Aldermen on Tuesday criticized Mayor Brandon Johnson’s dealing with of allegations of workers abuse and known as on him to alter the foundations governing the town’s “don’t rent” record.
Johnson mentioned Monday that he was unaware of the allegations made in opposition to his now-fired communications director, Ronnie Reese, till formal complaints filed in opposition to Reese have been made public and reported by the Tribune final week. But “as a sensible matter,” the mayor ought to have realized of the troubling allegations sooner, Ald. Scott Waguespack mentioned.
“I do not see how the mayor could not have identified this,” Waguespack, a frequent critic of the mayor, mentioned at a information convention outdoors City Hall. “It’s fairly clear to me that the mayor knew, or ought to have identified, and may have executed one thing instantly.”
Texts between Johnson and Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates obtained by the Tribune by a public information request present the mayor making an obvious reference to Reese simply 4 days earlier than Reese obtained notification of his firing.
“Ronnie!” wrote to Davis Gates. “Call me. Message from the Elders.”
Davis Gates responded to the obvious reference to Reese, who beforehand labored along with her and Johnson on the lecturers union, solely with an exclamatory response, in line with a replica of the textual content alternate.
The CTU president mentioned in a telephone name Monday that he was unaware of the allegations in opposition to Reese till the Tribune reported on them.
Its spokesman, B. Loewe, adopted in an announcement: “As President Davis Gates mentioned, there’s nothing extra to this. She did not reply. The that means ought to be requested from the mayor’s workplace.”
The Tribune’s Freedom of Information Act request on the matter was filed on Oct. 25, almost per week after Johnson’s messages to Davis Gates. Why he appeared to have texted her about Reese earlier than then, nevertheless, is one thing the mayor’s workplace has declined to clarify.
At the Tuesday press convention, Waguespack, thirty second, and Ald. Gilbert Villegas, 36, known as on Johnson to alter the foundations governing how somebody might be added to the do-not-hire record allegedly utilized by Reese to dam a number of former workers from future metropolis jobs. One of the complaints made in opposition to Reese accused him of utilizing the record as a weapon to create a tradition of intimidation and concern amongst workers. Records present Reese wrote a memo to the Human Resources Department outlining justifications for putting his former workers on the record in September 2023.
The 4 former press workplace staff included within the record spoke behind the 2 councillors. One of them, Azhley Rodriguez, stood apart and calmly mentioned “no” when a reporter requested if the group believed the mayor was unaware of Reese’s alleged misconduct.
Rodriguez, initially employed by then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot, was fired by the Johnson administration and positioned on the do-not-hire record together with one other press workplace staffer in August 2023 after complaining about how they handled them Reese and Johnson senior advisor Jason Lee. She was by no means advised why she was deemed unfit to take different jobs within the metropolis, she mentioned Tuesday.
The two have been knowledgeable that they had been taken off the record Friday, however not earlier than the daughter of two cops spent greater than a yr blocked from the general public service job she grew up hoping to do, she mentioned.
“It actually taught me that they don’t care,” Rodriguez mentioned.
The do-not-hire record ought to be reserved just for “infamous” misconduct, Villegas mentioned.
“Not simply because you are going to get espresso otherwise you’re not at your desk whenever you come by,” he mentioned, including that these have been the explanations Reese had given for utilizing the designation in paperwork he had reviewed. Villegas efficiently pushed to have Josué Ortiz, one other former Reese staffer, taken off the record earlier than hiring Ortiz earlier this yr.
Reese himself has now been added to the do-not-hire record due to his alleged misconduct, Johnson spokeswoman Erin Connelly mentioned Tuesday.
Later Tuesday, aldermen continued to criticize Johnson’s response to the allegations and alleged misuse of the record throughout a listening to on the Department of Human Resources funds.
When requested in regards to the dealing with of Reese’s allegations, DHR Commissioner Sandra Blakemore mentioned she couldn’t remark.
Ald. Marty Quinn, 13, attacked the Johnson administration by asking whether or not the “peace circles” have been a part of the town’s official response to the alleged misconduct. Johnson’s chief of workers, Cristina Pacione-Zayas, recommended that peace circles involving Reese and his workers be used to resolve complaints after she first realized of among the abuse allegations leveled in opposition to Reese, in line with one of many complaints obtained by the Tribune.
“I do not know what a peace circle is,” Blakemore mentioned. He repeated the response when Ald. Brendan Reilly, forty second, requested the identical query moments later.
Blakemore defended modifications made earlier this yr to the town’s coverage on do-not-hire lists. The modifications require division leaders who place somebody on the record to situation a memo detailing what prompted them to take action, he mentioned.
“This reduces any wayward conduct,” he added.
But Waguespack criticized the change for barring affected former workers from requesting to be faraway from the record for a yr, a transfer he mentioned might open the town to lawsuits “defaming” them. Blakemore mentioned folks erroneously positioned on the record can nonetheless enchantment the designation.
