click here and here for Lee's letters, in which he asked Chico these questions: 

1. Have you or has anyone you know been contacted by anyone connected with the Attorney General’s investigation of the Save-A-Life Foundation? If so, please provide details.

2. In federal reports, Save-A-Life claimed it had used a portion of $3.33 million it received from the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention to train thousands of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students. However, in response to a federal subpoena and FOIA requests, CPS apparently has no supporting records. Do you recommend that the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services initiate an investigation to determine if those federal millions were properly administered?

3. CPS paid Save-A-Life approximately $62,000 in public funds to provide first aid training to thousands of students, however CPS records indicate that at best a few hundred may have received training.  Do you recommend that CPS Inspector General James M. Sullivan initiate an investigation to determine if the $62,000 paid by CPS to Save-A-Life was properly administered?

Not exactly tough, in-your-face questions for a guy who's campaigning on a pledge to "bring more openness, transparency and accountability (to) city government." Nevertheless, despite multiple inquiries to his law firm and to his campaign office, Chico has not responded.

Since then, other documents have surfaced that may indicate why Chico seems to be playing dodge 'em. Yesterday, Lee sent Chico some new questions centering around those documents (inserted below).

From: Lee Cary <lee.cary@att.net>
Subject: media inquiry
To: gchico@chiconunes.com, gery@gerychicoformayor.com
Cc: brooke@gerychicoformayor.com
Date: Wednesday, January 26, 2011, 5:37 PM

Sent via e-mail and faxed to (312)463-1001

Gery Chico
Chico & Nunes, P.C.
333 West Wacker Drive Suite 1800
Chicago, IL 60606

Dear Mr. Chico,

I recently sent inquiries to you and to your associates Paul Vallas and Carlos Azcoitia PhD regarding your affiliations and promotion of the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF), a Chicago-area nonprofit reportedly under investigation by the IL Attorney General's Charitable Trust Bureau.

Despite multiple attempts, to date I've only received a response from Dr. Azcoitia. If your lack of response was an oversight, I'd appreciate receiving your answers to the three questions I asked you. I'd also appreciate your answers to these questions:

1) According to SALF, you served as a member of their organization's Board of Directors. Is that accurate? If so, please provide details.

Click here for source document, 2002 SALF Annual Report

2) According to SALF, in a speech you presented at their organization's annual conference (at which your wife Sunny also appeared as a participant), you stated that you “will fight for the SALF programs and that their training is not a luxury, it’s a necessity.” Is this accurate?

Click here for source document, September 2003 SALF "Bridge the Gap" Conference

A SALF press release quoted your wife as saying, "My husband Gery was instrumental in bringing SALF to the Chicago Public Schools."

Click here for source document, April 24, 2003 SALF press release

3) Would you please ask your wife if she was accurately quoted and let me know what she says?

4) Do you consider the quote to be accurate or inaccurate? Please explain.

Thanks for your continued attention and I look forward to your reply. In the event I don't receive a reply from you in the next few days, I'll follow-up with Mrs. Chico.

Sincerely,

Lee Cary
Little Elm, TX

Cc: Brooke Anderson, Gery Chico for Mayor

But wait, there's more. According to SALF, Chico (and Arne Duncan, now US Secretary of Education) helped draft the organization's 2002 "Pre-EMS White Paper":

Click here for source document (undated but file creation date is 12/26/02)

It's obvious that Chico is under no obligation to answer questions about his relationship with SALF and presumably he doesn't want to open the door to the subject by responding to inquiries from Lee Cary, a blogger from the Lone Star State.

But the Chicago mayoral derby has at least another month to play out. Will one of Chico's competitors or a MSM reporter raise the subject of his ties to an organization that may have ripped-off million$ from Illinois and US taxpayers?

The answer to that question is also obvious. It's up to them.
1/26/11 questions to Gery Chico re: whether he was a member of Save-A-Life Foundation corporate board; his ...

Fraud whistleblower asks Chicago Schools Inspector General to review Save-A-Life/Ronald McDonald House program

Ronald McDonald, SALF president Carol Spizzirri (reportedly a twice-convicted shoplifter with fabricated medical & educational credentials), and Chicago Schools CEO Arne Duncan, who reportedly called Spizzirri "one of my heroes."

Medical fraud whistleblower Peter Heimlich has asked the Inspector General of the Chicago Public Schools to determine if approximately $62,000 paid by the schools to the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF) was properly administered.

