Politics

Ethics Board Hits Paul Vallas With $214K Fine for Accepting Improper Campaign Contributions

The Chicago Board of Ethics fined former mayoral candidate Paul Vallas $214,000 for accepting $202,000 in excessive contributions from firms doing business with the city, in violation of city law.

The fine is the largest ever levied by the Chicago Board of Ethics, which was founded in 1987. It was approved by a 5-0 vote on Monday, with one member abstaining.

Vallas, who was former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s budget director and the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, vowed to appeal the fine in a statement to WTTW News.

Vallas’ campaign committee, Vallas for Mayor, had $23,600 in debt as of March 31, according to records filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections.

That makes it unlikely Vallas will pay the fine, the Ethics Board acknowledged.

The Ethics Board will ask the City Council to amend Chicago Government Ethics ordinance “so that candidates whose political committees violated the ordinance but then become insolvent or are dissolved remain responsible for paying fines through any future political committee they may form to run for elected office,” records show.

In keeping with city rules, Vallas was not named by the Ethics Board, or the Office of the Inspector General, which conducted the probe of the improper contributions. The Chicago Tribune was the first to report that the fine was levied against Vallas, who confirmed to WTTW News he was the subject of the enforcement action.

The city’s Government Ethics Ordinance limits companies doing business with the city to contributing $1,500 annually to candidates for elected office in Chicago.

The Ethics Board could have fined Vallas, who lost to Mayor Brandon Johnson in the 2023 runoff for mayor, a total of $618,000, since city law sets the maximum fine for violating the city’s campaign finance laws at three times the amount of improper campaign contributions, plus $1,000 for each violation.

Instead, the board ordered Vallas to pay a fine equivalent to the amount of improper contributions he accepted as well as a $1,000 fine for each violation.

The board has twice fined Vallas for accepting improper contributions during his 2023 bid for mayor. In January 2024, the board fined Vallas $10,500 for accepting $3,500 improperly from a firm that did business with the city, records show.

“The fine is inappropriate and the timing is suspect,” Vallas said in a statement to WTTW News, adding that the largest contribution was $50,000 from the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.

Vallas could have avoided the massive fine by simply returning the improper contributions within 10 days of being notified by city officials, under the ordinance’s “safe harbor” provision, records show. Vallas told WTTW News Wednesday he was notified of the alleged violations in June 2025.

Neither Vallas nor his campaign responded to those notices, according to the Ethics Board.

Eleven of the 12 firms that made the improper contributions requested that Vallas return their money, according to Ethics Board. The firm that did not request a refund was fined $1,000, but was not named in the enforcement action, in keeping with the board’s rules.

In his statement, Vallas said he wondered whether the Board of Ethics “will ask Brandon Johnson to pay back $6 million received from the Chicago Teachers Union leadership or question the manner in which they provided the funding?”

There is no evidence CTU contributed $6 million to Johnson, according to records filed with state elections officials.

City law does not restrict campaign contributions from unions, according to a 2015 ruling by the Chicago Board of Ethics. Individuals must follow state-imposed limits, which cap campaign contributions to $14,600 per candidate per election.

Campaign finance reports filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections show that the CTU contributed $2.3 million to Johnson’s 2023 campaign, while state and national teachers’ unions affiliated with CTU contributed an additional $3.3 million, records show.

Johnson is a former middle school teacher and organizer for the CTU. Vallas, who clashed repeatedly with CTU during his tenure as the head of the Chicago Public Schools, is a longtime supporter of efforts to expand charter schools and backs programs that use public funds to pay tuition at private schools.

After the 2023 election, Vallas sued former campaign consultant Chimaobi Enyia, claiming he performed no work for the $700,000 he was paid. A judge dismissed that lawsuit before trial, finding Vallas had no evidence to back up his claims of fraud.

Vallas also ran for mayor in 2019, ending that campaign with more than $554,000 in debt in the Paul Vallas for All Chicago campaign committee, according to state election records. The bulk of that debt was owed to Link2Tek, an Asheville, North Carolina-based firm that Vallas hired to send unsolicited text messages to Chicagoans touting his campaign.

Vallas closed Paul Vallas for All Chicago committee in September 2019, and opened the Vallas for Mayor committee in April 2022.

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

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