Mayor Brandon Johnson faced ethics concerns over ties to Chicago Public Schools and teachers union, according to memo

Nell Salzman, Alice Yin and Gregory Royal Pratt, Chicago Tribune on Dec 24, 2024

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CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson declined to resign his position with Chicago Public Schools after a high-ranking CPS official raised ethics concerns about a potential conflict of interest, according to a memo obtained by the Tribune.

CPS Chief Talent Officer Ben Felton wrote a memo less than two months after the mayor’s May 2023 inauguration documenting conversations Felton had with Johnson’s deputy mayor for education, Jen Johnson, about their leaves from the Chicago Teachers Union. Union members can sometimes take leaves of absence to take other jobs and return later.

In the memo, dated June 28, 2023, Felton wrote that he told Deputy Mayor Johnson, who is not related to Mayor Johnson, that “it was potentially a conflict of interest for Mayor Johnson and Deputy Mayor Johnson to remain on a CTU leave from CPS.”

Felton said he was “concerned that it could be a potential conflict of interest for the mayor to be an employee of an organization that he was overseeing (through the appointment of the Board of Education).”

“My primary concern is that the Mayor and Deputy Mayor would be able to guarantee future employment with CPS if they chose to return to the district, as our current practice is to place employees returning from a CTU leave into the reassigned teacher pool,” Felton wrote. “While I imagine it is unlikely that Mayor Johnson would return to the classroom, this is not an immaterial benefit.”

Since he was elected, Johnson has appointed over a dozen new members to the school board.

Felton suggested Mayor Johnson resign from CPS and that Deputy Mayor Johnson take a personal leave of absence.

In May of 2023, Deputy Mayor Johnson said the mayor “did not want to leave his position so as to signal his support for education and teachers,” according to the memo.

In early June, Felton recommended Deputy Mayor Johnson talk with the city’s ethics advisor. He was told ten days later that person “did not have concerns about them being on a leave from CTU and that they would ‘keep the status quo for now,’” according to the memo.

Johnson’s press secretary, Erin Connelly, told the Tribune this week the mayor “is not a CTU member.” She said he ended both his employment and membership with the teachers union in April 2023. “His leave status at CPS is similar to that of other public officials who formerly served in other public service areas such as CPD, CFD, and CPS as teachers. There is not a conflict,” she said.

When the Tribune asked about Johnson’s CTU status earlier in November, Connelly said, “Currently, the mayor obviously is not employed by CTU but is also on leave, legally, on CPS.”

Connelly also said last month that Johnson’s ex-deputy education mayor Jen Johnson, who took leave from her City Hall role in October, was not employed or on leave from employment at CTU.

CPS CEO Pedro Martinez’s attorney included the memo in his most recent court filing contesting the school board’s attempt to fire him and diminish his role as the district’s leader.

The concern from Felton reflects a broader political hurdle Johnson has faced as mayor. Johnson served for years as a high-ranking teachers union official and the powerful labor group spent millions backing his campaign.

As a candidate, Johnson sought to reassure the public that he would be mayor for everyone and could be an honest broker with the union.

In a March 2023 runoff debate, Johnson answered a question about his campaign’s heavy dependence on CTU funds by vowing to leave his role in the union and “be the mayor of the City of Chicago for everyone.”

“I have a fiduciary responsibility to the people of the city of Chicago, and once I’m mayor of the city of Chicago, I will no longer be a member of the Chicago Teachers Union,” Johnson said. “I will no longer pay dues to the Chicago Teachers Union. I will have the best job in the world, to be an ambassador for a world class city, especially as we address the critical issues.”

But as mayor, he has repeatedly faced accusations of favoritism to the teachers union. That line of criticism has steadily built up ever since it became public this fall that Johnson and the CTU were lining up against Martinez after he refused to take out a high-interest loan to cover a disputed pension payment as well as the start of the next teachers’ union contract.

Since then, Johnson has struggled to oust Martinez, a holdover from former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration, and had to appoint and reappoint his school board appointees until it moved to fire the CEO last week. Now, with CTU-friendly faces running the Board of Education, mayor’s office and — perhaps soon — CPS, opponents of the union are sounding the alarm at what they say is the union bargaining with itself during teachers contract talks.

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