Mayor Brandon Johnson refuses to fire top advisor as recommended by city's inspector general
The city's top watchdog has recommended Mayor Brandon Johnson's right-hand man, senior adviser Jason Lee, be fired for failing to cooperate with a misconduct investigation, but the mayor is standing by his top aide.
About two years ago, Ald. Bill Conway (34th) filed a complaint with Inspector General Deborah Witzburg, accusing Lee of threatening to withhold public safety services unless Conway supported key pieces of the mayor's agenda – an increase in the real estate transfer tax on properties valued at more than $1 million, and an end to the lower minimum wage for tipped workers.
Conway was seeking to have the city remove a homeless encampment near Union Station and Ogilvie Transportation Center removed, as it had become a problem for violent crime and drugs in his ward. The alderman said Lee told him he'd get that help, but only in exchange for his vote.
"Mr. Lee took me back into the coat room [outside City Council Chambers] and he said they would help me with this problem as long as I voted to raise the real estate transfer tax on the working families of this city and raise the tip credit. And once I didn't do those things, a cleanout was cancelled of this viaduct, and that was unfortunate," Conway said. "Says all you need to know about his involvement and the extortion that was committed upon me for public safety services."
His complaint made it into the latest quarterly report from Witzburg's office. The inspector general's office report doesn't identify Lee by name, but Witzburg said the subject of the investigation, like all city employees, is "obligated by law to cooperate with the work of the office of the inspector general."
Her office recommended Lee be terminated and placed on the no-hire list for failing to cooperate with its investigation.
"Only once there was a prospect of discipline or in fact termination from a city job did the subject's attorney reach out to us," Witzburg said.
The inspector general said the subject's attorney told them "that they had intended to reach out sooner," but that is not sufficient.
"If you get pulled over for speeding, you don't get to tell the police officer that you meant to slow down before you got there," she said.
Lee is still working out of City Hall.
"Political horse-trading is a real thing, but we don't get to hold public safety services hostage to achieve mayoral policy priorities," Witzburg said.
Lee said he made multiple attempts to cooperate with the inspector general's investigation, some of which are documented in the report. He said when he requested to have private counsel with him during an interview, the inspector general rejected his attorney's participation.
Lee also said the inspector general's report did not find any evidence of wrongdoing in regards to Conway's initial complaint, but the inspector general would counter that they were unable to reach a conclusion due to his lack of cooperation.
The mayor's office responded to Witzburg's report by saying, in part, that the investigation "found no evidence of any wrongdoing or misconduct of any kind," and that the inspector general "recommended termination of the staffer based on the alleged non-compliance of the staffer with an interview request."
Johnson's office said Lee requested to have an attorney from the city's Law Department or a private attorney present during any interview with the inspector general's office.
"In direct contravention of applicable law, the OIG deemed the staffer's request for counsel as non-cooperation and refused to proceed with the staffer's interview. There is no justification for imposing discipline on a staffer who has engaged in no wrongdoing and who merely asserted their right to counsel," the mayor's office said in a statement. "A review of the correspondence shows the staffer made multiple good-faith attempts as soon as they were contacted by the OIG, in concert with their legal counsel, to comply with the investigation."
The mayor's office said the inspector general's decision not to proceed with an interview of Lee after he asked to have an attorney present "had no legal justification," so the mayor decided not to fire Lee.
The inspector general's report said, while Lee's attorney claimed to have contacted them about his intention to cooperate with their investigation before they provided their findings to the mayor's office, they could find no records indicating the attorney had emailed them, and the inspector general's office didn't receive any communication from the attorney until after the recommendation was made to fire Lee.
The mayor's office's full statement is below:
The OIG opened an investigation into a mayoral staffer based on alleged improper communication with an alderperson. Through the course of a more than seventeen-month-long investigation, the OIG interviewed numerous staffers and alleged witnesses and sent and received multiple interrogatories. Despite this considerable expenditure of investigative resources, the OIG found no evidence of any wrongdoing or misconduct of any kind.
However, the OIG recommended termination of the staffer based on the alleged non-compliance of the staffer with an interview request. The staffer requested that an attorney representing the City or their personal attorney be present during the interview. In direct contravention of applicable law, the OIG deemed the staffer's request for counsel as non-cooperation and refused to proceed with the staffer's interview. There is no justification for imposing discipline on a staffer who has engaged in no wrongdoing and who merely asserted their right to counsel.
A review of the correspondence shows the staffer made multiple good-faith attempts as soon as they were contacted by the OIG, in concert with their legal counsel, to comply with the investigation. The OIG's refusal to proceed with the interview had no legal justification. Therefore, the decision was made to decline the recommendation of the OIG in this case.