Chicago mayor’s office accepted luxury gifts without properly reporting them: OIG

CHICAGO – The Chicago Mayor’s Office accepted gifts ranging from designer handbags to jewelry on behalf of the City without publicly reporting them, according to a new report from the Office of Inspector General (OIG).

The OIG said gifts accepted on behalf of the City should be reported to the Board of Ethics and the city comptroller and those reports are required to be made publicly available. Under an unwritten agreement dating back to the late 1980s, gifts accepted by the Mayor’s Office were instead logged in a book that would be available for public viewing on the fifth floor of City Hall, according to the OIG.

The backstory:

The OIG visited City Hall undercover and requested to see the logbook. The Mayor’s Office denied the request and directed OIG officials to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

Inspector general officials said they filed a FOIA request in a “covert capacity” and the Mayor’s Office failed to respond in a timely manner, reflecting a denial of the request.

The OIG then sent an official document request to the Mayor’s Office for the logbook and received a spreadsheet detailing 380 gifts accepted by the Mayor’s Office “on behalf of the city” between Feb. 2, 2022 and March 20 of last year. Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s logs included entries for 144 gifts received while Mayor Brandon Johnson’s logs contained 236 entries.

Among the gifts given under the Johnson administration were Hugo Boss cufflinks; Givenchy, Gucci, and Kate Spade handbags; a personalized Mont Blanc pen; and size 14 men’s shoes, OIG officials said. Some of the gifts were stored in the gift room and the others were in Mayor Brandon Johnson’s personal office, the inspector said.

The OIG visited the fifth floor to conduct an unannounced inspection of the Gift Room and was denied access.

“When gifts are changing hands—perhaps literally—in a windowless room in City Hall, there is no opportunity for oversight and public scrutiny of the propriety of such gifts, the identities or intentions of the gift-givers, or what it means for gifts like whiskey, jewelry, handbags, and size 14 men’s shoes to be accepted ‘on behalf of the City,’” said Deborah Witzburg, inspector general for the City of Chicago.

Under the Governmental Ethics Ordinance, city officials are generally prohibited from accepting gifts of value over $50 unless they are “accepted on behalf of the city.”

What’s next:

The OIG recommended that the Mayor’s Office comply with “generally applicable rules” for public reporting of gifts accepted on behalf of the City. They also recommended that the Gift Room be made available for announced and unannounced inspection by the OIG.

The Mayor’s Office responded that it would allow OIG access to the Gift Room with only “a properly scheduled appointment.”

The Chicago Board of Ethics agreed with the OIG’s recommendation of public reporting. The Mayor’s Office said it will work with the board to transition to the new guidance.

Why you should care:

Witzburg said in a statement that the lack of transparency from the Mayor’s Office erodes public trust.

“It is perhaps more important than ever that Chicagoans can trust their City government, and for decades we have given people no reason at all to trust what goes on in the dark,” Witzburg said. “These gifts are, by definition, City property; if they are squirreled away and hidden from view, people are only left to assume the worst about how they are being handled. If we do not govern responsibly on the small things, we cannot ask people to trust the government on the big ones.”

FOX 32 has reached out to the Mayor’s Office for a statement.

Mobile users, tap here to read the full advisory from the Chicago Office of the Inspector General.

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