Chicago City Hall
With his approval ratings still in the gutter and Black residents feeling shut out of city services during the migrant crisis, Mayor Brandon Johnson kicked off his Faith in Government tour Tuesday, February 11, in Greater Grand Crossing. Johnson signaled plans to clean house at City Hall by firing “disloyal” department heads he inherited from previous administrations.
The meeting is viewed as a big step for Johnson as the clock ticks for him to restore trust and boost his approval ratings before the mayoral election in 2027.
Among those who may reportedly lose their jobs are Chicago Park District Commissioner Rosario Escareno and Annette Lance Holt, the first Black woman to serve as Chicago’s Fire Commissioner. Both were appointed by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Sources say Johnson is also unhappy with other department leaders.
It was a stunning community meeting held at New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church. Johnson, at times, took a sober assessment of his first term in office as his administration nears its midpoint in May. Johnson turned heads and surprised attendees after he issued warnings to leaders he felt were disloyal and ineffective in advancing his political agenda.
The meeting comes at a critical time in Johnson’s administration. In May, he will have reached the midpoint of his first term. With just a 14 percent approval rating, Johnson has much work to do to restore public trust in his leadership.
In the Black community, Johnson’s core voting block has grown weary and disillusioned in his leadership as African American communities suffered. At the same time, his administration helped more than 51,000 migrants get settled in Chicago.
At the meeting, Johnson said he should have “cleaned house faster” when he took office, and he now plans to correct that mistake by sending people packing.
“If you ain’t with us, you just gotta go,” he said.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t have done that. If you ain’t with us, you just gotta go. So now I’m in a position now where I’ll be making some decisions in the days to come because playing nice with other people who ain’t about us — it’s just a waste of exercise,” Johnson said.
Johnson took the meeting to another level when he said, “So there’s a whole bunch of people saying, ‘Oh, shoot. Who’s about to get fired?’” Johnson added. “Well, you about to find out. Stay tuned.”
Last year, Johnson’s hand-picked Board of Education fired Chicago Public Schools Superintendent Pedro Martinez. Lightfoot appointed him, along with Escareno and Holt, at a time when Latino leaders were dissatisfied with their failure to achieve 15 or more wards during the city’s remapping of the 50 wards in 2022.
Former Alderman Michael Scott wanted to interview for the job, but Lightfoot gave it to Escareno, who previously served as Chicago’s Business Affairs and Consumer Protection Commissioner.
Some Blacks remain disappointed with Escareno’s leadership at the Chicago Park District, which in recent years has been accused of disenfranchising Blacks and neglecting parks on the South and West Sides. In 2023, the Chicago Crusader and other Black media published articles that forced the Park District to reopen 28 outdoor pools in Black wards.
It’s unclear why Holt’s job is in jeopardy. But sources told the Crusader that Blacks under her leadership continue to make up just a fraction of the Chicago Fire Department workforce.
The community meeting lasted just over an hour with Johnson being interviewed by Pastor Stephen Thurston.
At one point, Johnson took a hard look at the city’s handling of the migrant crisis and reflected on how Black residents were left feeling disenfranchised. His first year in office was marred by heavy criticism from Blacks who felt their existing needs took a backseat to the thousands of migrants that were bussed to Chicago from Texas by that state’s Governor Greg Abbott. They were immediately provided resources and hundreds of millions of dollars in government aid.
Johnson fought against a proposal that would have put Chicago’s sanctuary status into a city-wide referendum, fueling concerns that Johnson was more concerned with following the Democratic Party’s progressive agenda than helping Black citizens and their neighborhoods, which have struggled for years.
At Monday’s meeting, Johnson placed some of the blame on President Joe Biden’s administration. However, Johnson wasn’t as outspoken when Biden was still in office.
“When I was elected, there were politicians who didn’t have answers to the migrant crisis. I didn’t drive a bus to Texas. I didn’t pick anybody up. The federal government did not have a response for it, the state government, county [sic],” Johnson said.
“No one had a response to how to deal with the buses that were coming in prior to me arriving. And so, I was faced with it. It was an emergency, and I do recognize that our people had been living in a state of emergency for a very long time.
“And I did suffer emotionally and physically and, to some extent, spiritually, because as much as I have recognized that our people, that we have been in a state of emergency and no one has ever turned on the faucet as fast as they did for this crisis.”
But Johnson reminded the crowd of his responsibility as mayor of a sanctuary city that welcomes immigrants.
“I have a responsibility to manage crisis and to show up for strangers and foreigners when they are without. I wish there were leaders who were forthright and prepared to respond to the crisis prior to me arriving.
“But I’ll say this, and we’ll get to the numbers: the money that we spent to make sure that people had somewhere to lay their head down and to have some food because the federal government refused to intervene, we spend 20 times more on our community. But the media press did not want people to know what I was doing for us, even as I was responding to this crisis.”
Johnson reminded the church audience that Blacks remain important on his political agenda.
“I want our people to know that I have not forgotten [them]. And I will never forget the plight of our ancestors to ensure our liberation becomes a reality,” Johnson said.
“And that’s why we have spent $200 million in the last two budgets just on violence prevention. We have put forth a $1.5 billion bond for housing and economic development for the west and south sides of Chicago. We have about 91 projects worth about $11 billion, $45,000 construction jobs, which 3,700 of them will be permanent.”
Those plans sound similar to former Mayor Lightfoot’s Invest/Southwest initiative, which wasn’t enough to convince Black voters to support her, Chicago’s first Black female mayor, a second time at the polls in 2023.
Nevertheless, Johnson repeated claims of 30,000 Ukrainians getting $1 billion in aid without opposition or criticism when they came to Chicago several years ago when Russia invaded their country.
