In a not-so-great bit of news for Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, the Inspector General in Chicago released a report on Wednesday, January 29, in which it was revealed that Mayor Johnson had a “gift room” stash of gifts he received and that the gift room was kept in City Hall. The room was full of things like designer handbags, expensive cuff links, and similar items.
The Office of the Inspector General for Chicago announced as much in a stunning report released through its official city website. The report revealed not only that the secretive “gift room” existed, but what sort of expensive luxuries filled it and what dramatic steps the mayor took to keep it hidden from inspectors.
Beginning the report, the Inspector General’s office said, “The City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG) has released an advisory with recommendations to the Mayor’s Office to improve transparency and accountability around gifts accepted “on behalf of the City.” As a general rule, gifts accepted on behalf of the City must be reported to the Board of Ethics (BOE) and the City’s Comptroller, and those reports are publicly available.”
Next, the report noted the shocking way in which gifts were not reported, saying, “Pursuant to a long-running, unwritten arrangement dating back to the administration of Mayor Eugene Sawyer, gifts accepted by the Mayor’s Office on behalf of the City were not reported in this way, but rather were to be logged in a book which would be available for public viewing on the Fifth Floor of City Hall.”
Continuing, and describing how the OIG personnel found out what was inside the room, the report revealed, “OIG visited the Fifth Floor in a covert capacity and asked to see this logbook; that request was denied and undercover OIG personnel were directed to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the log.”
Building on that, the report said, “OIG did so, again in a covert capacity; the Mayor’s Office failed to timely respond, constituting a denial of the FOIA request. Thereafter, OIG sent an official document request for the log, and received a spreadsheet detailing gifts accepted by the Mayor’s Office on behalf of the City.”
Then, describing what sort of gifts were in the secret room, the report said, “The log identified many of those gifts—including Hugo Boss cufflinks; Givenchy, Gucci, and Kate Spade handbags; a personalized Mont Blanc pen; and size 14 men’s shoes—as being stored in a “Gift Room,” and others in the Mayor’s personal office in City Hall. OIG subsequently visited the Fifth Floor to conduct an unannounced inspection of the Gift Room, and was denied access.”
