Hundreds of valuable gifts not properly reported by mayor’s office, access blocked to room, inspector general says
by: Andy Koval, Dana Rebik
CHICAGO — Chicago mayors Brandon Johnson and Lori Lightfoot allegedly did not properly report hundreds of gifts and the inspector general’s office is recommending an overhaul to an unwritten agreement dating back to the late 80s.
The IG report, released Wednesday, has to do with city employees being tasked with reporting gifts to the Board of Ethics and the city’s comptroller.
The inspector general’s office claims hundreds of valuable gifts, dating from Feb. 1, 2022 through March 31, 2024, were accepted by Lori Lightfoot and Brandon Johnson without properly reporting them.
WGN News spoke with Inspector General Debra Witzburg and she believes the practice of not reporting gifts by the mayor’s office, which were accepted on behalf of Chicago and not the each mayor, dates back to the late 80s.
While the aforementioned rule for city employees has been in place for a longtime, Witzburg believes an “unwritten arrangement” dating back to Eugene Sawyer’s administration allowed mayors to not report gifts to the Board of Ethics.
Instead, the arrangement advised mayors the gifts could be recorded in a public logbook maintained on the fifth floor of City Hall.
“We did not look into practices of other administrations but that is our understanding that this dates back to the Sawyer administration,” Witzburg said. “It appears to me that his has been going to for decades.”
Witzburg said her office found out due to “some investigative work” and went to City Hall covertly in an attempt to request access to the gift log.
Members of her office were denied access to the gift log and were directed to submit a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for it, according to Witzburg. Her office claims the mayor’s office did not respond to the FOIA request in an appropriate time manner, which they took as a denial.
They then sent an official letter for the gift log and then received it.
“Perhaps an enormous understatement, but it struck us that there was some accountability challenges with this,” she said.
From the aforementioned time of Feb. 2022 to March 2024, 144 gift entries were in Mayor Lightfoot’s log and 236 entries were in Mayor Johnson’s log. According to the OIG, the spreadsheet gift log included the following.
- “Hugo Boss cuff links” from June 12, 2023
- “Personalized Mont Blanc pen” from June 12, 2023
- “2023 U.S. National Soccer Team Jersey” from June 16, 2023
- “Airpods, tote bag, notepad” from October 3, 2023
- “Gucci Tote bag and crossbody bag” from March 18, 2024
- “Givenchy Bag, Kate Spade Red Purse, Carrucci Size 14 Burgandy Men’s Shoes” from
March 19, 2024
The logs included space to record information about each gift received. The OIG office said they included the date the gift was received, gift description, location of the gift and information about the gift giver. However, Witzburg claims that almost 70% of logs the did not list the identity of the gift giver.
That’s something that alarmed Witzburg.“We would want to know if there are lobbyists, people who want city business,” she said. “It makes people assume the worst.”
A lot of the gifts were supposedly being stored in the “gift room.” However in the logs, nearly 75% of former Mayor Lightfoot’s gifts accepted did not list a location. Mayor Johnson did not list locations for 12% of the gifts, according to Witzburg’s office.
Other items were marked being located in Room 507, which Witzburg believes is the mayor’s private office. For many items the storage location is unclear, according to her office.
In November of last year, OIG in an official capacity visited the mayor’s office and requested access to the gift room.
Witzburg told WGN News that the mayor’s office, citing corporate counsel, did not let them view the room and said an appointment must be made to visit it.
OIG had further conversations with the Department of Law and they further stated that Witzburg’s office would not be able to see the gift room.
“These are gifts that have been reportedly accepted on behalf of the city, not gifts to the mayor personally,” Witzburg said. “It’s hard to imagine what that means if Chicagoans aren’t allowed access to them. Questions like ‘what it means in the first place to take size 14 shoes on behalf of the city?'”
In a letter sent to the mayor’s office, OIG’s office is recommending that the office comply with gift requirements and make any gifts accepted on behalf of the city available for inspection, announced or unannounced.
In a response letter, Mayor Johnson’s chief of staff claimed that the administration “has and will continue to comply with all guidance from the Board of ethics related to MCC § 2-156-142. Our duty is to do so without objection.”
They also said they will make gifts available for inspection “as soon as practicable.” The administration claimed the rule does not require the mayor’s office to make gifts available for unannounced inspections, but they remain “fully committed to ensuring that gifts are available for inspection through a properly scheduled appointment at the earliest practicable time.”
“Without the ability to inspect the gift room, it’s impossible for the public to know what is happening,” Witzburg said. “Valuable gifts are being exchanged behind closed doors.”
Former Mayor Lightfoot denied the claims in a short statement.
“Per guidance provided by the City of Chicago Board of Ethics, the Lightfoot administration complied with standard gift reporting procedures, as followed by mayoral administrations over several previous decades,” a spokesperson for Lightfoot said.
The full report is below.
WGN News reached out to the mayor’s office for comment.
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