The Sidebar

September 14, 2022

The Hon. Kwame Raoul
Illinois Attorney General
500 South Second Street
Springfield, IL 62701

Dear Mr. Raoul:

I'm writing regarding your office's 12+ year investigation of a tainted nonprofit, the Chicago-area Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF). SALF, which from 2006-2020 has been the subject of dozens of media exposes, was dissolved as an Illinois corporation in 2009.

SALF was founded in 1993 by the late Carol Jean Spizzirri, a convicted shoplifter and child batterer, according to an order of protection filed in 1992 by her daughter, Christina Jean Pratt. To perpetrate the SALF scam, Spizzirri falsely claimed to be a registered nurse and relentlessly promoted a fabricated backstory about Christina's tragic 1993 death.

SALF reportedly received over $10 million in tax dollars and what I estimate to be tens of thousands of dollars in private grants. Based on media reports and my estimates, about $7 million came from Illinois state taxpayers (including $200,000 to buy an office building in Springfield) and over $3 million came from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the first million of which was arranged by U.S. Senator Dick Durbin in 1999.

To obtain the funding, SALF claimed the money would be used to provide training in CPR and the Heimlich maneuver to students in Illinois schools.

In 2009, Spizzirri told the Chicago Tribune her organization trained about two million students in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), then-headed by future U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan who called Spizzirri “one of my heroes.” As documented on my web site, Duncan personally arranged a $174,000 contract for SALF to provide first aid training classes for 18,000 CPS students from 2004-06.

However, in response to my FOIA requests, CPS failed to produce a single training record. Further, in 2003 your agency awarded $25,000 to SALF to provide first aid training to students in these schools:

Salem School District #111 (Marion County)
South Central Community Unit School District #401 (Kinmundy, Marion County)
Camp Point CU School District #3
Beardstown CU School District #15
Rantoul City School District #137 (Champaign County)
Cass County School Districts (Cass County)
Edwardsville CU School District #7
Greenview CU School District #200

Per IL Senator Tim Bivins' 2012 emails to then-IL Attorney General Lisa Madigan (which include thorough documentation), none of the eight schools had records of any training.

In a 2015 interview, Senator Bivens said, "(SALF) claimed they had trained thousands and thousands of children...We can't substantiate that all of these children were trained."

As you may know, in approximately June 2010, your office initiated an investigation into SALF. According to a 2010 IL Public Radio report, "The Illinois Attorney General's office confirms it is reviewing how the funds were used, as is done whenever a charitable organization disbands."

To learn the outcome of the investigation, every six months or so, I file FOIA requests with your agency, asking for related records.

In an August 15, 2022 response to my most recent FOIA request, Assistant Attorney General Mark Rogina wrote: "(This office has reviewed) its records, and we determined that approximately 10,000 pages of records are maintained only in physical, hard copy form."

Based on the volume of documents, he suggested I narrow my request. I did so, resubmitted it, and received this August 22, 2022 response from Mr. Rogina:

Please be advised that because this investigation remains ongoing, we have no records responsive to your request.

It's unclear why it's taking your office over 12 years to investigate a long-defunct, thoroughly-discredited organization. Still, I hope you agree that the public is entitled to learn what happened to the millions of misappropriated tax dollars.

With that hope in mind, this is to respectfully request that you initiate a review to determine if the investigation of SALF has been conducted properly.

This is also to respectfully request that you provide me with the name of the staff member leading the SALF investigation and an approximate date when the investigation will be completed. I appreciate your consideration and I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Peter M. Heimlich
Peachtree Corners, GA 30096 USAphone/text: (678)322-7984‬
email: peter.heimlich@gmail.com
website: http://medfraud.info
blog: http://the-sidebar.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/medfraud_pmh
bio: http://tinyurl.com/ych7o7dr

This past Wednesday: SOURCE Fundraiser held the previous day for San Diego D.A. Bonnie Dumanis by investment manager/media commentator Brent Wilsey: SOURCE Click here for a compilation of broadcast and print reports about Spizzirri and the Save-A-Life Foundation.

As I've reported in a string of items, since last year Illinois State Senator Tim Bivins (R-Dixon) has been asking tough questions about what happened to millions of tax dollars awarded to the Save-A-Life Foundation.

