Invoices and receipts from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration have raised new questions on extravagant spending as the town faces a virtually billion greenback finances shortfall.
Paperwork uncovered by native information station NBC 5 revealed that within the grip of fiscal disaster, the town spent greater than $80,000 to redecorate and renovate an workplace within the Chicago Cultural Heart for first girl Stacie Johnson.
“The invoices and receipts, obtained by NBC 5 Investigates through a series of Freedom of Information Act requests, show that work order requests began in February and continued through August of this year to renovate and redecorate Room 306 in the Chicago Cultural Center,” the report mentioned.
Electricians, carpenters and painters on the town’s payroll had been contracted for the work, based on an bill from the town’s Fleet and Facility Administration division, additionally referred to as 2FM, NBC 5 reported. The employees accrued greater than 350 hours of labor at a value of over $25,000.
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Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s workplace is dealing with scrutiny after the town spent $80,000 on renovations to first girl Johnson’s workplace. (AP Photograph/Charles Rex Arbogast)
One other bill reportedly exhibits the town paid greater than $43,000 for furnishings, together with a $2,200 workplace chair and a $4,400 desk labeled the “First Lady’s Desk” on the doc. The town spent one other $4,600 on a desk for a staffer and greater than $8,300 on two membership chairs, based on the outlet.
The bill was dated Aug. 13, with a Sept. 12 due date, NBC 5 reported.
Mayor Johnson’s workplace didn’t reply to Fox Information Digital’s request for remark.
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Below Johnson’s administration, Chicago faces a virtually $1 billion finances shortfall in 2025. (Vincent Alban/Getty Photos)
Confronted with the invoices and requested to defend the metropolis’s spending, Johnson advised NBC 5, “So, the Cultural Center has always been a location for dignitaries; every first lady has had office space there. Renovations for my office or any other office is standard procedure. Our commitment to invest in people is still to invest in people.”
The mayor pushed again towards follow-up questions concerning the optics of extreme spending at a time when his administration is contemplating layoffs of metropolis employees to chop prices.
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Johnson was elected in 2023 as a favourite candidate of the left, on a platform of accelerating spending on metropolis companies. (AP Photograph/Charles Rex Arbogast)
“The purchase of a desk is not going to change the financial structural damage that has been in place for a very long time. So this is why we ask – and I mean this respectfully – we ask far more profound questions than that. We ask, how do we make sure that the structural damage that’s been created over the course of decades – we reroute the rivers, if you will, to make sure that we get to the places where there is dry land. And that’s what we are doing,” he mentioned.
When NBC 5 pressed the difficulty, Johnson criticized the outlet’s questions. “So I’ve been mayor for 17 months, and you have a question of how I feel about optics? Just go back on review the tape. If I were to allow my leadership to be based on someone’s opinion of me, it would be a derelict of duty. I never question my position to invest in people. I don’t do this for optics; I do this to transform lives.”
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The mayor mentioned he’s extra targeted on the optics of hiring younger folks for summer season jobs, constructing reasonably priced housing and making certain that faculties have counselors and social employees, in addition to investing in Chicago’s South and West sides.
However Johnson nonetheless has not put ahead a plan to shut the town’s projected $982 million finances hole.