Peter is the son of Dr. Henry J. Heimlich, developer of the Heimlich maneuver, the abdominal thrust treatment for someone who's choking. According to an ABC Chicago I-Team report, Dr. Heimlich was a medical advisor to SALF until he was "stripped of his position" three years ago.

In a letter yesterday, the younger Heimlich also asked Inspector General James Sullivan to "determine the veracity of claims made by SALF in order to advance their organization as a CPS vendor and to obtain CPS funding."

According a recent article in The Hill, "Save-A-Life, which provides first-aid training classes to school students, is under investigation by the Illinois Attorney General's Charitable Trusts Bureau."

From Heimlich's eight-page letter. Click here to download a copy; page to the end of this item for a viewable copy:

In response to a 2009 federal court subpoena and subsequent FOIA requests for any and all SALF training records, the Chicago Board of Education and CPS produced the following documents: a May 26, 1999 School Board resolution; 22 invoices with corresponding purchase orders dated from 2000-2007; an August 5, 2005 letter to Schools CEO Arne Duncan from SALF founder/president Carol J. Spizzirri accompanying a six-page grant application; and a December 8, 2005 letter from Mr. Duncan to Ms. Spizzirri approving the grant request.

This paucity of records, combined with the concerns discussed below, raises legitimate questions regarding whether or not SALF fulfilled the obligations contracted by and paid for by CPS.

8/5/05 "Dear Arne" letter, grant request for SALF's CPS/McDonald's program

12/8/05 "Dear Carol" letter from Arne Duncan approving SALF/Ronald McDonald House program

Arne Duncan awards $49K Chicago Schools funds to Save A Life Foundation

Ronald McDonald House Charities awards $87,500 to Save-A-Life Foundation, 2004-06

The federal court subpoena results may have been documents obtained by Chicago attorney Wayne Giampietro who represented Heimlich and two other individuals in a failed defamation lawsuit filed by SALF in 2007. According to a July 14, 2009 Cincinnati CityBeat report by Kevin Osborne:

An Illinois-based organization dropped its defamation lawsuit this month against local blogger Jason Haap and two other critics. The two-year-old case was widely viewed as having the potential to set a precedent involving First Amendment protections for online commentary.

Attorneys for the Save-a-Life Foundation filed a motion for voluntary dismissal July 7 in federal court, and U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly granted it two days later.

In the lawsuit, Save-a-Life had alleged that (blogger Jason) Haap, Peter Heimlich and Dr. Robert Baratz conspired to harm the foundation’s reputation by distributing false information to agencies that fund it, as well as serving as sources for a derogatory report on Save-a-Life that aired on WLS-TV, Chicago’s ABC affiliate...The Save-a-Life case was the eighth most-viewed case on a Harvard Law School-affiliated Web site that monitors Internet-related free speech cases.

In an October 16, 2009 follow-up, Osborne reported that "The Save-a-Life Foundation filed (dissolution) papers with the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office on Sept. 17. The action ends the existence of the 16-year-old corporation."

Heimlich was interviewed by Brian Ross in a 2007 ABC 20/20 report about his father, Dr. Heimlich's New 'Maneuver': Cure AIDS With Malaria.

On his MedFraud website, Peter Heimlich is soliciting information for a book he's writing. The list of topics includes the Save-A-Life Foundation and Carol Spizzirri, who, according to a recent San Diego Reader article, is now living in a mobile home park in San Marcos, California.

Dane Neal of SALF, Dr. Heimlich, Ciprina Spizzirri, Carol Spizzirri at the White House (2005) 


Heimlich request to Chicago Schools Inspector General to review Save-A-Life funding, 1/5/11

Chicago mayoral candidate Gery Chico says he wants "more openness, transparency and accountability." But will he walk the talk by answering questions about the "shady non-profit"* he was "instrumental in bringing to the Chicago Schools"?

Save-A-Life Foundation press release, April 24, 2003

December 13, 2010

Sent via e-mail to gchico@chiconunes.com, gery@gerychicoformayor.com
Faxed to (312)463-1001

Gery ChicoChico & Nunes, P.C.
333 West Wacker Drive Suite 1800
Chicago, IL 60606

Dear Mr. Chico,

I haven’t received a reply to my November 30 inquiry to you in which I asked three quick questions about investigations re: the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF), a Chicago-area nonprofit with which you and your wife Sunny were associated.

