{"id":425072,"date":"2025-12-04T22:36:39","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T22:36:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/425072\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T22:36:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T22:36:39","slug":"we-do-not-recommend-mayor-brandon-johnson-ally-as-ceo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/425072\/","title":{"rendered":"‘we do not recommend’ Mayor Brandon Johnson ally as CEO"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chicago Housing Authority board told the federal government this fall that Mayor Brandon Johnson was pressuring the agency behind the scenes to install a close political ally<\/a> to lead the nation\u2019s third-largest public housing agency.<\/p>\n

CHA board chair Matthew Brewer wrote to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Oct. 1, laying out what he said were Johnson\u2019s attempts to influence the agency to name former Ald. Walter Burnett Jr.<\/a> CEO, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Tribune. The six-page message said the public housing agency\u2019s Board of Commissioners never seriously considered Burnett, noting he lacked management experience, but only interviewed him as a courtesy.<\/p>\n

Brewer was first appointed to the board by Mayor Rahm Emanuel before Johnson named him its interim chair last year. The board\u00a0appointed him interim CEO, too, when Angela Hurlock resigned that post in September. He then wrote to HUD\u2019s public housing director just before the federal government shutdown in response to HUD\u2019s request for additional information on the CHA CEO selection process.<\/p>\n

In his letter, Brewer wrote that the effort to find a permanent leader had been delayed for several months because Johnson was pushing the board to appoint Burnett to the post.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe informed the Mayor that we do not recommend him as CEO,\u201d Brewer wrote. \u201cThe Mayor has continued with his nomination of Mr. Burnett. \u2026 The CHA Board of Commissioners will ultimately select the CEO who is best for the organization, our residents, and the city of Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n

HUD has been in the process of reviewing Burnett\u2019s potential conflicts of interest due to the fact he and his wife own property in which CHA voucher recipients live. But Brewer\u2019s\u00a0most recent letter to HUD suggested the board was less concerned about the potential conflicts than about Burnett\u2019s overall credentials for the job.<\/p>\n

Because Johnson didn\u2019t back down on his support for Burnett, per Brewer\u2019s account, the housing authority had requested HUD review Burnett\u2019s potential conflicts of interest and issue a waiver on the mayor\u2019s office\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s spokesperson Cassio Mendoza wrote in a Thursday statement, \u201cThe timeline and descriptions in this letter do not seem accurate and do not match our understanding of the process to this point,\u201d but did not immediately elaborate. Burnett declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Reached on Thursday, Brewer wrote in a statement: \u201cThe board has not yet voted on any candidates for CEO. When the time comes, we will do what\u2019s best for our residents, our organization, and the City of Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear which of the finalists the search committee wanted instead. The CHA Board of Commissioners held its last scheduled meeting of the year in November without voting on a CEO pick, although the body could still convene a special meeting any time.<\/p>\n

Burnett, the former alderman of the 27th Ward who also served as Johnson\u2019s vice mayor, stepped down from the City Council in July after weeks of public speculation that Johnson wanted him appointed to lead CHA. The issue of this HUD waiver has stalled that process, however, and Brewer\u2019s October letter signaled that Burnett\u2019s approval was a nonstarter with the board.<\/p>\n

Burnett was a key Johnson supporter on the council. The mayor picked his son, Walt \u201cRed\u201d Burnett, to take over representing the ward heading into tense fall budget negotiations in which Johnson will likely need all the votes he can get in order to pass his 2026 spending plan.<\/p>\n

According to Brewer, HUD had requested a timeline of the CEO search that began in November 2024 and was supposed to conclude by this July. The interim head wrote that the agency worked with the mayor\u2019s office to ensure the two were \u201caligned\u201d on a national search process before recommending finalists to the mayor, with the CHA board having the final say.<\/p>\n

However, the mayor\u2019s office would then take a backseat until the spring, according to Brewer\u2019s summary. His letter said out of 107 potential candidates, five finalists got interviews in early May, with the committee recommending its top two contenders and a third name as backup to Johnson. All three were described as having served as CEO of multiple housing authorities and being proficient in HUD regulations and programming, per Brewer\u2019s letter.<\/p>\n

Then the mayor abruptly waded in to tip the scales in favor of Burnett, Brewer\u2019s letter alleged.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mayor did not interview the candidates recommended by the Selection Committee \u2013 instead, he delegated the task to one of his staffers before eventually making it known that he wanted Walter Burnett to be the next CEO,\u201d Brewer wrote. \u201cMr. Burnett was not part of the 107 candidates who initially expressed interest, or the five finalists interviewed by the Selection Committee during the week of May 5.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brewer wrote that \u201cwhile he is not a typical candidate for the CEO position given his lack of operational experience,\u201d Burnett\u2019s storied career as an alderman who supported public housing access and grew up in CHA housing afforded him a committee interview in early June \u201cas a courtesy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoChicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, second from left, talks to reporters after a City Council meeting on May 7, 2025. With Johnson are Ald. Walter Burnett, 27th, from left, Mayor Johnnson, Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth, 48th, and Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th. (Terrence Antonio James\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

After that, the committee told Johnson it didn\u2019t recommend Burnett, per Brewer, but the CHA nonetheless requested the HUD waiver on Johnson\u2019s behalf \u201cso the Board of Commissioners can formally consider the nomination.\u201d The Burnetts have since initiated the process to move the vouchers to instead be administered by the Housing Authority of Cook County, Brewer informed HUD in August, \u201celiminating the conflict of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agency\u2019s Board of Commissioners has 10 members, appointed to 5-year terms by the mayor, who can only remove them for cause. Three of them were installed by Johnson, but four other members\u2019 terms have expired, meaning Johnson could replace them at any time and wield a majority.<\/p>\n

The CEO search committee includes Brewer and fellow board members Hurlock, James Matanky and Francine Washington, plus Johnson\u2019s Department of Housing Commissioner Lissette Casta\u00f1eda and Department of Planning and Development Commissioner Ciere Boatright. The outside firm was Gans, Gans & Associates.<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer Interim Chicago Housing Authority CEO Angela Hurlock, left, and former Interim CHA Chairman Matthew Brewer before CHA called a special board meeting at the CHA headquarters in Chicago on Feb. 20, 2025. The board appointed Brewer interim CEO when Hurlock resigned the post in September. (Audrey Richardson\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

The CHA has been without a permanent leader since last November, when CEO Tracey Scott left the agency. In September, interim CEO Hurlock also stepped down and was replaced by Brewer.<\/p>\n

Johnson has presided over a large duration of interim leaders among his cabinet and sister agencies. Besides CHA, the Chicago Transit Authority and Chicago Public Schools system have been without permanent heads for several months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Housing Authority board told the federal government this fall that Mayor Brandon Johnson was pressuring the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":425073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5404,5386,1818,1370,50,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-425072","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-cook-county","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illinois","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-politics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115663693918571836","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}