Mayor Brandon Johnson on Monday blamed his office’s handling of harassment complaints against his former communications director on what he described as a flawed disciplinary process he inherited at City Hall.
In his first remarks to reporters since the Tribune reported on Ronnie Reese’s alleged behavior last week, the mayor said he did not know about the allegations against Reese until his office received a Freedom of Information Act request for a copy of Reese’s City Hall personnel file.
And Johnson said his administration has no tolerance for the kind of harassment, sexism, racism or other abusive behavior several employees in his administration allege Reese engaged in while running the mayor’s press office. He deflected questions on how the documents also show frustration over how his chief of staff, Cristina Pacione-Zayas, suggested “peace circles” in response to concerns over Reese’s behavior, and did not say how often such remedies are considered.
“The information that was disclosed as it relates to the FOIA request was the first that we’re hearing of those allegations,” Johnson said when asked about Pacione-Zayas’s response to the complaints. “There is a process that has been established long before I got here, that we inherited. And in this particular instance, it’s very clear that the system that I inherited established a process that did not provide full disclosure of everything that was in that personnel file until there was a FOIA request.”
The Tribune requested a FOIA for Reese’s personnel file on Oct. 25 after City Hall moved to dismiss him. Johnson’s office released records last week of three internal complaints against Reese that alleged behavior ranging from unwanted physical contact to making disparaging comments about marginalized groups and intimidation tactics.
Johnson on Monday also acknowledged the slow pace for two of Reese’s ex-employees to get off the city’s Do Not Hire list — a change made official last week, after the Tribune’s reporting on Reese’s personnel file. But the mayor’s assistant corporation counsel, Jeffrey Levine, defended how the city has managed the list, which is traditionally reserved for ex-employees accused of serious crimes and misconduct.
“The Department of Human Resources has a detailed and comprehensive policy that governs placement on the Do Not Hire list, that governs removal from that list, that governs a process whereby new information can be provided and received and considered and whereby appeals can be made from decisions of the city,” Levine told reporters. “And that process and that policy is currently playing itself out, and I think it is comprehensive and covers a variety of situations.”
Former press office staffers Dora Meza and Azhley Rodriguez were given notice Friday that they were removed from the Do Not Hire list, according to letters sent by DHR. They were two of Reese’s employees who were fired in August 2023 after complaining about how Reese and Johnson senior adviser Jason Lee treated them, and had been banned from future city employment ever since.
In Monday statements to the Tribune, Meza and Rodriguez said they were relieved but demanded reforms on how the list will be utilized in the future.
“Finally. It’s been long overdue,” Rodriguez wrote. “I hope the city reconsiders their procedure when placing people on the ineligible for rehire. Nobody should have to go through the unfair treatment my colleagues and I did and then be further punished with the DNH. It’s not right.”
Josué Ortiz, another ex-staffer of Reese’s, was placed on the Do Not Hire list at the same time but successfully petitioned to be removed this April. Another press aide, Summer Hoagland-Abernathy, said she was fired at the same time and did not receive the official letter stating she won her appeal to be removed until December 2023.
In a phone interview Monday, Hoagland-Abernathy said she remains unemployed since being fired and that being stuck on the Do Not Hire list for several months “really wrecked my confidence.”
“We have been talking about Ronnie’s misogynistic behavior since probably the spring or summer that he came on,” Hoagland-Abernathy said. “The mayor’s office needs to be a little bit more aware and/or willing to bring justice to the people that are being discriminated against within the office.”
Asked Monday why that first batch of complaints against Reese in 2023 — which the Tribune reported on in January — was not enough to take action against him, the mayor said “Every single employee has constant review.”
“Every employee does. There are regular check-ins that happen to gain a better understanding of what’s working in departments and what’s not working in departments,” Johnson said.
Members of City Council are also itching to reign in use of the Do Not Hire list. Johnson’s appointed Ethics Committee chair, Ald. Matt Martin, 47th, told the Tribune on Monday he plans to hold a hearing early next year on the process of getting on the list and whether changes need to be made.
Ald. Gilbert Villegas, 36th, who hired Ortiz in his aldermanic office after he got off the Do Not Hire list, called for an audit of all remaining ex-employees on the list. “It’s unfortunate that it took the cover-up of the actions of Ronnie Reese to get to this point. … Given the fact that it was abused, we need to put some guardrails around this,” Villegas said.
As for whether Johnson believes the accusations against Reese, who was a longtime friend of the mayor’s and served as press secretary of his 2023 mayoral campaign and for the Chicago Teachers Union, the mayor repeated that he could not comment on personnel matters.
“There are allegations that have been brought to an individual,” Johnson said. “I’m not in a position and nor will I succumb to litigating anything that is ongoing publicly. What I can say is this: I can speak for Brandon Johnson that I do not tolerate antisemitic, misogynistic, sexist, racist, xenophobia, anti-Blackness, anti-immigrant behavior. I don’t. That’s not how I was raised.”
Johnson’s reaction to the ongoing fallout over Reese came the same day he presided over a mandatory public hearing on his 2025 budget plan — one that remains in flux and is sure to change before a final City Council vote.
Most recently, the mayor’s team has been pushing aldermen to accept a property tax hike between $60 million and $70 million, a source close to the mayor said. The mayor first floated a $300 million property tax hike in late October but lowered that amount to $150 million after a unanimous vote by aldermen.
Meanwhile, the budget gap Johnson and aldermen must close has widened since his last proposal.
Pressure from aldermen has already led Budget Committee Chair Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th, to say Johnson’s proposed $10.6 million liquor tax is off the table. Johnson also promised to re-add 162 vacant positions tied to the federal consent decree to the Police Department after pushback from Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, a move aldermen estimate will cost over $10 million. An unexpected Springfield switch-up to taxes on prepaid phones will cost the city another $37 million, according to Budget Director Annette Guzman.
The mayor on Monday again rejected workforce cuts such as layoffs as a potential budget-balancer. He praised two revenue-raising ideas proposed by aldermen — a tax on hemp products and changes to the city’s grocery bag tax — but declined to share a full recommendation.
“The people of Chicago don’t want cuts to services. I can tell you that emphatically,” Johnson said, a line he has returned to repeatedly this fall as budget negotiations have dragged on.
