Chicago cops blocked metropolis inspectors from getting into a curious “Gift Room” full of designer luggage, Hugo Boss cufflinks, a customized Mont Blanc pen and different ritzy goodies that had been accepted by Mayor Brandon Johnson, in response to a bombshell report.
The trove of dear giveaways are a part of an “unwritten arrangement” that dates again 35 years, during which mayors can simply write down items they obtained in a logbook and retailer a few of them on the fifth ground of Metropolis Corridor as an alternative of reporting them to the Board of Ethics, in response to the Workplace of Inspector Normal.
However the brand new report issued Wednesday outlines the quite a few occasions investigators had been rebuffed from studying extra concerning the 236 items given to Johnson “on behalf of the city” since he took workplace.
An investigator initially posed as a member of the general public to request the present log whereas visiting Metropolis Corridor final yr, however was turned down and compelled to formally make a request.
The covert official then filed the paperwork, however was ignored. Ultimately, the mayor’s workplace handed over the data after the inspector basic made the official request for all items given between Feb. 2022 when Lori Lightfoot was in workplace and March 20, 2024.
The log had incomplete info, however nonetheless listed tons of of luxurious presents, together with the cuff hyperlinks, Mont Blanc pen, luggage and purses from Gucci, Kate Spade, and Givenchy and Carrucci burgundy footwear which might be a males’s measurement 14.
When OIG officers requested entry to take a look at the room, they had been met by Chicago cops who informed them to attend within the elevator foyer, in response to the report.
After wrangling between OIG and the mayor’s workplace, inspectors had been informed they might not get contained in the room, the report states.
“Following that denial, OIG engaged in further conversations with the Department of Law (DOL) regarding access to the gift room,” the report states. “Ultimately, DOL – apparently representing the Mayor in opposition to OIG – communicated that OIG would not be granted access to the Gift Room.”
Different objects gave the impression to be positioned within the mayor’s workplace, in addition to different elements of Metropolis Corridor, the report claims.
The mayor’s workplace informed the inspector basic in a memo final week forward of the report being issued that officers might go to the present room “through a properly scheduled appointment at the earliest practicable time.”
The mealy-mouth supply didn’t cease Inspector Normal Deborah Witzburg from slamming metropolis management.
“When gifts are changing hands—perhaps literally—in a windowless room in City Hall, there is no opportunity for oversight and public scrutiny of the propriety of such gifts, the identities and intentions of the gift-givers, or what it means for gifts like whiskey, jewelry, handbags, and size 14 men’s shoes to be accepted “on behalf of the City,” the inspector basic workplace wrote in its report.
