Johnson gives right answer to wrong question
Reporter's migrant question missed the mark, but the mayor obviously got ticked
Reporters at a news conference with Mayor Brandon Johnson and NBC 5 Chicago viewers got a chance to hear the mayor invoke his school teacher voice in answering a question from that station’s reporter. And it was one of those questions that you understood what the reporter meant to ask but it came out wrong.
Johnson gives smary answer to reporter's question
The reporter was following up his station’s investigation of how much money Chicago has spent taking care of the 13,000 asylum-seekers who have been here since late last year.
That investigation to date netted the news operation, only two invoices that showed some employees from the company that is managing the migrant facilities were paid $135 per hour, others even $200 per hour.
When the reporter used the word transparency to ask the mayor about reporting on the expenditures, Johnson bristled and in a staccato tone explained how he was being timely and transparent with the alderpersons. Then, obviously irritated, Johnson verbally slapped the reporter by asking if the reporter wanted an account of the spoons and forks used. He came across as petty and demeaning - not a good look for the leader of the city -despite how some of this predecessors behaved and dealt with the news media.
Johnson would be wise to rally his communications crew and begin working on crisis communications responses as this, along with the larger migrant issue is not likely to disappear. According to the report, Chicago has poured more than $83 million into what Johnson described as a “humanitarian endeavor.”
The administration has received vigorous and regular pushback about how it is accepting and locating the men, women, and children being sent here from Texas. The vocal uproar is likely to intensify as the alderpersons and public will want more specifics about where their dollars are spent; and why can’t they be spent to help struggling families who have long called Chicago home, or help pay off Chicagoans struggling with student loan debt.
This space has been used to suggest the mayor take a couple of weeks away from the office to regroup. After four months in office, he appears to still be attempting to find his footing.
Two weeks ago he became a laughing stock when he suggested that two automakers -Kia and Hyundai- were partially responsible for increased car thefts in Chicago. He took the extraordinary step of instructing city lawyers to sue the companies. The mayor’s latest suggestion, that the city operate a grocery store on the West Side or South Side to alleviate the lack of grocers there, raised some eyebrows but got minimal traction and no support.
The mayor still has not filled all of the open commission spots and department head vacancies. Nor has he presented a viable plan for making a sizable dent in the city’s budget deficit.
