Editorial: Chief financial officers are dropping like flies on Brandon Johnson’s 5th floor
While Mayor Brandon Johnson hems and haws on whether he will seek a second term, senior administration officials aren’t waiting around. Some are simply washing their hands of this mayor’s City Hall.
The latest exit is one of the most worrying. For the second time this year, a chief financial officer is leaving the administration.
Acting CFO Steven Mahr, who succeeded Jill Jaworski in the post after she landed a job at Navy Pier, will leave at the end of this week. Unlike Jaworski, he’s departing without another job in hand, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Those optics are bad at any time, but particularly so as the city prepares for its annual meeting in August with analysts and municipal bond investors. Right after that, budget season begins in earnest as Chicago faces both a current-year shortfall and a substantially larger deficit for next year.
The city’s CFO is the point person for the investor community; instability in that office is a negative signal to ratings agencies we can ill-afford, given that Chicago’s credit rating is perched just above junk status.
Jaworski last year played a major role in the budget drama dominated by a City Council rebellion against the mayor’s insistence on taxing the very jobs provided by the city’s largest private-sector employers. Johnson allowed the budget to become law without his signature, in itself a bad look for investors. Jaworski waved goodbye soon thereafter.
Johnson has yet to land a permanent new CFO. Mahr held the job on an interim basis for just six months. Brendan White, who has worked for the city for nine years helping with bond issuances, becomes the new acting CFO. Let’s hope he makes it to the end of Johnson’s term in May. We’re not sure what the Kalshi odds would be on that.
Mahr’s sudden departure doesn’t reflect well on Team Johnson, which has been more of a revolving door than most. Recent exits of the highly regarded have included Health Commissioner Dr. Olusimbo Ige, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Garien Gatewood, and, of course, Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling, whose last day was July 15.
You may be wondering if this level of turnover normal for mayoral administrations. It’s not.
Whatever your opinion of Lori Lightfoot’s single term, her finance team was excellent. And all of them — Budget Director Susie Park, Chief Financial Officer Jennie Bennett and Comptroller Reshma Soni — were there until the end of the term, giving the inexperienced Johnson a solid head start on his first budget.
So far, Johnson has churned through two CFOs and one comptroller. His initial comptroller, Chasse Rehwinkel, left in January 2025 to become president of Chicago’s Devon Bank. The one constant on the team has been Budget Director Annette Guzman, who 19th Ward Ald. Matt O’Shea, a Johnson critic, told the Sun-Times “doesn’t play well with others in the sandbox.”
“We need a budget director, a comptroller and a chief financial officer working together,” O’Shea added.
We surely do. Mahr’s departure only emphasizes just how badly Johnson’s team is limping toward the end of a four-year term that feels longer.
One of the most important jobs for a mayor is hiring quality folks and, just as importantly, retaining them. If Johnson chooses to run for reelection, voters should consider his record on this score.