Will departures of some of Mayor Brandon Johnson's top aides loom over his re-election bid?
Big names continue to leave Mayor Brandon Johnson's administration, with his chief legal counsel announcing her retirement this week. Analysts said the wave of departures at City Hall is problematic.
When questions turned to "is this legal" – whether it's social media taxes or lawsuits by the inspector general about hiring practices, Johnson turned to Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry.
She had served as the city's top attorney since Johnson took office in 2023, but she's now the 10th top Johnson aide to step down or be fired since the start of the year.
Other prominent exits from the Johnson administration include Police Supt. Larry Snelling, Budget Director Annette Guzman, Chief Financial Officer Jill Jaworski, and Public Health Commissioner Olusimbo Ige. Jaworski's temporary replacement, acting CFO Steven Mahr, stepped down after only five months on the job.
CBS News Chicago asked a pair of political experts what's going on.
"It speaks more to the administration. It's organizational when you have so many people, and people of competence, that exit after a short stay, and that is problematic," Hairston said.
Could the resignations from Johnson's administration hang over his re-election campaign?
"That's the first thing that comes to mind to me is that people are going to leave as opposed to being fired, and they want to leave on their own terms. That's how it comes across, that there is a drumbeat going over there that this may not work out the way it did last time, so let's start looking for the next chapter in our lives," said former Illinois House Minority Leader Jim Durkin.
Also this week on "The Angle," in his first interview, new Chicago Inspector General Dave Glockner talks about what he's looking for as he takes over as the city's independent watchdog looking for waste or fraud in city government.
"We've not done a lot of work in recent years on the city's procurement processes. So, where are there opportunities to tighten up those processes? Are there weaknesses in procurement processes that could allow people to exploit them or result in waste?" he said.
The inspector general in the past has exposed O'Hare International Airport workers drinking on the job, and city employees scamming COVID dollars. The office also forced the mayor to open up his so called "gift closet" to the public.
Glockner said he is zeroing in on the city's auto pounds, the city rat problem, and hiring practices inside the Chicago Fire Department.
You can see Glockner's interview and more of Durkin's and Hairston's analysis of the departures from Johnson's cabinet on "The Angle" at 7:30 a.m. on CBS News Chicago.
