Housing advocates to sue CHA over CEO appointment

Housing advocates plan to sue the Chicago Housing Authority over its decision to hire a new CEO last month.

The CHA Board of Commissioners voted to appoint Keith Pettigrew, executive director of the District of Columbia Housing Authority, during a board meeting on March 17. Before the vote, the agenda did not say board members would be voting on the new CEO. The final agenda item was simply: "Approval of Personnel Matters."

In response, a group of advocates from the Lugenia Burns Hope Center, Working Family Solidarity and the Chicago Housing Initiative announced on Tuesday at a news conference outside CHA's headquarters their intent to file a lawsuit.

“There was not adequate or proper notification to the public about what they were doing. We believe this was done intentionally and deceptively,” said Roderick Wilson, executive director of the Lugenia Burns Hope Center.

The CHA had been without a CEO for 16 months. The board voted 7-2 to appoint Pettigrew. It was a victory over Mayor Brandon Johnson, who has long pushed for retired West Side Ald. Walter Burnett to lead the agency.

Cristina Pacione-Zayas, Johnson’s chief of staff, said last Friday there would be "consequences" for the board's decision. She alleged the board “knowingly” violated its “oath to uphold the law of the land locally, state as well as federal.”

Wilson said he has been in touch with the mayor's office for assistance on their planned lawsuit, but did not say Johnson had formally endorsed their effort. One of the supporters of the suit — but not a plaintiff — is People Matter, a nonprofit co-led by Consuela Hendricks, one of Johnson’s two new proposed appointees to the CHA board.

The suit is represented by Loevy & Loevy, and Wilson said they hope to file the complaint by Thursday or Friday. (Loevy & Loevy is representing Chicago Public Media in a lawsuit against the CHA for documents that the housing authority refused to disclose about CHA Commissioner Debra Parker‘s voucher case.)

The housing advocates plan to allege in their complaint that the CHA board did not follow the Open Meetings Act, which dictates how government agencies should conduct their public meetings.

Last week, CHA Board Chair Matthew Brewer told the Chicago Sun-Times he was “very confident” that the CHA board he chairs “complied with all applicable laws.” Brewer did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.