Top Johnson aide says there will be 'consequences' for CHA power struggle over new CEO

A top mayoral aide said Friday there will be “consequences” for the Chicago Housing Authority’s decision to hire a new CEO whom Mayor Brandon Johnson has never met, after what the administration claims was a secret process that violated the Illinois Open Meetings Act.

Mayor Brandon Johnson's chief of staff, Cristina Pacione-Zayas, refused to say what those consequences would be for a CHA board that bypassed Johnson’s recommendation of former Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) in favor of Keith Pettigrew, who currently serves as executive director of the District of Columbia Housing Authority.

But she hinted that Johnson was prepared to wage a legal battle with the CHA board that defied him and, as she put it, “knowingly” violated its “oath to uphold the law of the land locally, state as well as federal.”

“If this board operated in a way that violated one of the key pieces of any public body — and that is the Open Meetings Act to ensure the transparency of all the steps that these officials are required to take when you are fiduciary of public resources — then there will be some consequences around that,” she said.

“I can’t say what they are, but I can tell you that we don’t have these laws just to say them. They actually do have teeth and they do have expectations. … There will be some activity in the coming weeks that you will see and we’ll have to see how this plays out. The mayor stands firm [in his belief that] the process did not follow what is statutorily required and [CHA Board Chair Matthew Brewer] is going to have to answer to that as the chair.”

Pacione-Zayas compared what she called the CHA’s secret process to the transparent process at Chicago Public Schools that culminated in the partially elected, partially appointed school board’s decision to give Interim CEO Macquline King the permanent job with a three-year contract at a starting salary of $380,000.

“It was posted well in advance that a contract would be executed with a named candidate for a special meeting. These are pretty basic guidelines and standards,” Pacione-Zayas said.

Earlier this week, Johnson took his power struggle for control over the CHA to a new level.

The mayor acted to remove Brewer as board chair and interim operating chairman in apparent retaliation for Brewer’s role in engineering Pettigrew's appointment.

The CHA board’s 7-2 vote was a political defeat for Johnson, who favored Burnett and has spent months seeking the federal waivers needed to resolve Burnett’s apparent conflicts of interest.

Brewer argues that Johnson’s issues with the CHA board’s vote have “nothing to do with violating the law.”

“They have to do with the mayor not getting the person he wanted as CEO,” he said.

Brewer said he is “very confident” that the CHA board he chairs “complied with all applicable laws,” including the Open Meetings Act that allows personnel matters to be listed as such and debated behind closed doors.

“I am a lawyer who hates lawsuits. So I’m never going to say, 'Bring it on.’ I’m not picking a fight. I’m not inviting a fight. But if we have to fight, we will fight,” Brewer said.

The embattled CHA chair maintained that the mayor’s office interviewed Pettigrew about a year ago. It was only then at the end of a search process that dragged on for more than a year that Johnson, as Brewer put it, said, "'I want my guy to come in' and disregarded this entire process."

“It’s ironic that they’re saying that I violated process and I made some unilateral decision," Brewer said.

Pacione-Zayas questioned how Pettigrew can preside over a $1.4 billion agency that serves 65,000 households and includes some of Chicago’s poorest residents.

“I’m personally confused. I don’t know how, if you’re a candidate and you have not met the principal that appoints the board — I don’t know how you can really move forward. It’s really striking,” Pacione-Zayas said Friday. “If I were the candidate, I would be asking the board, 'How come I haven’t met the principal and I’d like to set that up.' … It’s concerning."

Burnett’s apparent conflicts of interest, according to the CHA and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, were with his 30-year record as alderman and longtime ownership of properties rented to housing voucher holders. Since 2007, Burnett and his wife have collected more than $260,000 as CHA voucher landlords.

The board has been unable to consider Burnett, whom many CHA residents opposed, until the agency receives HUD-approved conflict waivers.