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CHICAGO (WLS) — Mayor Brandon Johnson is standing by one of his senior advisers despite allegations from Chicago’s Inspector General that the aide has not cooperated with an ongoing investigation. The probe was initiated following a complaint lodged by Alderman Bill Conway.
There exists a small, closet-sized space behind the City Council chambers, commonly referred to as the copy room. This private area is where many Chicago alderpersons engage in discussions about city matters away from the public eye.
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Alderman Conway recounts an incident from two years ago involving mayoral adviser Jason Lee. According to Conway, Lee took him into the copy room to propose a deal.
“The mayor’s office attempted to leverage my vote in return for essential public safety services,” Conway stated.
Conway had been seeking city assistance to address a homeless encampment in his ward, which he described as having devolved into an open-air drug market plagued by violence. Conway alleges that Lee offered to address the encampment issue in exchange for Conway’s support on a real estate transfer tax measure.
“That was a basic public safety service that every ward should get and shouldn’t be tied to legislative votes,” Conway said.
SEE ALSO: Chicago inspector general alleges obstruction by city’s law department
At the time, Lee argued the two were tied together because the money generated from the tax would be used for the homelessness problem. Conway took his complaint to Chicago’s Inspector General.
“We were unable to reach an investigative conclusion on those underlying allegations because we couldn’t gather all of the information to which the law entitles us because the subject wouldn’t cooperate,” Chicago Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said.
In report released Wednesday, Witzburg says, as a condition of employment, all City Hall employees must cooperate with her office. If not, she says, they must be terminated. Mayor Johnson refuses to fire Lee because the mayor’s office claims Lee would only cooperate with an attorney present.
A statement reads in part, “There is no justification for imposing discipline on a staffer who has engaged in no wrongdoing and who merely asserted their right to counsel.”
“We received outreach from a private attorney representing the subject only after we had already sent our report to the mayor’s office recommending the employee be terminated,” Witzburg said.
Witzburg says the report includes unrelated cases involving three other city employees who failed to cooperate with her office, and all were fired by their department heads.
The inspector general’s report comes one day before Mayor Johnson will present his budget.
He will need help from all alders, friends and foes to close a $1.15 billion budget gap.
