Mayor Brandon Johnson on Monday attributed his workplace’s dealing with of harassment complaints towards his former communications director to what he described as a flawed disciplinary course of he inherited at City Hall.
In his first remarks to reporters because the Tribune reported on Ronnie Reese’s alleged habits final week, the mayor stated he was unaware of the allegations towards Reese till his workplace acquired a Freedom of Information Act request for a duplicate of Reese’s personnel file at City Hall.
And Johnson stated his administration doesn’t tolerate the form of harassment, sexism, racism or different abusive habits that a number of staff of his administration allege Reese engaged in whereas working the mayor’s press workplace. He deflected questions on how the paperwork additionally present frustration with the best way his chief of employees, Cristina Pacione-Zayas, urged “peace circles” in response to considerations about Reese’s habits, and didn’t say how usually such cures are thought of.
“The info disclosed in reference to the FOIA request was the primary we had heard of such allegations,” Johnson stated when requested about Pacione-Zayas’ response to the complaints. “There’s a course of that was established lengthy earlier than I acquired right here, that we inherited. And on this specific case, it is vitally clear that the system that I inherited established a course of that didn’t present full disclosure of every thing in that personnel file till a FOIA request got here in.”
The Tribune requested a FOIA for Reese’s personnel file on Oct. 25 after City Hall moved to fireside him. Johnson’s workplace launched paperwork final week from three inside complaints towards Reese alleging habits starting from undesirable bodily contact to creating disparaging feedback about marginalized teams and intimidation techniques.
Johnson additionally acknowledged Monday the sluggish tempo of eradicating two former Reese staff from town’s do-not-hire checklist — a change made official final week, after the Tribune’s reporting on Reese’s personnel file. But the mayor’s authorized assistant, Jeffrey Levine, defended town’s dealing with of the checklist, which is historically reserved for former staff accused of significant crimes and misconduct.
“The Department of Human Resources has an in depth and complete coverage governing placement on the do-not-hire checklist, governing removing from that checklist, governing a course of by which new info could also be offered, acquired and considered and thru which metropolis selections will be appealed,” Levine advised reporters. “And that course of and that coverage is presently unfolding, and I believe it is world and covers quite a lot of conditions.”
Former press workplace staff Dora Meza and Azhley Rodriguez have been notified Friday that that they had been faraway from the do-not-hire checklist, in accordance with letters despatched by DHR. They have been two Reese staff who have been fired in August 2023 after complaining about how Reese and Johnson senior advisor Jason Lee handled them, and had since been banned from future employment within the metropolis.
In statements Monday to the Tribune, Meza and Rodriguez stated they have been relieved however known as for reforms in how the checklist will likely be used sooner or later.
“Finally. It’s lengthy overdue,” Rodriguez wrote. “I hope town reconsiders its course of when itemizing folks as ineligible for rehire. No one ought to must undergo the unfair therapy my colleagues and I’ve meted out after which to be additional punished with DNH is true.”
Josué Ortiz, one other former Reese staffer, was positioned on the Do Not Hire checklist on the identical time, however efficiently petitioned to be eliminated this April. Another press aide, Summer Hoagland-Abernathy, stated she was fired on the identical time and didn’t obtain the official letter saying she had received her enchantment to be eliminated till December 2023.
In a cellphone interview Monday, Hoagland-Abernathy stated she had been unemployed since being fired and that being caught on the do-not-hire checklist for a number of months “actually destroyed my confidence.”
“We’ve been speaking about Ronnie’s misogynistic habits in all probability because the spring or summer time he arrived,” Hoagland-Abernathy stated. “The mayor’s workplace must be a bit extra conscious and/or keen to deliver justice to people who find themselves being discriminated towards inside the workplace.”
Asked Monday why the primary spherical of complaints towards Reese in 2023 — which the Tribune reported on in January — weren’t sufficient to take motion towards him, the mayor responded: “Every single worker is underneath fixed evaluate.”
“Every worker does it. There are common check-ins to realize a greater understanding of what’s and is not working in departments,” Johnson stated.
City Council members are additionally wanting to reign in using the Do Not Hire checklist. The chairman of the Johnson-appointed ethics committee, Ald. Matt Martin, 47, advised the Tribune on Monday that he plans to carry a listening to early subsequent yr on the itemizing course of and whether or not modifications must be made.
Ald. Gilbert Villegas, 36, who employed Ortiz into his aldermanic workplace after he got here off the do-not-hire checklist, known as for an audit of all former staff remaining on the checklist. “It is unlucky that it took a cover-up of Ronnie Reese’s actions to get thus far. … Since it has been abused, we have to put limitations round it,” Villegas stated.
As for whether or not Johnson believes the allegations towards Reese, who was a longtime pal of the mayor and served as press secretary on his 2023 marketing campaign and for the Chicago Teachers Union, the mayor reiterated that he couldn’t touch upon issues regarding employees.
“There are costs which have been introduced towards a person,” Johnson stated. “I’m not within the place and won’t succumb to no matter is occurring publicly. What I can say is that this: I can converse for Brandon Johnson that I don’t tolerate anti-Semitic, misogynistic, sexist, racist, xenophobic, anti-Blackness, and anti-immigrant habits. I do not. That’s not how I used to be raised.
Johnson’s response to the continuing fallout from Reese got here the identical day he presided over a compulsory public listening to on his 2025 funds plan — a plan that is still in flux and is bound to alter earlier than the City Council’s remaining vote .
More lately, the mayor’s group pushed aldermen to simply accept a property tax improve of between $60 million and $70 million, a supply near the mayor stated. The mayor initially proposed a $300 million property tax improve in late October, however lowered the quantity to $150 million after a unanimous vote by aldermen.
Meanwhile, the funds hole that Johnson and councilors must fill has widened since his final proposal.
The stress from the councilors has already led the president of the Budget fee Ald. Jason Ervin, twenty eighth, says Johnson’s proposed $10.6 million liquor tax is off the desk. Johnson additionally promised to re-add 162 federal consent decree-related vacancies to the police division after Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s rejection, a transfer aldermen estimate will price greater than $10 million. An surprising shift in Springfield towards pay as you go cellphone taxes will price town one other $37 million, in accordance with Budget Director Annette Guzman.
The mayor on Monday once more dismissed workforce cuts comparable to layoffs as a possible funds balancer. He praised two revenue-raising concepts proposed by aldermen — a tax on hemp merchandise and modifications to town’s grocery bag tax — however declined to share a full suggestion.
“The folks of Chicago don’t desire service cuts. I can let you know that emphatically,” Johnson stated, a line he returned to repeatedly this fall as funds negotiations dragged on.
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