Politics
Ald. Jim Gardiner Won’t Have to Pay $20K Fine After He Is Cleared of Violating Ethics Ordinance
Ald. Jim Gardiner (45th Ward) on the floor of the Chicago City Council. (WTTW News)
Ald. Jim Gardiner (45th Ward) will not have to pay a $20,000 fine after a hearing officer found he did not violate the city’s ethics ordinance by directing a city employee to issue “unfounded citations” that could have forced a frequent critic and political foe to pay more than $600 in fines.
After an appeal by the two-term Far Northwest Side alderperson, an administrative hearing officer overturned the Chicago Board of Ethics’ October 2023 determination that Gardiner committed 10 total violations of Chicago’s Governmental Ethics Ordinance, five violations of his fiduciary duty to the city and five violations for unauthorized use of city property after a probe by Inspector General Deborah Witzburg.
The Chicago Board of Ethics voted unanimously Monday evening to clear Gardiner of those violations.
“It is great to see the truth come to light after years of false allegations,” Gardiner said in a text message to WTTW News.
The city moved to dismiss the action against Gardiner after the inspector general disclosed an additional interview with a witness in 2020, according to the opinion from Administrative Law Judge Frank Lombardo. Before the judge could review that interview and decide whether it was relevant to Gardiner’s appeal, Gardiner informed the court he planned to call a new witness. The city did not object, and after being informed about what that new witness would testify about, contacted the inspector general’s office, known as the OIG.
The city concluded “it could not meet its obligation to serve exculpatory evidence from the OIG investigation ‘because additional potentially relevant material has been identified by the OIG and we cannot meet discovery requirement,’” according to Lombardo’s ruling.
After Lombardo declined to dismiss the charges against Gardiner but cleared him of all of the violations, the Ethics Board had no choice under city ordinance to reverse its findings and decision to fine Gardiner.
“The Board expects all OIG reports to advise and present the board of and with all evidence,” according to a report signed by Ethics Board Chair William Conlon that noted the Ethics Board was not a part of Gardiner’s appeal hearing and “does not have the complete context” regarding the material the inspector general could not provide to Gardiner. “Nonetheless, we emphasize the importance of the Board of Ethics receiving all evidence — that supportive of the charges, that which tends to disprove or challenge the basis of the charges, and that which tends to exculpate the respondent — when an OIG report is transmitted to the board. The board remains enthusiastic to act on properly and fully documented and established acts of intimidation, overreach and improper use of office by city elected officials and employees.”
Witzburg’s determination that Gardiner violated the ethics ordinance was the “first-ever finding of probable cause in an inspector general ethics investigation of a sitting member of City Council,” Witzburg said in a statement at the time that called the Board of Ethics’ now overturned ruling a “landmark.”
Gardiner had been accused of targeting Jefferson Park resident Pete Czosnyka, who has frequently criticized the alderperson and his ally Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38th Ward) both on social media and by filing complaints with the inspector general and the Board of Ethics.
Czosnyka did not respond to a request for comment from WTTW News.
Czosnyka transformed the front yard of his Jefferson Park home with insect- and environmentally friendly native plants he purchased in 2011 from the city, including black-eyed Susans, hollyhocks, lemon balm and goldenrod.
In September 2019, the city slapped Czosnyka with fines totaling more than $600, alleging he had failed to maintain the parkway, causing rodent problems, and had weeds taller than 10 inches. Czosnyka challenged the tickets, and they were tossed out by a judge.
The inspector general’s probe found that Gardiner “conceived the idea to issue citations” with two employees of the Department of Streets and Sanitation “at the alderman’s ward office and proceeded with the plan even after being informed that plants at the critic’s property were legal.”
Gardiner has represented Old Irving Park, Portage Park, Jefferson Park, Gladstone Park and parts of Edgebrook, Wildwood and Norwood Park since 2019, and has been at the center of controversy nearly from the beginning of his time in office. Gardiner is one of the most conservative members of the City Council and frequently opposes Mayor Brandon Johnson’s policies and initiatives.
Between 2020 and 2024, Gardiner also served as the 45th Ward’s Democratic committeeperson.
In September 2021, Gardiner apologized for sending profane and misogynistic texts to a former aide about then-Ald. Tom Tunney (44th Ward) and two women who worked at City Hall, including 32nd Ward Ald. Scott Waguespack’s chief of staff.
While an effort by some members of the City Council to censure Gardiner for those comments failed, Cook County Democratic Party Chair Toni Preckwinkle stripped Gardiner of his positions on four committees, preventing the then-committeeperson from having any say on who the Cook County Democratic Party endorsed in elections.
Gardiner did not run for reelection as the 45th Ward’s Democratic committeeperson in 2024. Michael Rabbitt now holds that unpaid post.
Other texts obtained by WTTW News show that Gardiner obtained the criminal records of James Suh, a 45th Ward resident who organized a protest against Gardiner, and told his aide to “leak” those records. Suh ran unsuccessfully for 45th Ward alderperson in 2023.
WTTW News reported federal officials were probing allegations that Gardiner took bribes and demanded payments before taking official actions. Gardiner has not been charged with wrongdoing.
In September 2023, Chicago taxpayers paid $100,000 to resolve a lawsuit filed by a man who claimed he was wrongfully arrested at Gardiner’s request after finding a cellphone that belonged to Charles Sikanich, who Gardiner hired to serve as 45th Ward superintendent, records show.
Sikanich pleaded guilty in December to a felony gun charge. Prosecutors alleged he tried to sell an illegal machine gun while working for the city.
In December, Gardiner agreed to settle a lawsuit that claimed he violated the First Amendment by blocking six critics, including Czosnyka and Suh, from his official Facebook page in June 2021. Chicago taxpayers will pay $87,500 to resolve that suit, with Gardiner paying $70,000, records show.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
