How long has Mayor Johnson known about alleged misconduct by ex-communications director?

Given the nature and volume of complaints made against his just recently terminated communications director, it seems almost impossible that Mayor Brandon Johnson had not been aware of Ronnie Reese’s alleged toxic behavior more than a year ago ("Johnson's ex-communications director faced misconduct complaints before firing").

If the mayor was not aware, he certainly should have been.

Reese had workplace authority over women who made complaints, and these allegations sound like a textbook example of sexual harassment for which taxpayers may ultimately pay a civil settlement or judgment.

Given the number and nature of complaints made, as well as Reese being a close friend of Johnson’s, it begs the question as to why there was so much patience with Reese’s reported reprehensible behavior.

Indeed, extensive, detailed information was provided by the employees purportedly being victimized by Reese.

It defies logic to believe Johnson was not aware of his close friend’s alleged history of sexual harassment, homophobia and xenophobia. The mayor’s failure to take action against the reported workplace hostility is deeply concerning.

Terry Takash, Western Springs

Chicagoans pay dearly for political corruption

Considering all the taxes we pay as Chicagoans, you may rightly wonder where the money is going and why Chicago has a $1 billion deficit. I know where the money is, and after you rest for a moment from paying all the taxes, you will know, too.

As a lifelong Chicagoan, every time I read about the deficit, I am disgusted. In the Sun-Times, we read about former politician Michael Madigan, who made a lifelong career and art out of quid pro quo. We read about former Ald. Ed Burke, another public "servant" who used his position to fleece the city.

Over many years, I’ve read about too many Chicago white-collar crooks who’ve rampantly taken funds from our city. These funds are never recovered, and our taxes unfairly continue to go up.

The burden of constant corruption in Chicago is the big drain on all of us that is never addressed adequately, and so it grows. In 2023, for the fourth year in a row, according to a report from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago was the most corrupt city in the nation.

Chicagoans are forced to pay for that corruption at the gas pump, grocery store, on our cars and transportation, and with high property taxes. While crime runs rampant in our city and taxes are taken from every source, the city always needs more money, and Chicago taxpayers are the victims.

Chicagoans pay high taxes for road work on Chicago streets that often is not done right the first time, so it must be done again using the same contractor.

We pay high taxes for city workers who should be fired for not doing their jobs, but it’s very difficult to fire them, even if they should have been fired years ago.

We pay high taxes because four in 10 Chicago Public School educators are “chronically absent” (which translates to four in 10 not doing their job when yearly pay for Chicago educators is way above the national average), but CPS standardized test scores are still down, according to the Illinois report card. However, the Chicago Teachers Union is threatening to strike.

Now Mayor Johnson wants to raise property taxes, which he promised he would not do when he ran for mayor. How can Chicagoans avoid being hit with yet more taxes, since corruption is not going away, and campaign promises mean nothing? Moving out of state is the only option we have, and thousands are doing just that.

Jean Scott, Irving Park

Put pension amendment on ballot

“Short-sighted decisions have had serious long-term consequences,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said during his annual budget address.

He’s right. But is he listening?

Chicago has been bound by decade-long deals that have been disastrous for the city budget. Yet, Chicago is on its way to making three more mistakes that will hit residents for years to come.

First, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson wants to give away billions of dollars — that the city doesn’t have — to help build new stadiums for the Chicago Bears and the White Sox. The city is still paying off decades of debt from the last renovations that are historically poor investments.

As lovely as new lakefront stadiums would be, taxpayers should not pay for them. Other private companies — like the Cubs and Google — support infrastructure projects without leaning on taxpayers. Chicago must say “no” to taxpayer-funded stadiums.

Another pending, long-term financial misstep would be City Hall skipping an extra pension payment to help balance the deficit.

Relying on one-off payments to address a structural budget problem might work once, but it won’t address future deficits. It’ll likely worsen the city’s pension crisis; as the debt grows, the city’s credit, public workers’ retirement security and taxpayers’ wallets are increasingly at risk.

The only meaningful way to solve Chicago’s pension and budget crisis is by amending the Illinois Constitution to allow future public pension growth to be managed. Johnson should join his predecessors and local leaders in calling for state lawmakers to put a pension amendment on the ballot.

As to the third mistake, city leaders must reconsider enacting a long-term plan to reconstruct DuSable Lake Shore Drive. The current $4 billion proposal fails to prioritize public transportation and lacks bus lanes.