SALF was the scandal-ridden Chicago nonprofit that's reportedly under investigation by the Illinois Attorney General.

According to the author of an anonymous poison pen letter to the senator and copied to the AG, it's all a misunderstanding.

And it's all my fault.

As Sidebar readers know, SALF was a high-flying Chicago nonprofit that used to be the darling of Illinois media with connections up and down the Prairie State's political food chain -- Dick Durbin, Jan Schakowsky, Arne Duncan, John Shimkus, Emil Jones Jr., Paul Vallas, Gery Chico, and other worthies.

Here's Rita Mullins, former mayor of Palatine, IL, and Carol J. Spizzirri -- the gal pals who helmed the organization -- and my father at a Washington, DC conference that was supposed to move their organization into the big leagues:


Instead, a year later the SALF hit the fan when ABC7 aired the first of four scorching exposes. Since then, there have been dozens more print and broadcast reports, including a March interview I did with an Illinois paper.

Per a San Diego newsweekly article about her sordid history, Spizzirri hightailed it to a mobile home park near Carlsbad a couple years ago.

Sen. Bivins tagged Spizzirri and Mullins in this acerbic letter he sent to the IL Attorney General:



Turns out the senator's letter really got under somebody's skin.

Check out this anonymous screed he received that portrays me as slightly worse than Charlie Manson. (I've redacted a paragraph consisting of crapulous allegations about a third party.)



For fun, I'll try and fact-check the claims in the letter. It shouldn't require much effort.

For example:

To enlighten you, the students of Dixon schools were taught/saved lives with SALF's life saving curriculum instructed by off-duty Dixon City Fire Department EMS professionals, which operated through a Branch at St. John's Hospital, Springfield.

Sen. Bivins -- misspelled "Bevins" by the cluck who wrote the letter -- lives in Dixon and was Lee County Sheriff for 20 years. Here's what he wrote me:

I did talk to one of the longest serving fireman in my town and he doesn't recall any such program (SALF) ever being offered here.

As for my motives, I'll leave it to others to decide whether this page of media reports that resulted from my whistleblowing efforts constitutes a "hit list" -- and what may have compelled me to take a closer look at Spizzirri's organization.

Carol Spizzirri and my father (then 85 years old) at SALF's US Conference of Mayors presentation, January 19, 2005

One last question.

Why is the skank who wrote the anonymous letter to Sen. Bivins giving me grief about my father? Per this ABC7 report, it was Spizzirri and her organization that kicked him to the curb:

For more about the letters exchanged by the office of my congressman Rob Woodall and CDC Director Thomas Frieden, see my item yesterday. Also see my related item, IL Attorney General's letter inadvertently provides a blueprint for nonprofits on how to rip off taxpayers. 

The documents referenced in the letter are included in the embedded Scribd window below.

May 30, 2012

Brent D. Stratton
Chief Deputy Attorney General
Office of the Illinois Attorney General
100 W. Randolph Street, 12th Floor
Chicago, Illinois 60601

Dear Mr. Stratton:

Please click the following link to download a 24-page pdf file which includes all the documents referenced below: http://db.tt/Yqz5C7uv

In your March 2, 2012 letter to Illinois Sen. Tim Bivins regarding your office's ongoing investigation of the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF), you stated (emphasis added):

(SALF) was registered as an Illinois charitable organization with this Office from 1994 through 2009, during which period it filed complete annual reports accompanied by audits when required by law. In September 2009, SALF filed articles of dissolution with the Secretary of State. It then filed a final report with this Office in April 2010.

According to instructions on your agency's website for filing an AG990-IL, the annual report form to be filed by charitable organizations registered with the Illinois Attorney General's office:

SIGNATURES: The Form AG 990-IL must be signed by two different officers (president or other authorized officer and the chief fiscal officer) or by two trustees.

As chief fiscal officer/trustee, Douglas R. Browne's name and purported signatures appear on six AG990-IL reports submitted by SALF for the period January 1, 2003 through June 30, 2009.

As you're aware, during those six and a half years, millions of Illinois tax dollars were awarded to SALF, including a $25,000 grant from your office.

