In an action that has the City Hall grapevine buzzing, the Emanuel administration is leaning on Chicago Public Schools to run at least $100 million and potentially much more in construction work through another agency, despite concerns from some about higher costs.

Sources at CPS and City Hall say that in recent days Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office told CPS that it would be a good idea to let the city's Public Building Commission manage its 2013 capital expenditure program.

According to CPS' website, the program includes $110 million in new money, plus $763 million in continuing projects that were funded in prior years but have not yet been completed.

There was “no specific directive,” but the mayor's office did “encourage” the two agencies to get together about a joint venture, CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll said.

A mayoral aide goes further, saying CPS was “strongly encouraged” to turn the work over to the PBC, which has handled some school construction projects in the past and has faced criticism from former schools officials about its management fees and the quality of its work.

In a statement, the mayor's office strongly defended the commission, which Mr. Emanuel chairs and whose executive director is Erin Lavin Cabonargi, who attended Miami University in Ohio for three years at the same time in the early 1990s as Lisa Schrader, who recently took over as the mayor's chief of staff.

While PBC does impose a 3 percent administrative fee, "In the five years that Erin has run the PBC, she has improved policies and completed projects with exemplary performance in cost and scheduling,” the statement says. “Since 2008, the PBC has completed 80 capital projects, and has delivered these $1.7 billion in project(s)” more than $150 million under budget.

The statement concludes, “Mayor Emanuel's goal is to continue using PBC for its expertise while allowing the city and sister agencies to remain focused on their core functions. With regard to CPS, their purpose is to educate our children, not build buildings, and their focus should be on educating our kids."

I'm not sure who's right here. But needless to say, when the mayor who appoints members of the Board of Education “strongly suggests” that they give their work to PBC, a smart bureaucrat gets the message.

I should add that Crain's contributor James Ylisela assisted with research on this post, and that the city denies that the Miami University connection had anything to do with this matter.

Ms. Cabonargi did not return a call seeking comment.