If Chicago is going to renovate a major highway, it must be thinking years ahead. Chicagoans can’t afford more of the same.

Ultimately, Johnson must take his own advice and make the hard decisions needed to correct Chicago’s problems instead of hoping the next generation can afford to fix it. Young Chicagoans don’t need any more bad deals; the costs always outlive the benefits.

Micky Horstman, communications associate, Illinois Policy Institute, and social mobility fellow, Young Voices

City leaders, step up and lead

Facing a budget crisis, Chicago’s mayor and aldermen call each other names. They blame each other. Together, they refuse to confront knowledgeably a worsening budget crisis that threatens the residents and visitors of the nation’s “Second City.”

No one accepts responsibilities. In dysfunction, they compete to be “first city.”

These elected officeholders do not understand that leadership is based on respect and cooperation. Frightening to a new resident and career-long student of cities, they refuse to meet transparent needs with appropriate budget principles.

Over-reacting to symbolic numbers — $300 million — isolated from real needs, they fail to confront the needs of public schools, police and fire departments, 311 and related services, and the broken state of city streets and sidewalks. Three hundred million is not a soccer ball to be batted in neglect.

Brandon Johnson’s proposal for that increase can be seen as moderate, compared with tax revenue and overall budget. Compare that with other income, expenditures, other major cities and costs of ignoring needs.

In Lincoln Park, we have no police patrolling or parking enforcement. Streets and sidewalks are broken and dangerous. Scooters illegally block walkways, as I mentioned in a previous letter to the editor. The city’s 311 service never answers.

Amazingly to an urban historian, the Chicago City Council is not aware property taxes are the most stable and durable source of city finances. This is City Government 101.

City Hall is also unaware that taxation can and should be progressive. The “burden,” or civic responsibility, can be apportioned in relationship to different levels of value, not apportioned unequally. That is, residents can and should be taxed with respect to their ability to pay.

My 43rd Ward Ald. Timmy Knudsen errs when he writes: “As we all know, when taxes are set too high, the related asset can be devalued.” The opposite can be true. The council must understand finance and arithmetic — and their collective and individual responsibilities. They cannot oppose tax increases at the same time they admit mounting needs.

Can the aldermen and the mayor learn about their city and its needs, and draw on established means of budgeting and governing? In other words, can they both learn and earn their salaries?

Harvey J. Graff, Lincoln Park, professor emeritus of English and History, Ohio State University

Trump is no Honest Abe

Donald Trump is fond of comparing himself — favorably, of course — to our greatest president, Abraham Lincoln. After you pick yourself off the floor, allow me to shine a light on two instances of the two men’s approach to policy and intent.

Trump has put together a cabinet of individuals wildly ill-suited to their posts but who have in the past demonstrated complete and total servility to his every whim and utterance.

Now let us rewind 164 years for what Lincoln did upon winning his first term. He caused the collective jaw of the political spectrum to drop by assembling as his cabinet a “team of rivals” — fierce opponents from both sides of the aisle who would bring to the table diverse viewpoints and varied talents to ensure not what was best for Lincoln but for America.

It was an audacious, unheard of move — and it worked. A better America resulted.

The concept of charity toward one’s rivals — in Donald Trump’s world “rival” means “scum” — is one Trump will never grasp. At the conclusion of the Civil War in 1865 when the South had been defeated, Union generals and members of Lincoln’s own cabinet were demanding that every Confederate officer be made to pay dearly for what the country had suffered.

In answer to cries for blood, these were Lincoln’s closing words in his second inaugural address: “With malice toward none with charity for all … let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan ..."

Oh, to have a man capable of penning such words in the White House again. If that is too tall an order — alas, today it is — I would settle for a man of simple decency and goodwill toward his fellow creatures, rather than the morally bankrupt vessel the majority of American voters chose to lead us.

Rob Hirsh, West Ridge

Republicans in name only

A few modifications to Regina Gomory’s letter to the editor Nov. 25 about “all three branches of government in Republican hands.” The GOP was run by Republicans.

Now it’s run by RINOs (Republicans in name only). It has become a cult of personality, and that personality is a sociopathic narcissist. Like all narcissists, he will find scapegoats to blame for his train wrecks, and his cult followers will, of course, believe him.

Robert Rowells, Elmwood Park