Chicago – December 05, 2024
Aldermen blasted Mayor Brandon Johnson’s handling of staff abuse allegations Tuesday and demanded he change the rules governing the city’s “do not hire” list.
Johnson claimed Monday he had been unaware of allegations leveled against his now-fired communications director, Ronnie Reese, until formal complaints made against Reese were publicly released and reported by the Tribune last week. But “practically speaking,” the mayor should have known about the troubling allegations sooner, Ald. Scott Waguespack said.
“I don’t see how the mayor could not know about this,” Waguespack, a frequent mayoral critic, said at a news conference outside City Hall. “It’s pretty clear to me that the mayor knew about it, or should have known about it, and should have done something immediately.”
Texts between Johnson and Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates obtained by the Tribune via a public records request show the mayor making an apparent reference to Reese just four days before Reese was given notice of his termination.
“Ronnie!” he wrote to Davis Gates. “Call me. Message from the Elders.”
Davis Gates responded to the apparent reference to Reese, who previously worked with her and Johnson at the teachers union, with only an exclamation reaction, according to a copy of the text exchange.
The CTU president said in a phone call Monday that she did not know about the accusations surrounding Reese until the Tribune reported on them.
