Mayor Brandon Johnson isn’t allowed to take campaign contributions from city contractors under a City Hall ethics rule but has accepted them anyway.
Asked about that, Christian Perry, Johnson’s political director, says taking the money was an “oversight” and that it’s being returned — about $46,500 in all.
“This oversight has been corrected as of over a month ago, and all incorrect donations, which accounted for a small portion of donations received so far, are in the process of being returned,” Perry says.
In some instances, it appears that city contractors were solicited for campaign cash by Johnson’s political fundraisers.
Among those who gave money to Friends of Brandon Johnson despite being city contractors are Michael Tadin Sr., who runs MAT Leasing, Inc., and his son Michael Tadin Jr., who runs MAT Construction Leasing, Inc.
Both men, who run their businesses from the same South Side location, gave $1,500 checks to Johnson’s campaign fund on Aug. 21 as part of a fundraiser downtown, according to records and interviews. Both have contracts with City Hall, including work worth potentially millions of dollars for leasing heavy equipment to city agencies as needed.
The elder Tadin says he knew then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel issued an executive order in 2011 barring any mayor from taking campaign money from city contractors but says: “I thought it was his order, only for him . . . I wasn’t aware it was on the books.”
Perry says: “In the first several months following the transition, our nationally based compliance team evaluated contributions under the ordinance for city elected officials rather than the executive orders for sitting mayors.”
Johnson’s campaign aides thought it was OK to take money from city contractors as long as the amounts fell below a certain threshold. Actually, though, Johnson was barred from taking any money from them after he was sworn in on May 15.
City officials say Emanuel’s prohibition remains in effect unless a mayor changes or rescinds it. Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who succeeded Emanuel, left it alone. As has Johnson.
Emanuel’s ban says “it is necessary that public officials and contractors adhere to the highest ethical standards and avoid transactions and circumstances that may compromise or appear to compromise the independence of any city decision.”
Says Perry: “The executive orders banning lobbyist and contractor donations to mayors is a sound and necessary policy to ensure a fair government for the people of Chicago.”
He says some Johnson supporters involved in fundraisers might have solicited city contractors for contributions “in the early stages” because of the misinterpretation of the rules. But he says city contractors wouldn’t have been “sought out” for money solely because they were working for City Hall.
“Our financial team caught it, and we’ve been remedying it ever since,” he says. “These contributions were mostly made by individuals who attended fundraiser events.”
Johnson’s campaign “has asked many of those who have had their contributions returned to invest those funds in charities that benefit underserved communities in the city,” according to Perry, who says roughly 30 contributions are being returned.
Some of those didn’t violate the ban but were from city contractors who gave money before Johnson’s inauguration.
Perry won’t identify those getting refunds beyond telling a Chicago Sun-Times reporter they “include the entirety of the companies/people you named.”
Johnson’s campaign also got $1,500 on Aug. 21 from Jimmie Daniels, longtime owner of Total Facility Maintenance, Inc. The Wood Dale janitorial business had a contract to clean municipal buildings and other city-owned properties that expired, then was given a $4.3 million, no-bid extension by City Hall on Aug. 11, city procurement records show.
Daniels didn’t return calls seeking comment.
Johnson’s aides didn’t address questions about Daniels and his company.
Nor would they discuss three campaign contributions from Kyla Griggs in October totaling $10,000. She listed 3520 S. Morgan St. as her address. That’s the address of GMA Construction Group, a company started by Cornelius Griggs that’s doing airfield work at city-run O’Hare Airport with Turner Paschen Aviation Partners.
Neither Kyla Griggs nor Cornelius Griggs would comment, and an attorney for GMA wouldn’t discuss their relationship or say whether Kyla Griggs holds any ownership stake in the company.
“Kyla is an independent person who makes her own decisions,” GMA lawyer Erica Kirkwood says. “She’s over 18. We did not ask her to make any donations on behalf of the company. ... We’re not sharing her role inside or outside the company.”
A political action committee called Leaders for Tomorrow that also lists the Morgan Street address and includes Kirkwood and Cornelius Griggs as officers gave $24,000 to Johnson’s campaign on April 21. That was between his April 4 election and his May 15 inauguration, so it wasn’t subject to the contribution ban.
Four days before Johnson’s inauguration, his campaign fund reported getting contributions from attorneys working for the Texas law firm Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, which specializes in debt collection and has two deals with the city of Chicago, one for collecting money owed for traffic tickets, water bills and other outstanding payments. Ten out-of-state attorneys with the law firm each contributed $1,000, and the firm gave $1,500 on the same date.
David Bonoma, who was an aide to former Mayor Richard M. Daley and now heads the firm’s Chicago office, gave Johnson $500, records show.
The firm’s contributions were part of a campaign fundraiser for Johnson that Bonoma was invited to, sources say.
Bonoma didn’t return calls.
A Linebarger Goggan spokesman says the firm “is active in the civic life of the communities that it serves across the United States. This includes charitable activity as well as political engagement. Political contributions made by the firm and its partners are made in compliance with the law and the ethical standards of our profession.”
Perry says Johnson’s campaign plans to return some contributions made by city contractors after his election but before his inauguration even though it’s not required to do so.
“Since we believe in both the letter and the spirit of the law to ensure good governance, we have also begun a process to return contributions that do not violate the executive order since they were made before the mayor was sworn into office but were made after the election victory,” Perry says.
Other contributions to Johnson’s campaign include:
- $2,500 on Aug. 21 from United Service Companies, run by Richard “Rick” Simon, who has long-standing ties to reputed mob figures. His company has no current city contracts.
- $2,000 on Sept. 28 from Anthony Bruno, a convicted felon and disbarred lawyer with ties to suburban politicians.
- $6,000 on July 24 from executives of Monterrey Security, a contractor for the CTA, which is overseen by the mayor but as an quasi-independent agency isn’t subject to the contribution ban.
Johnson won’t comment on whether he thinks campaign contributions from such City Hall sister agencies should also be included in the ban.
There are no penalties set out for a mayor violating the ban. A contractor or company executive breaking the rules could lose city contracts.
Lightfoot faced similar questions while in office over campaign money she got from businesses associated with a city lobbyist, and she returned thousands of dollars in contributions.
