Invoices and receipts from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration have raised new questions on extravagant spending as the town faces an almost billion greenback funds 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 Middle for first woman Stacie Johnson.Â
“The invoices and receipts, obtained by NBC 5 Investigates by a sequence of Freedom of Info Act requests, present that work order requests started in February and continued by August of this yr to renovate and redecorate Room 306 within the Chicago Cultural Middle,” the report stated.Â
Electricians, carpenters and painters on the town’s payroll had been contracted for the work, in line with 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 price 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 woman Johnson’s workplace. (AP Photograph/Charles Rex Arbogast)
One other bill reportedly reveals the town paid greater than $43,000 for furnishings, together with a $2,200 workplace chair and a $4,400 desk labeled the “First Girl’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, in line with 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.Â
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Underneath Johnson’s administration, Chicago faces an almost $1 billion funds shortfall in 2025. (Vincent Alban/Getty Photos)
Confronted with the invoices and requested to defend the town’s spending, Johnson informed NBC 5, “So, the Cultural Middle has at all times been a location for dignitaries; each first woman has had workplace area there. Renovations for my workplace or some other workplace is normal process. Our dedication to spend money on folks remains to be to spend money on folks.”
The mayor pushed again in opposition to follow-up questions in regards to the optics of extreme spending at a time when his administration is contemplating layoffs of metropolis staff 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 providers. (AP Photograph/Charles Rex Arbogast)
“The acquisition of a desk is just not going to vary the monetary structural harm that has been in place for a really very long time. So this is the reason we ask – and I imply this respectfully – we ask much more profound questions than that. We ask, how will we ensure that the structural harm that is been created over the course of a long time – we reroute the rivers, if you’ll, to ensure that we get to the locations the place there may be dry land. And that is what we’re doing,” he stated.Â
When NBC 5 pressed the problem, Johnson criticized the outlet’s questions. “So I have been mayor for 17 months, and you’ve got a query of how I really feel about optics? Simply return on overview the tape. If I had been to permit my management to be based mostly on somebody’s opinion of me, it might be a derelict of responsibility. I by no means query my place to spend money on folks. I do not do that for optics; I do that to rework lives.”Â
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The mayor stated he’s extra centered on the optics of hiring younger folks for summer season jobs, constructing reasonably priced housing and making certain that faculties have counselors and social staff, in addition to investing in Chicago’s South and West sides.Â
However Johnson nonetheless has not put ahead a plan to shut the town’s projected $982 million funds hole.Â
