The Chicago Workplace of Inspector Normal (OIG) advisable the firing of a senior aide to Mayor Brandon Johnson after discovering the aide did not cooperate with an investigation into allegations that they tried to stress a Metropolis Council member to vote for mayoral laws in alternate for metropolis providers. However Johnson rejected that suggestion and continues to maintain senior advisor Jason Lee on town payroll.
In line with the inspector normal’s quarterly report launched Wednesday, the probe started after thirty fourth Ward Ald. Invoice Conway alleged that Lee instructed him metropolis providers may assist take away problematic homeless encampments within the West Loop—if Conway voted in favor of key mayoral initiatives.
After the OIG’s report got here out on Wednesday, Conway tweeted it “appears the fifth Flooring pled the fifth.”
“The Mayor’s Workplace’s lack of cooperation on this investigation and rejection of
@ChicagoOIG suggestions is demoralizing and disregards the transparency and accountability Chicagoans deserve,” the freshman alderman stated.
Conway had been pushing to clear encampments beneath viaducts in his ward that he stated had turn out to be hubs for crime, with police linking them to shootings and drug exercise. Given Lee’s linking of metropolis providers with Conway’s legislative votes, the alderman filed a criticism with the inspector normal.
The OIG stated its investigation couldn’t substantiate whether or not Lee really conditioned public security providers on political assist as a result of Lee refused to cooperate. However the report discovered he violated metropolis personnel guidelines and municipal code provisions requiring workers to help in inspector normal investigations.
OIG stated its investigators first contacted Lee by cellphone in October 2024 to schedule an interview. Lee stated he would name again however didn’t and finally instructed OIG he supposed to have a Division of Regulation lawyer current for his OIG interview. Investigators declined to take part in an interview if metropolis legal professionals have been current and as a substitute despatched written inquiries to Lee in February, in response to OIG.
“OIG didn’t obtain any acknowledgment to its transmission electronic mail or any response by the preliminary deadline,” investigators wrote. “OIG adopted up by voicemail and by electronic mail… and communicated that it could proceed its investigation and doubtlessly contemplate the topic’s failure to reply as a violation of their obligation to cooperate.”
The OIG advisable that the Mayor’s Workplace fireplace Lee and bar him from future metropolis employment, transmitting its report back to the administration on June 30. The Mayor’s Workplace didn’t evaluation the report till late July and requested for extra time to reply, in response to the inspector normal.
Days later, OIG stated it was contacted by a non-public lawyer representing Lee, who claimed to have tried to achieve the workplace weeks earlier to sign cooperation, although the lawyer couldn’t produce any file of contact, the OIG report stated. Investigators declined to reopen the case and reaffirmed their suggestion that Lee be dismissed.
In its formal response, signed by one other senior Johnson aide who participated within the probe, the Mayor’s Workplace rejected the inspector normal’s findings and defended Lee’s conduct. The administration argued that the aide didn’t “willfully impede” the investigation and accused the inspector normal of making “unjustifiable” obstacles by refusing to conduct an interview with a metropolis lawyer current.
The Mayor’s Workplace additionally cited a metropolis legislation that provides the Division of Regulation authority to signify workers in inspector normal interviews, a legislation that didn’t exist till after OIG started its investigation of Lee.
The inspector normal disagreed, noting that the principles in place through the incident clearly required cooperation.
“OIG was unable to collect adequate proof to conclude by a preponderance of the proof whether or not the topic engaged in misconduct associated to the unique allegation,” the report stated.
