Mayor Brandon Johnson reversed course Tuesday, averting a showdown at Wednesday’s City Council meeting.

The new rules, issued Thursday, came several days after the president of the Better Government Association warned Mayor Brandon Johnson that the administration’s efforts to restrict access to meetings of the City Council were “inequitable and likely illegal.”

New restrictions on where members of the public can sit during meetings of the Chicago City Council are “inequitable and likely illegal,” David Greising, president of the Better Government Association, warned Mayor Brandon Johnson. 

A top Emanuel ally and chairman of the powerful Committee on Committees, Rules and Ethics on City Council is in hot water with Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office.