City Hall was active this week

The new President of the Chicago Transit Agency (CTA) may soon be John Roberson (City of Chicago COO) who has been handling much of the Mayor’s operations over the past two years but has no experience in public transportation.  

Over the past couple of years, many of us in the City Council and public transportation community have demanded better management and leadership in the Chicago Transit Agency that was led by Dorval Carter until recently. As new members were appointed by the Mayor to the CTA and RTA boards, many of us asked for this board leadership to have transportation experience. We have also asked for any new President of the CTA to have broad public transportation experience to take on the CTA. It is imperative that CTA address the issues with safety, delays, and unreliable service on bus and rail platforms and the state of the system in general. The state is also continuing to work on the massive financial shortfall of regional transportation agencies including the CTA that a lack of funding could make or break public transportation in the region. I believe that the Mayor should undertake a search for a new CTA President that is done nationwide, if not globally. 

This week, the CTA board held a special session to discuss this issue of appointing COO Roberson but did not make the appointment of Mr. Roberson. 

This week, the Mayor also indicated he is pushing to have his Chief of Staff appointed as the new CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, despite significant pushback by City Council members, CPS board members, and many in the community. We have heard that Board President Sean Harden is pushing for the board to take the Mayor’s appointee, CSO Cristina Pacione-Zayas as CEO, despite lacking the required license. The CEO of Chicago Public Schools must hold a valid Illinois Professional Educator License and ignoring the rules does more damage to CPS. While there are CPS management staff that have the required licensure, the Mayor is making the move to replace CEO Pedro Martinez with his Chief of Staff quickly and has ignored that requirement.

Several weeks ago, City Clerk Valencia and I drafted a resolution to have a subcommittee created in the City Council to address the appointment process for sister agencies. For several years, my position has been that Chicago needs professionals in these positions, and state laws allowing direct Mayoral appointments with no Council oversight is problematic. 

This week, several Aldermen joined the City Clerk and I to reiterate the need to hold committee hearings on these appointment processes for the CTA, CPS, and other City agencies that not only receive funding via votes on the City Council, but have appointments made by the Mayor. This subcommittee is aimed at bringing greater transparency and accountability to the appointment process for board members at sister agencies. Though delayed by Mayoral allies in the Council throwing up procedural hurdles, we remain committed to these reforms and welcome others to join us. We stand firmly behind the School Board’s decision to impose the state requirements on the CPS CEO and strongly encourage residents to push back against the Mayor pushing back against the basic requirement for the CPS superintendent. 

Finally, related to CPS, I think it's also important to point out that the President of the Chicago Board of Education may be lobbying the City on concessions contracts at the airport. Sean Harden, who was appointed by Mayor Johnson, recently established a new business that may be bidding on new concession contracts at Chicago airports. This would be yet another ethics violation and should not be allowed to move forward by the City.

Another vote that took place this week was on the new layer of bureaucracy created by the Mayor for his Green Social Housing non-profit. This group will be a non-profit, with staff paid for by taxpayers but with little to no oversight by the watchdog agencies tasked with keeping tabs on taxpayers' funds. The new group is appointed by the Mayor, and among other concerns will have higher paid staff than 99% of city employees and sister agencies like the CHA that are doing the same work. The Residential Investment Corporation or RIC (non-profit) will receive funds from the $1.25 billion housing and economic development bond to finance the nonprofit. While I voted in support of the housing bonds to be used on specific affordable housing projects, I did not expect the rushed creation of new non-profit to be outside the scope of city oversight and voted this week against the creation of this new bureaucracy. This RIC will use the city bonds and dole out the initial tranche of $135 million in higher interest bond funds (around 5+%) at a promised lower interest rate of 2%. Despite the request for additional information on projects, the Council did not receive requested details before the final vote, and there are otherwise no strong accountability and governance standards.  

This week, the Council Committee on Ethics held a meeting to review the Chicago Inspector General quarterly report, and the OIG Audit and Program Review Section 2025 Annual Plan. The report includes investigation and audit outcomes on issues related to city departments and employees. The committee also appointed Cindy Medina-Cervantes and Paul Berks to the Board of Ethics. The quarterly report included investigations on employees violating the City Ethics Ordinance and a State of Illinois elected official improperly lobbying City officials for desired legislative outcomes on behalf of their clients. Aldermen also asked the OIG about other issues related to employee training, and Alderman Reilly and I inquired about what to do with the gift room in the Mayor’s office that includes unique gifts like size 14 Gucci shoes. The OIG report logged the gifts “including Hugo Boss cufflinks; Givenchy, Gucci, and Kate Spade handbags; a personalized Mont Blanc pen; and size 14 men’s shoes in the gift room or Mayor’s personal office in City Hall". I suggested the best outcome to clear the room may be a simple outside auction of the gifts with funds being sent back into the corporate fund but we await a response from the Mayor's office.

Why is oversight, transparency, and accountability for city deals important? A Chicago Parking meters redux by NBC5 and the cost of rushing Mayoral deals.