Departures mean a deeper hole for Johnson
Key finance people leaving the city places an additional burden on new mayor
In exactly one week when Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson becomes Mayor Johnson he will move into his fifth floor office with a severly wounded Achilles heel. The new mayor who has been repeatedly and roundly criticized for his distant approach to Chicago’s business community will assume office without the linchpins of city’s success with the business world the last several years.
Samir Mayekar who guided the Invest/South/West economic development program is leaving his deputy mayor post before Johnson takes office. The program, the brainchild of former Mayor Rahm Emanuel morphed to outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s economic development beacon. Johnson is on record saying he wants to continue that program. Now, however, he will need to someone with Mayekar’s business savvy who can immediately develop ties with the business community
It is a segment of the city Johnson perhaps inadvertently distanced himself from when he pitched reinstating a tax on businesses with more than 50 employees who performed 50 percent of their work every three months in the city limits. He further strained the relationship with the business community by supporting the idea of a tax on properties that sold for at least $1 million. Of course the revenue from such a tax would vary and the amount would hinge on the number of properties sold each year.
In his four years in city hall, Mayekar forged positive and solid relationships with business owners as well as CEOs. Regardless of who Johnson names to replace him, it will take time to replicate the relationship Mayekar developed.
Compounding Johnson’s fiscal woes is the reality that three key financial chiefs have indicated they won’t stick around long, if at all, once Johnson takes office. Sources said Susie Park, budget director; and Reshma Soni, comptroller may stay for the first month of the Johnson Admnistration and depart after that. Jennie Huang Bennett, the city’s chief financial officer will make her exodus sooner.



Mayaker indicated he is returning to a clean energy start-up he help found before joining the Lightfoot Administration. The others didn’t divulge plans. Whether the departures are due to an unwillingness to work with a mayor with no business/economic development acumen, or it is time to pursue other opportunities are something we must wait to find out.
Johnson would be wise to offer them incentives to stay through at least his first year in office. They represent a brain trust not readily available.