A May 9, 2012 letter from Congressman Rob Woodall's office to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) attempted to verify whether Mr. Browne, a CDC employee, signed the six reports. From a May 21, 2012 reply from CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden:

Mr. Browne reviewed the documents and verified that they look familiar to him, and that the signature on page six of the documents, dated December 30, 2005, appears to be his writing. Mr. Browne cannot confirm with certainty that he signed the other pages, because he's unable to verify the signatures.

Therefore, until Mr. Browne positively confirms that he signed all six reports, presumably your agency must consider them to be incomplete.

This is to request that your agency attempt to verify whether or not Mr. Browne signed the six reports. In the event that your agency chooses to do so, you'll recall that in a January 18, 2012 letter to Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Sen. Bivins provided her with a Doraville, GA address for Mr. Browne.

Sincerely,

Peter M. Heimlich
(street address redacted)
Duluth, GA 30096

ph: (208)474-7283
website: Medfraud
blog: The Sidebar

cc:

The Hon. Rob Woodall, US House of Representatives % Chase Murray
Thomas R. Frieden MD, MPH, Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Hon. Tim Bivins, IL House of Representatives
Lisa Madigan, IL Attorney General
Jack Lavin, Chief of Staff, Office of IL Governor Pat Quinn

May 29, 2012

Thomas R. Frieden M.D., M.P.H.
Director Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
1600 Clifton Road
Atlanta, Georgia 30333
Dear Dr. Frieden:

I'm responding to a letter you sent last week to my Congressman, Rob Woodall (GA, 7th District).

Your letter was in reply to a May 9, 2012 inquiry sent on my behalf by Rep. Woodall's office to CDC Chief Operating Officer Sheri Berger. That inquiry asked Ms. Berger to verify whether or not CDC employee Douglas R. Browne signed six sworn AG990-IL financial reports filed with the Illinois Attorney General's Charitable Trust Bureau by the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF), a Chicago-area nonprofit.



I asked Congressman Woodall's office to help me obtain the information because there are serious legal matters regarding the reports that I wish to bring to the attention of federal and Illinois state officials.

In your May 21, 2012 reply, you wrote to Congressman Woodall:

Mr. Browne reviewed the documents and verified that they look familiar to him, and that the signature on page six of the documents, dated December 30, 2005, appears to be his writing. Mr. Browne cannot confirm with certainty that he signed the other pages, because he's unable to verify the signatures.

All due respect, I believe a more definitive response is required.

As you may be aware, in recent years SALF has been the subject of scores of critical media reports. For example, from a November 2006 ABC7 Chicago expose:

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.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, $3,335,578 of those funds were awarded to SALF by your agency.

In a November 10, 2010 reply to a complaint of misconduct filed with the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, that office responded:

In your letter, you allege potential misconduct on the part of Douglas Browne, an employee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Specifically you state that CDC may have improperly approved Browne's outside activities with the Save-A-Life-Foundation, and that Browne may have exceeded the scope of the approval which he received from CDC management.

...HHS/OIG/OI/SIB has referred this matter to CDC for further review, and appropriate administrative action as this matter appears to be more appropriately addressed through CDC's administrative review process.

According to a numerous records (embedded below this paragraph), Mr. Browne served on SALF's Executive Board as the organization's Treasurer. According to the six AG990-IL reports, he appears to have started the job on January 1, 2003 although tax returns filed by SALF with the Internal Revenue Service indicate he started on January 1, 2004. According to the minutes of a January 26, 2007 meeting of SALF's board, he was voted a $40,000 salary and retirement plan. Apparently his job ended on September 17, 2009 when, after a vote by the corporation's directors - presumably including Mr. Browne - SALF filed Articles of Dissolution with the Illinois Secretary of State.



Regarding Mr. Browne's memory lapse about whether or not he signed the six AG990-IL reports, your letter didn't indicate if you asked him to produce copies. Since he was the organization's Treasurer, he presumably retained those. If not, he can certainly request unredacted copies from the Illinois Attorney General's office, from other former SALF executives, and from the Certified Public Accountants who co-signed the six reports.

Undoubtedly you share my interest in bringing any potential legal concerns to the attention of governmental oversight agencies. Therefore, would you please ask Mr. Browne to provide you with definite answers as to which if any of the six reports he signed and that you provide me with that information?

Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to your reply so that I may know how to proceed.

Peter M. Heimlich
(street address redacted)
Duluth, GA 30096

ph: (208)474-7283
e-mail: pmh@medfraud.info
website: Medfraud
blog: The Sidebar

cc:

The Hon. Rob Woodall, US House of Representatives % Chase Murray
Daniel R. Levinson, Inspector General, Department of Health and Human Services
Sherri Berger, Chief Operating Officer, CDC
The Hon. Tim Bivins, IL State Legislature
Brent Stratton, Chief Deputy IL Attorney General


my 5/29/12 inquiry to CDC Director Thomas Frieden re: whether CDC employee Douglas R. Browne signed six swo...

Undoubtedly you agree that we have a duty to assure the public that the millions in public and private dollars SALF obtained weren't misappropriated.

His sentiments were echoed by Gery Chico, Chairman of the Illinois State Board of Education, in this recent newspaper report:

“Where’s our money going?” Bivins said. “Where’s our tax dollars going? Where did it go?... As taxpayers, we have a right to know where the money’s going.”

The former Lee County sheriff wants investigations and audits of these groups, he said.

Chico agreed.

“I think if there’s probable cause for wrongdoing, especially if it involves public money, there ought to be an investigation, sure,” Chico said

Based on a March 2 reply to Sen. Bivins, the Attorney General disagrees.

What's more, the AG's letter, signed by Chief Deputy Attorney General Brent Stratton (page down), could serve as a blueprint for teaching nonprofits how to get away with ripping off Illinois taxpayers.

Stratton wrote:

(Where) grants from state agencies are involved, the (Attorney General's) Office typically becomes involved through referrals from the granting agencies. We have never received a referral from a state agency raising any concerns regarding a grant made to SALF. 

...SALF was registered as an Illinois charitable organization with this Office from 1994 through 2009, during which period it filed complete annual reports accompanied by audits when required by law. In September 2009, SALF filed articles of dissolution with the Secretary of State. It then filed a final report with this Office in April 2010. When we first received complaints in June, 2010, SALF was no longer an active charity, for which the concerns about on-going fund-raising and the protection of charitable assets are paramount.

In other words....

A. Nonprofit XYZ is awarded millions of dollars from IL state agencies, but none of the funding agencies file complaints with the Attorney General.

B. XYZ closes it doors.

C. As far as the Attorney General is concerned, the millions of tax dollars awarded to XYZ are water under the bridge.

The principals at XYZ can rest easy for another reason.

Even if their organization has been the subject of dozens of media exposes all over the country (as SALF has been), Illinois' top law enforcement officer apparently won't lift a finger to find out what happened to the millions of taxpayer dollars awarded to XYZ.

Is the Illinois Attorney General pretending to investigate the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF)?

That's the question posed in a December blog item by "Hugo Floriani, Investigative Reporter" on a mystery site called called Illinois Pay to Play. It's a mystery to me anyway. (Hey, Hugo, if you're reading this, could you send me a copy of your driver's license? Okay, I'll settle for a library card.)

Regardless of Hugo's bona fides, Illinois State Sen. Tim Bivins (R-Dixon), who spent three decades working in law enforcement, has raised more or less the same question in an acerbic letter he recently sent to IL Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

IL Sen.Tim Bivins (R-Dixon)

First, some quick catch-up.

Via Possible Charity Scam by Sophia Beausoleil, WCIA-TV News, Champaign-Urbana, IL, October 20, 2010:

Save a Life Foundation was a Chicago based non-profit that would teach children all over the state and country emergency rescue techniques...A representative for the Attorney General's office said they are looking into the organization's charitable contributions and assets.

Click here for the correspondence between SALF founder/president Carol J. Spizzirri and the Attorney General's Office that triggered the investigation.

Don't miss Spizzirri's unusual June 11, 2010 letter to Assistant Attorney General Barry Goldberg accompanied by a weird attached "Cyber Sabotage Activities" report in which I and others are named as "co-conspirators."

Apparently that's what you're called if you ask questions about what happened to the reported $8.6 million federal and state tax dollars awarded to Spizzirri's organization. 