According to a SALF press release, Mrs. Chico said you “were instrumental in bringing SALF into the Chicago Schools.” Based on a video of a 1999 presentation to the Chicago School Board by SALF founder/president Carol Jean Spizzirri and SALF board member Carlos Azcoitia, that statement appears accurate.

In a 2006 WLS-TV I-Team story, Chuck Goudie reported:

One of Illinois' highest profile charities teaches the Heimlich maneuver to children while maneuvering the truth to get money from government and big business. It's called the Save-A-Life Foundation and is known across Illinois as an organization that teaches schoolchildren how to respond in emergencies. For the past few years, Save-A-Life has received millions of dollars in government funds and corporate donations. An ABC7 I-Team investigation has uncovered a series of misleading claims and deceptive credentials that raise doubts about Save-A-Life's integrity, funding and training.

Since then, dozens of critical media reports about SALF have appeared around the country. Reportedly the IL Attorney General’s office is now investigating the organization. Last week I learned that the US Department of Health & Human Services has asked the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) to review concerns about a CDC Deputy Director who simultaneously worked as SALF’s corporate treasurer while the CDC was funding SALF. As I informed you in my November 30 letter, last month a San Diego newspaper story by veteran reporter Don Bauder entitled Where Did the Save-A-Life Money Go? included troubling details about Ms. Spizzirri’s criminal and personal background.

Since my previous letter, a number of news stories have reported your call for higher standards of conduct by public officials, such as this December 2 Sun-Times column by Lynn Sweet:

"We don't have to wait for the Illinois Legislature or the federal government to create more openness, transparency and accountability in city government," Gery Chico said. "Let's do it now, let's do it ourselves and let's give our Inspector General the necessary tools to make government better at all levels."

In that spirit, I’m re-submitting my three questions.

1. Have you or has anyone you know been contacted by anyone connected with the Attorney General’s investigation of the Save-A-Life Foundation? If so, please provide details.

2. In federal reports, Save-A-Life claimed it had used a portion of $3.33 million it received from the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention to train thousands of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students. However, in response to a federal subpoena and FOIA requests, CPS apparently has no supporting records. Do you recommend that the Inspector General of the Department of Health & Human Services initiate an investigation to determine if those federal millions were properly administered?

3. CPS paid Save-A-Life approximately $62,000 in public funds to provide first aid training to thousands of students, however CPS records indicate that at best a few hundred may have received training.  Do you recommend that CPS Inspector General James M. Sullivan initiate an investigation to determine if the $62,000 paid by CPS to Save-A-Life was properly administered?

Please feel free to add additional related comments of any length.

I’m copying your media representative Brooke Anderson on this e-mail as I did on my November 30 letter. If I don’t receive a response from you or Ms. Anderson in the next few days, my understanding will be that you don’t intend to respond.

Thanks for your continued attention and I hope to hear from you and/or Ms. Anderson.

Sincerely,

Lee Cary
Writer, Andrew Breitbart's Big Government, the American ThinkerLittle Elm, TX
lee.cary@att.net

Cc:

Brooke Anderson, Gery Chico for Mayor
Tim Bagwell PhD
Chuck Goudie/WLS-TV
Don Bauder/San Diego ReaderLynn Sweet/Chicago Sun-Times

* In Case You Missed It: (Sen. Norm) Coleman Connection to Shady Non-Profit Highlighted, MN Democratic Farmer Labor Party press release, September 26, 2008

1999 presentation by Save-A-Life Foundation founder/president Carol J. Spizzirri to the Chicago Board of Education

(1:20) Carol J. Spizzirri: "We've trained over 5000 children since October in schools throughout the city. We have an additional one to 43,000 children to train by the end of June." (Chicago Public Schools cannot produce any substantiating records.)

(7:35) School board president Gery Chico: "How many schools have you said that you've been in with this program?"
Spizzirri: "I think we've been in a dozen we've completed."
Chico: "What's it cost?"
Spizzirri: "It's at 75 cents a child. Except it's a dollar for the instructor."
(9:00) "I don't think we can afford to do anything but do this (SALF program). I don't know what your capacity is. We may have to partner up with the Red Cross."
Spizzirri: "Oh, we have the...we're self sufficient."
Chico: "No, but I mean to do 580 schools, 430,000 students."
Spizzirri: "We still can handle it."

