Mayor Brandon Johnson Accepted Gifts of Whiskey, Luxury Handbags, Cuff Links Without Reporting Them as Required: Watchdog

Politics

Mayor Brandon Johnson Accepted Gifts of Whiskey, Luxury Handbags, Cuff Links Without Reporting Them as Required: Watchdog

Mayor Brandon Johnson accepted gifts of premium whiskey, luxury handbags, designer cuff links and shoes without properly reporting them, as required by the city’s ethics ordinance, according to an audit released Wednesday by the city’s watchdog.

When an undercover investigator working for Inspector General Deborah Witzburg asked in June to see the list of the gifts to Johnson on a required official document, they were turned away, in violation of city law, according to the report.

In November, staff in the mayor’s office refused to allow representatives of the inspector general’s office to inspect the room at City Hall where gifts accepted by the mayor on behalf of the city are required to be stored, according to the report.

The inspector general has yet to gain access to the mayor’s “gift room” at City Hall in order to “inspect the manner in which gifts are stored, audit the presence of gifts that were purportedly stored in the gift room as stated in the gift log, or to review controls around access to the gift room,” according to the report.

“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,’” Witzburg said in a statement. “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. 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.”

City ordinance requires all city officials to comply with requests made by the inspector general and make available all records they request “as soon as practicable.”

In a letter to Witzburg, Cristina Pacione-Zayas, Johnson’s chief of staff, refused to allow the inspector general or her staff to make unannounced inspections of the gifts accepted by the mayor on behalf of the city, telling her it is not required by city law.

“Notwithstanding the forgoing, the mayor’s office remains fully committed to ensuring that gifts are available for inspection through a properly scheduled appointment at the earliest practicable time,” Pacione Zayas wrote.

Representatives of the mayor did not immediately respond to questions from WTTW News about whether it was appropriate for the mayor to accept items like cuff links, shoes, alcohol and handbags on behalf of the city, where those items are now stored and why the inspector general and members of the public were turned away from inspecting them as required.

WTTW News has requested to inspect the gifts accepted by the mayor on behalf of the city.

The city bans public officials from accepting gifts worth more than $50 — unless it is accepted “on behalf of the city” and those gifts are reported to the Board of Ethics and the city’s comptroller. But gifts to Chicago’s mayor have been subject to an “unwritten arrangement” dating back to the late 1980s during the administration of former Mayor Eugene Sawyer, according to the inspector general.

Under those rules, gifts accepted by the mayor were supposed to be logged in a book that would be available for public viewing on the fifth floor of City Hall, home to the mayor’s suite of offices.

In response to Witzburg’s report, the Chicago Board of Ethics directed Johnson to report all gifts accepted on behalf of the city to the Board of Ethics within 10 days. Those disclosures will be published online.

“The board also recommends that any gifts accepted on behalf of the city that remain within the mayoral suite of offices or within City Hall be accessible for viewing by members of the public on reasonable terms set by the mayor’s office,” Chicago Board of Ethics Executive Director Steve Berlin wrote.

Pacione-Zayas told Witzburg the mayor’s office would follow those rules.

Witzburg’s report details repeated efforts by the mayor’s staff to hinder her probe into the mayor’s acceptance of gifts.

After the request from the inspector general’s undercover investigator to inspect the gift log was refused, they filed a Freedom of Information Act request in their capacity as a member of the public. The mayor’s office failed to respond to that request as required by state law.

Only after the inspector general submitted an official request for the log did the mayor’s office acknowledge Johnson accepted gifts including alcohol, jewelry, clothes and accessories on behalf of the city.

Those gifts included a bottle of Uncle Nearest 1856 Premium Aged Whiskey, Hugo Boss cufflinks; Givenchy, Gucci, and Kate Spade handbags; a personalized Mont Blanc pen; and size 14 men’s shoes, according to the inspector general’s report.

In all, Johnson accepted 236 gifts on behalf of the city, according to the log the inspector general finally obtained. By comparison, former Mayor Lori Lightfoot accepted 144 gifts between February 2022 and when she left office in May 2023, according to the report. Lightfoot also failed to properly report and document those gifts, according to the inspector general.

The log fails to identify the giver of more than 70% of the gifts, even though the log includes space to document the date the gift was received, gift description, location of the gift, the name, associated organization and address of the giver as well as whether a thank you note has been written and sent.

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]

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