If that's so, according to this recent article, the latest "co-conspirators" are Sen. Bivins and Gery Chico, chairman of the Illinois State Board of Education:

Save-A-Life Foundation is one of a couple organizations Bivins is looking at...The former Lee County sheriff wants investigations and audits of these groups, he said.

Chico agreed.

"I think if there's probable cause for wrongdoing, especially if it involves public money, there ought to be an investigation, sure," Chico said.

I think Hugo would also agree.

Gery Chico receives SALF award from Carol Spizzirri (photo from SALF's 2003 Annual Corporate report)

I don't know if Chico has taken any action, but here's the letter Sen. Bivins sent. For a copy of the original, click here or page down.

Note: I've added links to the names of the four Save-A-Life Foundation principals that lead to more information about them. Quick FYI, Douglas R. Browne is an executive at the US Centers for Disease Control here in Atlanta; John Donleavy is the former president of VELCO, one of Vermont's largest energy companies.

Carol Spizzirri

1930 W. San Marcos Blvd #285

San Marcos, CA 92078

Rita Mullins, Secretary

858 N. Virginia Lake Ct.

Palatine, IL 60074

Douglas R. Browne, Treasurer

2851 Evans Woods Dr.

Doraville, GA 30340

John Donleavy, Director

325 3rd Street South

Naples FL 34102

At a meeting last Friday in Wilmington, DE, US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called for longer school days.

Why?

I'm not necessarily saying teachers have to work twelve hours a day, but what do we do with nonprofits and the Boys and Girls Clubs and the YMCAs that come into the schools and provide a, y'know, a whole set of extracurricular activities that so many of our children need?

Words, y'know, fail me.

Almost.

This from by a guy who, when he was running the Chicago Public Schools, personally facilitated a $174,000 rip-off by the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF), a tainted nonprofit that's reportedly under investigation by the Illinois Attorney General and by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) here in Atlanta.

As Sidebar readers know, Duncan's been hiding from questions about that money and his relationship to SALF.

I don't know if he's in denial or out to lunch, but it won't matter if this catches up to him.

Will it? 

Well, since November 2006, the SALF mess has been the subject of dozens of broadcast and print exposes and continues to generate fresh ink.

Also, my congressman, Rob Woodall (R-GA, 7th District), and Illinois state senator Tim Bivins (R-Dixon) are asking questions about what happened to millions of US and state tax dollars awarded to SALF, an organization that Duncan was close to and promoted for at least four years.

F'rinstance, here's Duncan appearing as a cartoon pitchman enthusiastically hyping SALF:


In my opinion, as soon as a political opponent or a reporter asks him about the $174,000 payday he arranged for SALF, Duncan won't be quite as enthusiastic about extracurricular school programs run by nonprofits.

Rep. Rob Woodall (holding copies of SALF documents I handed to him), Town Hall, Suwanee, GA, 11/5/11

A freshman Republican congressman from Georgia is asking questions about a developing Illinois scandal that involves two of the biggest players in the national Democratic party.

Sidebar regulars know that the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF) was a high-flying nonprofit that, according to the Chicago Tribune, was awarded nearly $9 million in federal and state funds to provide first aid training classes to millions of students.

Among other problems, records of any training classes are hard to come by.

IL State Sen. Tim Bivins

Last week an Illinois daily reported that State Senator Tim Bivins (R-Dixon) and State Board of Education chairman Gery Chico want "investigations and audits of (SALF)":

“Where’s our money going?” Bivins said. “Where’s our tax dollars going? Where did it go?... As taxpayers, we have a right to know where the money’s going.”

...Chico agreed.

"I think if there’s probable cause for wrongdoing, especially if it involves public money, there ought to be an investigation, sure,” Chico said.

That prospect doesn't seem to appeal to this pair of officials who helped SALF obtain big bucks: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin. Click their names and you'll see what I mean.

Back in the day, both spared no praise or support for the organization and its founder/president, Carol J. Spizzirri. Duncan called her "one of my heroes." Durbin told a CNN reporter, "I would do everything I could to help her."