Arne Duncan, Gery & Sunny Chico appear at 2003 Save-A-Life Foundation annual conference

Political writer Lee Cary asks educator/Northeastern IL University chairman/former Save-A-Life Foundation director Carlos Azcoitia about investigation(s) of SALF

Carlos M. Azcoitia PhD

Presentation by Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF) founder/president Carol Spizzirri and Carlos Azcoitia at a 1999 Chicago School Board meeting with Paul Vallas & Gery Chico. Azcoitia, who according to IRS records was SALF's Director for three years (page down), appears in the video at timestamp 8:30. Dr. Azcoitia is now Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Northeastern Illinois University and an assistant professor at Chicago's National-Louis University. 

E-mailed to carlos.azcoitia@nl.edu  and faxed to (312)261-3121

December 10, 2010

Carlos M. Azcoitia PhD

Assistant Professor

National-Louis University
122 S. Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60603    

Dear Dr. Azcoitia,

I’m reporting about the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF), a Chicago-area nonprofit. In November 2006, ABC7 Chicago reported a variety of false claims associated with the organization and its founder/president Carol J. Spizzirri. Since then, dozens of media reports have raised additional related concerns, such as a San Diego newspaper article last month that reported Ms. Spizzirri’s criminal record.

Since you’re identified as Corporate Director on several years of SALF’s tax returns and you helped the organization gain entrée to the Chicago Public Schools, I’d appreciate your answers to the following quick questions.

1. SALF is reportedly under investigation by the Illinois Attorney General. Have you or has anyone you know been contacted by anyone connected with that investigation? If so, please provide details.

The US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) awarded $3.33 million in federal grants to SALF. In financial reports submitted to the CDC, SALF stated that the money was used to provide first aid training classes to thousands of Chicago Public School (CPS) students. Last year, SALF’s founder/president Carol J. Spizzirri told the Chicago Tribune that her organization trained hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Chicago Schools students. Here’s a list of hundreds of Chicago schools in which SALF allegedly provided the training. (The list also highlights Chicago schools at which SALF allegedly trained thousands of students in a program funded by Ronald McDonald House Charities.)

However, in response to a federal subpoena and FOIA requests, CPS records fail to support these claims. In fact, CPS’s entire records re: SALF apparently consist of 22 invoices dating from 2000-2007 indicating that at best a few hundred people may have received training.

As described in a Bagwell for Congress press release last month, a public letter was sent by Tim Bagwell to the Inspector General of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) requesting an investigation to determine if the CDC millions were properly administered.

2. Do you recommend that the HHS Inspector General initiate such an investigation?

At a 1999 Chicago School Board meeting, in response to a question by board president Gery Chico asking how much her organization’s first aid training program costs, Ms. Spizzirri stated, "It's at 75 cents a child. Except it's a dollar for the instructor." The 22 invoices show CPS paid SALF about $62,000 from 2000-2007. Again, however, CPS records indicate that at best a few hundred people may have received training.

3. Do you think that CPS Inspector General James M. Sullivan should initiate an investigation to determine if the $62,000 in public funds paid by CPS to SALF was properly administered?

Please feel free to add any related comments of any length. Thanks for your consideration and I look forward to receiving your answers, preferably by Wednesday, December 15. If you require more time, please let me know and I’ll do my best to accommodate your schedule.

Sincerely,

Lee Cary

Writer, Andrew Breitbart's Big Government, the American Thinker

lee.cary@att.net

Cc:

Gery Chico, Chico & Nunes P.C.

Tim Bagwell

Of related interest:

11/30/10: Chicago mayoral candidate Gery Chico asked about Save-A-Life Foundation investigation(s) 

12/6/10: Schools CEO Paul Vallas asked about his 10-year association, promotion of the Save-A-Life Foundation

Carlos Azcoitia listed as Corporate Director on Save-A-Life Foundation IRS returns, 2000-02

2/1/01 Save-A-Life Foundation letter listing corporate officers

Schools CEO Paul Vallas asked about his 10-year association, promotion of the Save-A-Life Foundation and the IL Attorney General's investigation

Public Service Announcement by Paul Vallas claiming "the Save-A-Life Foundation has trained over 400,000 Illinois children and adults in the lifesaving skills of first aid, CPR, and the Heimlich maneuver and they can train you."

