Politics

Mayor Brandon Johnson Opens City Hall Gift Room to Cameras, Promises to Donate Items to Charity

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration opened a small City Hall room crammed with gifts his office accepted on behalf of the city to reporters on Monday, even as questions continued to swirl about who gave him the gifts.

WTTW News was one of several news organizations granted access to the closet-sized room on Monday, 40 days after Inspector General Deborah Witzburg reported that pricey gifts of luxury handbags, designer cuff links and shoes were accepted without proper reporting, as required by the city’s ethics ordinance.

Under new rules announced Monday, members of the public will be allowed to sign up for a 15-minute slot to inspect the gift room once every three months. Those spots will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis, officials said. The first opportunity will take place in April, officials said.

After members of the public get a chance to see the gifts, the “items will be donated to local Chicago charities,” according to the statement from the mayor’s office.

A 21-second video of the room, posted to the mayor’s YouTube page on Feb. 12 showed the small room stuffed with artwork, coffee mugs, shoes, baseball caps, T-shirts, awards, plaques and books on shelves lining three walls failed to quell the controversy.

Under an “unwritten agreement” between the Chicago Board of Ethics and the mayor’s office that began in the late 1980s, 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, where the gifts were to be stored.

But, in fact, the gift room is located on the third floor of City Hall, which is mostly used for storage and non-public offices, at the end of a dark hallway.

On Monday, that room contained the gifts at the center of the controversy, including Hugo Boss cufflinks, Kate Spade and Gucci purses, a Google Pixel Watch and Apple AirPods.

A Google Pixel watch given to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson by Kansas City Mayor Quentin Lucas and Apple Airpods accepted by the mayor by an unknown donor. (Heather Cherone/WTTW News)

Johnson’s office has accepted 365 gifts since May 2023, when he took office, according to the log now published online by his office.

The city’s ethics ordinance prohibits elected officials and city employees from accepting most gifts worth more than $50.

The log fails to identify the giver of the majority of the gifts, even though the log includes space to document the date the gift was received, the name and associated organization who gave the gift and the location of the gift.

“The mayor receives mementos and small items at many public events and it is often difficult to capture the contact information of the gift-giver,” according to a statement from the mayor’s office. “The city will make a concerted effort to log all contact information for any future gifts received on behalf of the city.”

The log details the acceptance of 22 gifts on Feb. 11 alone, including four pairs of “men’s GoldStar dress socks” and a “crystal necklace.” The socks were in the gift room as required, on Monday.

The log does not identify who gave the mayor those gifts, even though they were accepted one week after Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry told reporters the mayor’s office would “make sure that we have a process that acknowledges the date that it came in on, to the extent that we know who gave it and their affiliation.”

A personalized Mont Blanc pen given to Mayor Brandon Johnson by an unknown donor. (Heather Cherone/WTTW News)

U.S. Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) asked Johnson about the gift room during last Wednesday’s hearing into the city’s protections for undocumented immigrants in front of the U.S. House Oversight Committee and noted that the mayor’s office has not identified who gave him most of the gifts.

A log of the gifts the mayor’s office is required to keep by the city’s Governmental Ethics Ordinances includes space to document the date the gift was received, the name and associated organization who gave the gift and the location of the gift.

After Witzburg’s audit, the Chicago Board of Ethics revoked the “unwritten arrangement” about gifts accepted by the mayor on behalf of the city.

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

When an undercover investigator working for 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 gifts to ensure they were being properly stored.

Witzburg has repeatedly insisted that her office has the authority access to the mayor’s gift room whenever she deems it necessary to determine whether his office is complying with the city’s ethics ordinance.

Witzburg declined to tell WTTW News on Monday whether her office has attempted to make another unannounced visit to the gift room.

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