Spizzirri, reportedly a twice-convicted shoplifter whose teenage daughter filed a protective order against her mother, is also prone to exaggeration. For instance, per this eye-popping 2006 I-Team report by ABC Chicago, she claimed nonexistent medical credentials, a bogus college degree, and even fabricated stories about her own child's death to gin up funds for her organization.


After dozens more media exposes, you'd think the elected officials who handed SALF millions of public dollars might want to assure taxpayers that their money didn't go down the you-know-where.

Think again. Despite his calls for oversight, Bivins wrote me, "There is little or no interest in pursuing an investigation of SALF in Illinois."

Such incuriousity may be attributable to SALF's connections to scores of public officials up and down the Prairie State's political food chain.

Click here for pages of photos of some of those worthies posing with SALF founder/president Carol Spizzirri and her second-in-command, Rita Mullins, former 20-year mayor of Palatine, IL.

Here are the gal pals of SALF enjoying themselves at a wedding shower last year for Spizzirri's daughter, Ciprina. Since then, Mama Spizzirri has reportedly relocated from Grayslake, IL, to a mobile home park in San Marcos, California.

SALF's Carol J. Spizzirri & Rita Mullins

As Sen. Bivins wrote me, "It's going to take someone from outside Illinois to expose the SALF scandal."

That someone may turn out to be my congressman, Rob Woodall, (R-GA, 7th District).

This week, Rep. Woodall wrote me that since July he's been asking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about $3.33 million that agency awarded to SALF.

According to sworn grant applications and financial reports SALF submitted to the CDC (which I obtained via FOIA), a good chunk of that dough was supposed to be used by SALF to provide first aid training classes for many thousands of students in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and other districts.

During most of those years, Arne Duncan was in charge of CPS and had a close relationship with Spizzirri and her operation. He even appeared as a cartoon character on SALF's website:



Here's one problem. In response to a federal court subpoena and public records requests, CPS can't locate any training records.

So where'd the CDC money go?

In addition to Duncan, one person who should know the answer to that question is Douglas Browne who, according to an October article in The Hill, "served as (SALF's) corporate treasurer from 2004 to 2009."

Per The Hill, during those same years Browne was also - can you say conflict of interest? - a Deputy Director at the CDC. From SALF's 2006-07 Annual Report:


Via The Hill:

(Congressional candidate Tim)Bagwell sent an 8-page letter to Health and Human Services Inspector General Daniel Levinson on Monday requesting that the office "review and determine" whether $3.3 million awarded to the Save-A-Life Foundation were "properly administered."

...Bagwell also wants the inspector general to review the relationship between the nonprofit and CDC Deputy Director Douglas Browne, who served as the nonprofit's corporate treasurer from 2004 to 2009.

That resulted in this:



At the beginning of the summer, I spent a frustrating month trying to get answers from the CDC about the status of the IG's request "for further review and appropriate administrative action" about Browne's role.

CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, MD MPH

After being sandbagged by three CDC departments, including the office of Director Tom Frieden, I wrote congressman Woodall and requested his assistance.

Last Saturday Rep. Woodall hosted a local Town Hall meeting at which I took the opportunity to reiterate my concerns. A few days later, he sent me this. (To download a copy, click here.)



Per the congressman's letter, there's more to come, so keep reading The Sidebar for updates.

Rep. Rob Woodall

In the meantime, I encourage readers to write your own congressional representative, share a link to this item, and request that s/he send a letter of support to Rep. Woodall for his willingness to take a closer look at this rat's nest.

If you do, feel free to e-mail copies to me.

 


The Hon. Antonio Muñoz, Chairman
The Hon. Tim Bivins, Minority Spokesman
Illinois Senate Executive Appointments Committee

Dear Senators Muñoz and Bivins:

In June, the Chicago Sun-Times reported:

Former Chicago mayoral candidate Gery Chico’s appointment as chairman of the state Board of Education hit a snag Wednesday amid GOP questions over his ties to a now-defunct non-profit organization.

Based on issues raised by a Texas blogger, Senate Republicans put the brakes on Quinn’s appointment, asking that Chico personally appear before a Senate panel to explain his relationship with Save A Life Foundation, a charity that is undergoing a probe within Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office.

“To me, this is the biggest non-event there could be,” Chico said when asked about the wrinkle in his confirmation. “I’m happy to come down there and answer any questions.”