 
"Your organization is an excellent example of how involvement in education can truly make a difference. Our students and teachers have been and will continue to be the recipients of the benefits of that involvement which includes exposure to new technology and AED training. On behalf of the students and teachers of the Chicago Public Schools, and the people whose lives they may help to save, I again thank you. We look forward to continuing this exceptional partnership. PS I love receiving all the thank you letters from children SALF trains." - Paul G. Vallas, CEO, Chicago Public Schools (source) 

"In 1997 I brought SALF to the children of the Chicago Public School system to teach Life Supporting First Aid, CPR and the Heimlich maneuver and the results were positive beyond expectations. I look forward to working with you and SALF to bring this empowering program to the Commonwealth and I am happy to assist in any way I can." - Paul G. Vallas, CEO, Philadelphia Schools, August 12, 2003 (source)

Paul Vallas's approval of Save-A-Life program touted to Philadelphia Schools by SALF, four months after ABC7 Chicago exposed SALF frauds (page down); note bogus training claims.
Paul Vallas approval of Save-A-Life touted to Philly by SALF, bogus training numbers, 3/16/07

The following letter was e-mailed to paul.vallas@rsdla.net and faxed to (504)309-3647. Also see Chicago mayoral candidate Gery Chico asked about Save-A-Life Foundation investigation(s).

December 6, 2010

Paul Vallas

New Orleans Recovery School District

1641 Poland Avenue

New Orleans, LA 70117

Dear Mr. Vallas,

I’m reporting about the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF), a Chicago-area nonprofit reportedly under investigation by the Illinois Attorney General. In November 2006, ABC7 Chicago reported a variety of false claims associated with the organization and its founder/president Carol J. Spizzirri. Since then, dozens of media reports have raised additional related concerns, such as a San Diego newspaper article last month that reported Ms. Spizzirri’s criminal record.

Since you promoted the organization when you were CEO of the Chicago Public Schools and later when you were CEO of the School District of Philadelphia, I’d appreciate your answers to some quick questions.

###

On May 26, 1999, you and Chicago Schools president Gery Chico signed a Chicago School Board resolution stating, “(The Save-A-Life) foundation has trained 35,000 statement (sic) in 1998, including 10,000 Chicago children.”

However, in response to a federal subpoena and FOIA requests, the Chicago Public Schools’ entire records re: SALF apparently consist of 22 invoices dating from 2000-2007 indicating that at best a few hundred people may have received training.

In a Public Service Announcement you recorded for SALF after you left the Chicago Schools, you stated that the “Save-A-Life Foundation has trained over 400,000 Illinois children and adults in the lifesaving skills of first aid, CPR, and the Heimlich maneuver.”

Diligent attempts to verify SALF’s training records indicate that at best hundreds of people in Illinois ever received any training. 

1. In the 1999 resolution you signed and for your PSA promoting the foundation, did you verify the numbers of students you claimed were trained or did you simply repeat information provided to you by SALF?

2. Have you or has anyone you know been contacted by anyone connected with the IL Attorney General’s investigation of SALF? If so, please provide details.

The US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) awarded $3.33 million in federal grants to SALF. In financial reports submitted to the CDC, SALF stated that the money was used to provide first aid training classes to thousands of Chicago Public School (CPS) students. Last year, SALF’s founder/president Carol J. Spizzirri told the Chicago Tribune that her organization trained hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Chicago Schools students. Here’s a list of hundreds of Chicago schools in which SALF allegedly provided the training. (The list also highlights Chicago schools at which SALF allegedly trained thousands of students in a program funded by Ronald McDonald House Charities.)

However, as I explained, CPS’s entire records indicate that at best a few hundred people may have received training.

As described in a Bagwell for Congress press release last month, a public letter was sent by Tim Bagwell to the Inspector General of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) requesting an investigation to determine if the CDC millions were properly administered.

3. Do you think that the HHS Inspector General should pursue such an investigation?

At a 1999 Chicago School Board meeting, in response to a question by your associate Gery Chico asking how much her organization’s first aid training program costs, Ms. Spizzirri stated, "It's at 75 cents a child. Except it's a dollar for the instructor." The 22 invoices show CPS paid SALF about $62,000 from 2000-2007. Again, however, CPS records indicate that at best a few hundred people may have received training.

4. Do you think that CPS Inspector General James M. Sullivan should pursue an investigation to determine if the $62,000 in public funds paid by CPS to SALF was properly administered?

Please feel free to add any related comments of any length. Thanks for your consideration and I look forward to receiving your answers.

Sincerely,

Lee Cary

Writer, Andrew Breitbart's Big Government, the American Thinker

lee.cary@att.net

Cc:

Siona LaFrance, Director-Communications/Media, New Orleans Recovery School District

Gery Chico, Chico & Nunes P.C.

