Politics

Chicago Watchdog Says Mayor’s Senior Adviser Failed to Cooperate With Probe, Should be Fired

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s senior adviser failed to cooperate with a probe into whether he threatened to withhold city resources unless a member of the Chicago City Council supported an initiative backed by the mayor, according to a report released Wednesday by Chicago’s watchdog.

Johnson refused to fire Jason Lee, one of his closest aides, at the recommendation of Inspector General Deborah Witzburg, with a mayoral spokesperson telling WTTW News that Lee “engaged in no wrongdoing.”

Witzburg did not identify the employee, in keeping with the city’s rules, but Johnson’s office acknowledged the incident centered on Lee’s attempts to convince Ald. Bill Conway (34th Ward) to vote for two proposals at the heart of Johnson’s first months in office: a successful effort to phase out the tipped minimum wage and a push rejected by Chicago voters to hike taxes on the sale of properties worth more than $1 million.

At the same time Lee was lobbying Conway to support those proposals, Conway had asked the mayor’s office for assistance clearing an encampment of unhoused people near Union Station and the Ogilvie Transportation Center. The dispute was first reported by the Tribune.

Because Lee failed to answer questions as part of the probe, Witzburg “was unable to gather sufficient evidence to conclude by a preponderance of the evidence whether the subject engaged in misconduct related to the original allegation that they conditioned critical city services upon an alderperson’s support for mayoral-backed legislation.”

Witzburg urged Johnson to fire Lee, but Johnson declined to do so.

Lee declined to be interviewed by Witzburg’s office after the inspector general refused to conduct the interview with an attorney representing the city present, as Lee had requested.

That refusal “had no legal justification,” according to the mayor’s office.

Conway called Johnson’s refusal to terminate Lee “demoralizing.”

“When the mayor’s top advisor stonewalled an investigation into withholding public safety resources from my community in exchange for my votes, the fifth floor pled the fifth,” Conway said in a statement. “Their lack of cooperation is an admission of guilt and a disregard for the transparency and accountability Chicagoans deserve.”

The culmination of the inspector general’s probe of Lee sheds new light on a moment of significant tension between the mayor’s office and the inspector general’s office, which began when Witzburg accused the mayor’s office of intervening in ongoing probes that risk “embarrassment or political consequences” for city leaders.

Five months later, the City Council voted 49-1 to revise the city’s ethics law to address those concerns. The law now explicitly allows attorneys from the Law Department to participate in investigatory interviews if the person being interviewed requests it, but that provision was not in effect until months after the inspector general closed the probe into Lee.

After the ordinance was approved, Witzburg announced she would not seek a second term in office, telling WTTW News that she had “done what I came here to do.”

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

---