According to the senate website, Mr. Chico is appearing before your committee tomorrow morning. This is to request that today you review and share this information with your fellow committee members.

This is also to request that at tomorrow's hearing Mr. Chico be asked this question:

Do you think the Chicago Public Schools Inspector General should investigate whether $62,000 paid by the schools to the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF) was properly administered?

Here's why.

First, according to this April 24, 2003 press release, Sunny Chico (who's identified as "a member of SALF's Educational Advisory Board") stated: 

My husband Gery (former President, Chicago Board of Ed.) was instrumental in bringing SALF to the Chicago Public Schools....

According to a November 2006 ABC Chicago I-Team report by Chuck Goudie (emphasis added):

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. 

Save-A-Life officials say they have taught the Heimlich maneuver and other first aid techniques to more than 1 million schoolchildren since 1995. They claim to have taught nearly 70,000 children how to save a life in the Chicago Public Schools this year alone. 

..."It's free to the children. We bring this course to schools for free," Spizzirri said.

But it wasn't free to the Chicago Public Schools, where officials say Save-A-Life charged them $50,000 the past two years.

Schools CEO Arnie (sic) Duncan says it seems unlikely that Carol Spizzirri's organization could have taught the number of students they claim....

From the October 11, 2009 Chicago Tribune:  

(Carol) Spizzirri launched a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching children emergency response techniques, raising at least $8.6 million in federal and state grants for her Save-A-Life Foundation. Firefighters and paramedics were recruited to offer instruction on how to apply CPR and stop bleeding and choking, said Spizzirri, who estimates 2 million children took the classes, many of them from the Chicago Public Schools.

From SALF's website, here's a list of hundreds of Chicago Schools where the organization claimed to have provided first aid training classes:



As any parent knows, every school activity generates paperwork. An extracurricular program of this nature using outside employees (firefighters and paramedics) would undoubtedly produce mountains of documents: student and teacher schedules, training materials, employee records, evaluations, and much more.

But in response to a federal court subpoena (filed by my attorney in Save-A-Life Foundation v. Baratz) and public records requests, the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) have failed to produce records for any training classes.

The only records CPS produced are a handful of SALF press releases and these 22 invoices showing that from 2000-2007, CPS paid SALF about $62,000:



Chicago Schools Inspector General James M. Sullivan informed me that his office had no statute of limitations re: investigating potential vendor fraud, so in January I submitted this request asking that he determine whether the $62,000 was properly administered:



Per the above information and the documentation below my signature, Mr. Chico (and his wife) were associated with and promoted SALF both during and after his years on the Chicago School Board. In my opinion, it should be him, not me, asking IG Sullivan to investigate SALF. If he's unwilling to assume that minimal degree of responsibility, it's unclear why your committee would entrust him to head the State Board of Education.

Therefore, to reiterate, at your hearing tomorrow I hope you'll take the opportunity to ask Mr. Chico this question: 

Do you think the Chicago Public Schools Inspector General should investigate whether $62,000 paid by the schools to the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF) was properly administered?

Finally, records indicate members of your committee were associated with SALF. I'm unfamiliar with your protocol, but it may be appropriate to disclose the details at tomorrow's hearing. 

Thanks for your time and consideration. If you have any questions or would like additional supporting documentation, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Peter M. Heimlich
Atlanta
(208)474-7283
e-mail: pmh@medfraud.info
website: MedFraud
blog: The Sidebar






(1:00) Spizzirri credits IL Sen. Walter Dudcyz for arranging a $600,000 Department of Commerce and Community Affairs (DCCA) grant "to bring this program to the schools of Chicago." Click here for a copy of the grant.
 

But even that isn't true, according to police and hospital reports and an inquest by the Lake County coroner. The official record states that 18-year-old Christina Spizzirri was legally drunk at the time of the accident; and that after hosting a drinking party while her mother was vacationing in Florida, the teenager got behind the wheel and flipped her own car.

Police records show there was no hit-and-run, and even though the local police didn't know emergency first aid, the teenager did not die at the scene as Carol Spizzirri contends. Medical records state that Christina died 30 minutes after arriving at the hospital.