Chicago lobbyists escape punishment for improper donations to Mayor Johnson’s campaign

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times file

Chicago’s Board of Ethics this week said it can’t take more serious action against four lobbyists who improperly donated to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s political committee, saying it lacks the authority to enforce a decade-old executive order meant to curb such contributions.

At issue is former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s 2011 executive order that bars lobbyists from contributing to a mayor’s political committee. The order, signed the day Emanuel took office, was an effort to break from past pay-to-play city politics and directed the Board of Ethics to not accept “registration statements” from lobbyists who violate the rule, which could prohibit their lobbying in Chicago.

The Board of Ethics says it found probable cause that four lobbyists had violated the order when they contributed to Johnson’s political committee, but asked for a legal opinion about whether it could enforce Emanuel’s order. An outside law firm found the board can’t, saying the enforcement language isn’t codified in statute. Enforcing the order “exceeds the limits of the mayor’s, and the Board’s, authority,” read the opinion by Bethany Biesenthal with the Jones Day law firm.

As a result, the board voted on Monday unanimously to dismiss the cases against the four lobbyists.

It’s the first time the Board of Ethics has been confronted with trying to enforce the order since it was issued, Ethics Board Executive Director Steve Berlin said. The board is now recommending Johnson and the City Council amend the city’s governmental ethics ordinance to ensure the board can enforce the executive order.

One lobbyist whose case was dismissed, former longtime 49th Ward Ald. Joe Moore, said he was pleased to see the board follow the legal opinion, and he cast blame on Johnson for the error.

“This mayor is not enforcing his own executive orders,” Moore said. “So even if they had jurisdiction, they probably would have been unjust to punish me for an order that even the mayor is not following.”

Ald. Matt Martin, chair of the City Council’s Committee on Ethics and Government Oversight, said he plans to work with the board and the mayor’s office to ensure that “we’re sending a clear signal to residents across the city that we take misconduct very seriously.”

“I am surprised that this is the first time it came up. Would it have been great if this had been flagged earlier on, say, when the executive order was being drafted? Sure, but it wasn’t,” Martin said. “And we’ll just figure out how to move forward.”

Spokesmen for Johnson and his political campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday afternoon.

It’s not the first time Johnson’s political committee has run afoul of ethics rules. Earlier this year, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Johnson’s campaign returned dozens of contributions totaling more than $50,000 after accepting donations from city contractors — which another Emanuel executive order bars. Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot also returned tens of thousands of dollars in contributions she received from a lobbyist.

Johnson has been slower to spearhead ethics reforms compared to his predecessors. Emanuel’s executive order barring lobbyist contributions was signed on his first day in office, while Lightfoot, who was propelled to office on a campaign of transparency, quickly passed reforms in her first months in office. Lightfoot later faced an ethics board complaint for her campaign’s solicitation of city employees for campaign volunteers — which the board also dismissed.

Martin said he plans to prioritize strengthening the ethics rule.

“I certainly don’t want to sit on this,” Martin said. “I think it’s important that we get it right.”

Rich Hein / Sun-Times

The Board does not identify the subjects of its confidential proceedings, but a review of campaign finance and lobbyist contribution data show five lobbyists had donated to Johnson’s political committee after he was sworn-in as mayor last year, some of which were previously reported by The Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times.

Johnson’s political committee received $2,000 from Anthony Bruno, a consultant previously convicted of tax fraud; $1,500 from Michael Cassidy, the founder of Zephyr Government Strategies; $250 from John Dunn, who now works for Cozen O’Connor and previously served as Mayor Richard M. Daley’s director of intergovernmental affairs; and $250 from Moore. Bruno, Dunn and Cassidy did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for Johnson’s campaign previously told the Chicago Tribune those four donations had been returned.

Reyahd Kazmi, the husband of City Clerk Anna Valencia and founder of Kazmi Advisors, also contributed $1,327 to the committee, according to city data on lobbyist contributions — although the amount is not reflected in campaign finance reports. A representative for Kazmi Advisors said the firm provided refreshments for a campaign event for Johnson, “only after his campaign advised it was a permissible in-kind donation.”

“Later, after advising with legal counsel, we requested those funds be returned and they were,” the statement said.

Moore was fined the minimum $500 for failing to report the $250 donation as required under the city’s ethics ordinance. But a separate case for violating the executive order was dismissed.

Moore called the $250 donation, which he said has since been refunded, a “mistake.” He said he wasn’t aware Emanuel’s order applied to Johnson, and he noted Johnson’s campaign initially deposited the check.

A donation page on Johnson’s campaign website notes that people doing business with the city are limited to $1,500 in contributions, but it is silent on the executive order barring contributions from lobbyists altogether.

Bryan Zarou, director of policy for the transparency and open government nonprofit, The Better Government Association, said while the ambiguity around the law is a factor, “the administration should either resolve it or not accept the money in the first place.”

The legal opinion affirmed Emanuel’s order remains in place, and Zarou said it could either be modified or revoked entirely under a new executive order issued by Johnson, or the City Council could pass new language to supersede the executive order.

Berlin said they’re still working out the specific recommended language, including whether a lobbyist would have their registration revoked on first violation or whether fines that ramped up to that enforcement would be included.

Asked if the Board would have rescinded or refused to accept future lobbyist registrations from the lobbyists in question, Berlin said, “the Board would follow the letter of the law, and, if the substantive prohibitions in this Executive Order are codified into law, the Board will follow it.”

Moore said he hopes the board considers fines before lobbyists would be stripped outright of their registration.

“I hope that whatever punishment they decide would be clearly spelled out,” Moore said. “Robbing one of their livelihood for an innocent mistake is clearly a draconian punishment.”

Tessa Weinberg covers Chicago government and politics for WBEZ.