Ackerman acknowledges directing surveillance work to minority firm IBS

Speaking publicly for the first time about emergency, no-bid contracts at dangerous city schools, School Superintendent Arlene C. Ackerman acknowledged that she personally directed her staff to guarantee a small minority firm a share of $700,000 in security work at South Philadelphia High School.

That contract with IBS Communications Inc. - for $12,890 to produce schematic drawings - ended up costing the district more than 12 times the estimate from the company that installed the cameras at the school.

Ackerman recalled in an interview Tuesday evening that she instructed her staff at the outset of the project last December to "make sure there are minority contractors involved." When she learned that the project, executed over a weekend, was done without any minority companies, she said, she handed an IBS business card to her staff and told them to "find some work" for IBS.

"I knew IBS was doing work for the city," Ackerman said, adding that if she had had three business cards for minority firms, she would have given all three to her aides.

More recently, IBS received a $7.5 million, no-bid emergency contract to install surveillance cameras and command control centers at 19 other Philadelphia schools classified as "persistently dangerous" after another company had already begun work on the project.

Ackerman said the work given to IBS demonstrated that she was steadfastly committed to guaranteeing that companies owned by minorities and women received a significant share of district work.

"We're trying to break a culture that is hurtful in many ways," Ackerman declared. Too many contractors with years of experience working in city schools feel automatically entitled to district business, she said.

"Change is hard," she said. "People have benefited from this system, and it's not fair, and it's not equitable. People are going to be mad at me and the SRC," she said, referring to the School Reform Commission. "There are the 'haves' and the 'have-nots.' "

Ackerman and her deputy Leroy B. Nunery II emphasized that IBS had done exemplary work for the district so far. "We know we have a good company here," said Nunery, one of several senior aides who joined Ackerman in the interview Tuesday at school headquarters at 440 N. Broad St. "This is a demonstration project for them."

Nunery said he - not Ackerman - had made the decision two months ago to award the $7.5 million contract to IBS.