A civic leader is demanding that Mayor Lori Lightfoot apologize for the obscene and derogatory remarks a lawsuit alleges she made about Italian Americans during a phone call to discuss the statue of Christopher Columbus removed from Arrigo Park.
That statue was taken away on Lightfoot’s orders in 2020 after it became the target of protests and vandalism but was the property of the Chicago Park District. A lawsuit was filed against the park district by the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans seeking the statue’s return.
The comment that incensed Ron Onesti, president of that Italian American group, was made during a video call the mayor had on Columbus Day with several people, including two park district attorneys, after she killed a deal the park district had made with Onesti’s group to allow the statue to be displayed at the Columbus Day parade, according to the lawsuit.
That deal was described in the lawsuit filed Wednesday by one of the park district officials on the video call, former deputy general counsel George Smyrniotis, who alleged he was given 10 minutes notice of the call with the mayor, which occurred the night after the parade.
On the call, according to the lawsuit, Lightfoot berated Smyrniotis and park district general counsel Timothy King.
“You d--ks, what the f--k were you thinking?” Lightfoot is quoted as saying in the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, Lightfoot went on to accuse King and Smyrniotis of making “some kind of secret agreement with Italians, what you are doing, you are out there measuring your d--ks with the Italians seeing whose got the biggest d--k ... I am trying to keep Chicago Police officers from being shot and you are trying to get them shot. My d--k is bigger than yours and the Italians, I have the biggest d--k in Chicago.”
The mayor, Smyrniotis claims in the lawsuit, went on to defame him personally, making “rude, insulting, false, and disrespectful statements” that he “lacked an ability to perform his job duties” by, among other things, asking: “Where did you go to law school? Did you even go to law school? Do you even have a law license?”
Smyrniotis claims in the lawsuit that as a result of the mayor’s comments, his “reputation was damaged, he was portrayed in a false light, his ability to perform his work was impaired, he was forced to resign on February 2, 2022, and he suffered lost income, a reduced pension, and suffered great emotional distress.”
The mayor’s office had no immediate comment on the lawsuit or on Onesti’s demand for an apology.
In his lawsuit, Smyrniotis explains he was negotiating with the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans to settle their lawsuit at the direction of Michael Kelly, the park district superintendent at the time. Those talks led to the deal for the civic committee to inspect the statue and bring it to the parade. While it did not appear in the parade, it was displayed at a suburban Columbus Day celebration.
On the call, Lightfoot told Smyrniotis: “Get that f--king statue back before noon tomorrow or I am going to have you fired.”
Onesti said he was appalled by what Lightfoot is alleged to have said.
“I’m literally beside myself with amazement. Even though she’s shown signs of this type of behavior in the past, I can’t believe, number one, that she would talk to her attorneys this way. How do you talk to anybody this way?” Onesti said.
“It’s offensive. We’re Chicagoans first. That’s our mayor. And our mayor is talking about her constituency that way. About an ethnic group that way. A very large ethnic group,” Onesti said.
“There isn’t an ethnic group that deserves that kind of vulgar referencing. ... I’m astounded . . . It’s embarrassing and it’s insensitive.”
Onesti demanded an immediate apology from Lightfoot and was “on the verge of demanding the mayor’s resignation,” he said.
“I’ve got to say it’s practically irreparable. That’s why I’m teetering on the apology issue. Because, for her to apologize — I mean, there is irreparable damage,” Onesti added.
Last month, Lightfoot was added as a defendant in the lawsuit filed against the Park District by the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans.
The lawsuit claims the removal of the Columbus statute ordered by City Hall violates a nearly 50-year-old agreement the group has with the Park District that says it must obtain written consent from the organization “before making any substantial change” to the plaza or statue.
“Her position is that the city of Chicago owns it,” Onesti said Thursday.
“The last time I checked, the city of Chicago is our people. We’re the people. We own it. We, as an organization, have a legal claim to it. If she brings up safety — absolutely. A concern of ours, too. We want to talk about it,” he added.
“She needs to sit down and stop wasting ... money and legal hours. ... She’s got to get off her high horse, get away from her pride and just settle this.”