Tim Bagwell

Paul Vallas, Gery Chico sign 1999 resolution with dubious Save-A-Life Foundation training claims

(7:35) Gery Chico: "How many schools have you said that you've been in with this program?"

Carol J. Spizzirri: "I think we've been in a dozen we've completed."

Chico: "What's it cost?"

Spizzirri: "It's at 75 cents a child. Except it's a dollar for the instructor." 

(9:00) Chico: "I don't think we can afford to do anything but do this (SALF program)."

Paul Vallas & Gery Chico hype Chico's mayoral campaign, Fox News Chicago, November 25, 2010
  

 Lee's questions to Schools CEO Paul Vallas about the Save-A-Life Foundation, 12/6/10 - NO REPLY

Chicago mayoral candidate Gery Chico asked about Save-A-Life Foundation investigation(s) by writer Lee Cary

Arne Duncan, Gery & Sunny Chico appear at 2003 Save-A-Life Foundation annual conference

E-mailed to gchico@chiconunes.com and brooke@gerychicoformayor.com 

Faxed to (312)463-1001

November 30, 2010

Gery Chico

Chico & Nunes, P.C.

333 West Wacker Drive Suite 1800

Chicago, IL 60606

Dear Mr. Chico,

I’m reporting about the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF), a Chicago-area nonprofit. In November 2006, ABC7 Chicago reported a variety of false claims associated with the organization and its founder/president Carol J. Spizzirri. Since then, dozens of media reports have raised additional related concerns, such as a San Diego newspaper article this month that reported Ms. Spizzirri’s criminal record.

Since you and your wife Sunny were once associated with SALF, I’d appreciate your answers to the following questions.

1. SALF is reportedly under investigation by the Illinois Attorney General. Have you or has anyone you know been contacted by anyone connected with that investigation? If so, please provide details.

The US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) awarded $3.33 million in federal grants to SALF. In financial reports submitted to the CDC, SALF stated that the money was used to provide first aid training classes to thousands of Chicago Public School (CPS) students. Last year, SALF’s founder/president Carol J. Spizzirri told the Chicago Tribune that her organization trained hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Chicago Schools students. Here’s a list of hundreds of Chicago schools in which SALF allegedly provided the training. (The list also highlights Chicago schools at which SALF allegedly trained thousands of students in a program funded by Ronald McDonald House Charities.)

However, in response to a federal subpoena and FOIA requests, CPS records fail to support these claims. In fact, CPS’s entire records re: SALF apparently consist of 22 invoices dating from 2000-2007 indicating that at best a few hundred people may have received training.

As described in a Bagwell for Congress press release last month, a public letter was sent by Tim Bagwell to the Inspector General of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) requesting an investigation to determine if the CDC millions were properly administered.

2. Do you recommend that the HHS Inspector General conduct such an investigation?

At a 1999 Chicago School Board meeting, in response to your question asking how much her organization’s first aid training program costs, Ms. Spizzirri stated, "It's at 75 cents a child. Except it's a dollar for the instructor." The 22 invoices show CPS paid SALF about $62,000 from 2000-2007. Again, however, CPS records indicate that at best a few hundred people may have received training.

3. Do you think that CPS Inspector General James M. Sullivan should initiate an investigation to determine if the $62,000 in public funds paid by CPS to SALF was properly administered?

Please feel free to add any related comments of any length. Thanks for your consideration and I look forward to receiving your answers.

Sincerely,

Lee Cary

Writer, Andrew Breitbart's Big Government, the American Thinker

mailto:lee.cary@att.net

Cc: Tim Bagwell 
 

Paul Vallas, Gery Chico sign 1999 resolution with dubious Save-A-Life Foundation training claims 

Click here for source page of the following materials. Click here to download a single file consisting of the following (and related) documents.

(7:35) Chico: "How many schools have you said that you've been in with this program?"

Carol J. Spizzirri: "I think we've been in a dozen we've completed."

Chico: "What's it cost?"

Spizzirri: "It's at 75 cents a child. Except it's a dollar for the instructor."

(9:00) Chico: "I don't think we can afford to do anything but do this (SALF program)."

Sunny Chico: "My husband Gery was instrumental in bringing Save-A-Life into the Chicago Schools"

100s of Chicago Schools where Save-A-Life claims to have provided first aid training classes

Chicago Public Schools complete records for the Save-A-Life Foundation: 22 skimpy invoices from 2000-2007)

Grant spending reports submitted by the Save-A-Life Foundation to the CDC, 2004-07