OIG report finds Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office improperly blocked access to gift room with Gucci bags, other designer items
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office improperly blocked public access to a City Hall room where they said they store Gucci bags, designer cufflinks and other gifts, according to an investigation by the city’s Office of the Inspector General.
A report released Wednesday by Inspector General Deborah Witzburg found Johnson’s office violated the city’s ethics policy that requires mayors to record gifts above $50 and “accepted on behalf of the City” in a publicly available log maintained on the 5th floor of City Hall. Covert OIG investigators visited the mayor’s office last June but were denied access to the log.
The report says Johnson’s staff refused to hand over the list of gifts and directed the undercover investigators to make a Freedom of Information Act request instead. The mayor’s office then allegedly blew past the deadline to respond and only produced an incomplete list of gifts over a month later after the OIG made an official document request.
“Notably, a response to the FOIA request OIG submitted as a member of the public came only after OIG also issued a compelled document request to the Mayor’s Office seeking the same information,” the report says.
After that, the investigators, no longer undercover, attempted an unannounced inspection of the gift room but were denied entry by the Law Department, which the report notes is a violation of the municipal code that requires all city employees to cooperate with OIG inquiries.
“Ultimately, (the Department of Law) — apparently representing the Mayor in opposition to OIG — communicated that OIG would not be granted access to the Gift Room,” the report says. “OIG was therefore unable to inspect the manner in which gifts are stored, audit the presence of gifts that were purportedly stored in the Gift Room as stated in the gift log, or to review controls around access to the Gift Room.”
Johnson’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday morning. But the report says his chief of staff Cristina Pacione-Zayas responded last week to the OIG’s recommendations by saying the mayor’s office will comply with public reporting requirements on gifts and allow OIG access to the gift room — but only via “properly scheduled appointment.”
The OIG report details various examples of some of the gifts received under Johnson that were stored in the mayor’s gift room: Hugo Boss cufflinks, a personalized Mont Blanc pen, a 2023 U.S. National soccer team jersey, a Gucci tote bag and crossbody bag, a Givenchy Bag, a Kate Spade red purse and a Carucci Size 14 Burgandy men’s shoes.
Some other items were marked as stored in Room 507, believed to be the mayor’s private office, according to the report. Those include a bottle of Uncle Nearest 1856 Premium Aged Whiskey” from April 2022 and clothing from a boxing gear brand received last March.
Most gifts do not list an identity of the gift giver, per the OIG. The soccer jersey did come from a Nike representative, according to the list, while a set of Air Pods, a tote bag and a notepad came from an executive from the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
In total, 360 gifts were logged in the list the OIG requested that spans from February 2022 to March 2024. Of that total, 144 were received under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and 236 under Johnson, with the rest missing a date.
The report ends with recommendations that the mayor’s office comply with disclosure and public inspection requirements surrounding gifts. In her response, Johnson’s chief of staff agreed to some of those conditions.
“This administration has and will continue to comply with all guidance from the Board of Ethics. … Our duty to do so is without objection,” Pacione-Zayas wrote. But she pushed back on the notion that mayoral staffers must allow unannounced inspections: “The Mayor’s Office shall make gifts available for inspection by the OIG as soon as practicable. The (municipal code) does not require the Mayor’s Office to make gifts available for unannounced inspections.”
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