Four City Hall lobbyists apparently donated improperly to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s political fund, the Chicago Board of Ethics found this week.
The board found the registered lobbyists appeared to violate a mayoral executive order by giving money to Johnson, according to probable cause findings issued at a recent meeting.
The violations do not carry a penalty for the mayor, but could mean those lobbyists lose their ability to work at City Hall.
It is board policy not to name those suspected of violating ethics rules, nor do board materials say how much was donated.
But a Tribune analysis of campaign finance records identified four registered lobbyists who donated to Johnson’s candidate committee after he was sworn in as mayor in May.
Those donors include former 49th Ward Ald. Joe Moore, who now has his own lobbying business; John Dunn, former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley’s director of intergovernmental affairs who now works for Cozen O’Connor; Michael Cassidy with Zephyr Government Strategies; and Anthony B. Bruno, a politically connected business and government consultant in the west suburbs who was previously convicted of tax fraud.
The Sun-Times first reported Johnson had improperly received donations from Bruno as part of an analysis of donations the mayor got from city contractors, who are barred by a separate executive order. Johnson’s spokesperson said last month that the donations would be returned.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2011 signed the orders barring donations from city contractors and lobbyists, which will remain in place unless and until a future mayor rescinds them.
Emanuel’s lobbyist order made it a violation for any lobbyist to contribute any amount to the mayor or their political fundraising committee. “The Board of Ethics shall not accept a lobbyist registration statement from any person who it finds to have violated this Order,” it says.
Former Ald. Moore donated $250 to Johnson in June. He said Tuesday afternoon the board had not notified him about a violation, but said the donation was an “innocent error” and that the potential loss of his lobbyist registration “would be a punishment far in excess of the crime,” especially when he was “unaware” the executive order was still in effect under Johnson.
In a statement, Dunn said the $250 contribution he made in June “was a mistake, but I did report the contribution to the Board of Ethics at the time.”
Neither Bruno nor Cassidy — who gave $2,000 and $1,500 respectively — responded to a Tribune request for comment.
Johnson’s political spokesman, Christian Perry, told the Tribune on Tuesday the four donations “had been returned” but did not say when, nor whether they had been in contact with the Board of Ethics about the donations.
Ethics Board Executive Director Steve Berlin declined to say whether the mayor’s campaign had reached out to address the donations. Whether Johnson’s refund would render the potential violations moot “would be up to the full board,” Berlin said.
The contributors and the mayor’s campaign committee are allowed to rebut the board’s findings.
One unnamed potential violator has already “argued that the contribution came from an entity connected with the lobbyist, not the lobbyist personally,” and the matter was referred to the IG for a factual investigation, ethics records say.
aquig@chicagotribune.com
