Johnson: 'I'm the stability' Chicago needs after budget director departs
<p>Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday denied the revolving door at City Hall is a scary sign of instability for Chicago, claiming “I’m the stability” and the “visionary” — and that he will find other people to “carry out my vision.”</p><p>The latest high-level departure from Johnson's City Hall is Budget Director Annette Guzman, whom <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2024/10/29/chicago-budget-2025-brandon-johnson" >the mayor once praised</a> as a "bad, Black, shut-your-mouth" administrator.</p><p>Guzman is “stepping away” to care for her ailing mother, resigning from the $201,564-a-year job she has held from the start of Johnson’s administration.</p><p>Guzman’s abrupt departure is raising serious questions about financial instability because of the timing of it, the wave of high-level departures that preceded it and the enormity of the city’s fiscal problems.</p><p>Chicago faces a $90 million mid-year shortfall, a $1 billion budget gap next year and a $36 billion pension crisis that has two of four city employee pension funds hovering dangerously close to insolvency — even after receiving a city loan to avoid selling assets to pay liabilities.</p><p>The city is weeks away for a grueling election year budget season and days away from an all-important investors conference.</p><p>And Guzman’s resignation comes just days after Acting Chief Financial Officer Steven Mahr and Mahr’s top deputy also resigned.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center> <div class="Enhancement-item" data-crop=""> <figure class="Figure"><a class="AnchorLink" id="image-250000" name="image-250000"></a> <picture data-crop="medium"> <source type="image/webp" width="490" height="275" data-srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/7c7328b/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+158/resize/490x275!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F3c%2F00%2F9db1979a41fa9a1b8366e6fa87c3%2Froundtable-072623-1.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/6d00dc4/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+158/resize/980x550!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F3c%2F00%2F9db1979a41fa9a1b8366e6fa87c3%2Froundtable-072623-1.jpg 2x" data-lazy-load="true" srcset="data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyNzVweCIgd2lkdGg9IjQ5MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=" /> <source width="490" height="275" data-srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/f2c0c12/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+158/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F3c%2F00%2F9db1979a41fa9a1b8366e6fa87c3%2Froundtable-072623-1.jpg" data-lazy-load="true" srcset="data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyNzVweCIgd2lkdGg9IjQ5MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=" /> <img class="Image" alt="Mayor Brandon Johnson, left, and Annette Guzman, Budget Director for the city of Chicago meet with students during a Youth Budget Roundtable in the Winter Garden at Harold Washington Library, Tuesday, July 25, 2023. " srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/f2c0c12/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+158/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F3c%2F00%2F9db1979a41fa9a1b8366e6fa87c3%2Froundtable-072623-1.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/102d463/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+158/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F3c%2F00%2F9db1979a41fa9a1b8366e6fa87c3%2Froundtable-072623-1.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275" data-src="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/f2c0c12/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+158/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F3c%2F00%2F9db1979a41fa9a1b8366e6fa87c3%2Froundtable-072623-1.jpg" data-lazy-load="true" src="data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyNzVweCIgd2lkdGg9IjQ5MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=" > </picture> <div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Mayor Brandon Johnson (left) and Annette Guzman, then the city’s budget director, meet with students during a Youth Budget Roundtable in the Winter Garden at Harold Washington Library in July 2023.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times file photo</p></div></div> </figure> </div> </div><p>Mahr replaced Jill Jaworski, who left City Hall in January for a job at Navy Pier shortly after a renegade City Council majority rejected Johnson’s corporate head tax and muscled through an alternative city budget with major elements Johnson continues to oppose .</p><p>The revolving door has Ald.
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<p>Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday denied the revolving door at City Hall is a scary sign of instability for Chicago, claiming “I’m the stability” and the “visionary” — and that he will find other people to “carry out my vision.”</p><p>The latest high-level departure from Johnson's City Hall is Budget Director Annette Guzman, whom <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2024/10/29/chicago-budget-2025-brandon-johnson" >the mayor once praised</a> as a "bad, Black, shut-your-mouth" administrator.</p><p>Guzman is “stepping away” to care for her ailing mother, resigning from the $201,564-a-year job she has held from the start of Johnson’s administration.</p><p>Guzman’s abrupt departure is raising serious questions about financial instability because of the timing of it, the wave of high-level departures that preceded it and the enormity of the city’s fiscal problems.</p><p>Chicago faces a $90 million mid-year shortfall, a $1 billion budget gap next year and a $36 billion pension crisis that has two of four city employee pension funds hovering dangerously close to insolvency — even after receiving a city loan to avoid selling assets to pay liabilities.</p><p>The city is weeks away for a grueling election year budget season and days away from an all-important investors conference.</p><p>And Guzman’s resignation comes just days after Acting Chief Financial Officer Steven Mahr and Mahr’s top deputy also resigned.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center> <div class="Enhancement-item" data-crop=""> <figure class="Figure"><a class="AnchorLink" id="image-250000" name="image-250000"></a> <picture data-crop="medium"> <source type="image/webp" width="490" height="275" data-srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/7c7328b/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+158/resize/490x275!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F3c%2F00%2F9db1979a41fa9a1b8366e6fa87c3%2Froundtable-072623-1.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/6d00dc4/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+158/resize/980x550!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F3c%2F00%2F9db1979a41fa9a1b8366e6fa87c3%2Froundtable-072623-1.jpg 2x" data-lazy-load="true" srcset="data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyNzVweCIgd2lkdGg9IjQ5MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=" /> <source width="490" height="275" data-srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/f2c0c12/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+158/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F3c%2F00%2F9db1979a41fa9a1b8366e6fa87c3%2Froundtable-072623-1.jpg" data-lazy-load="true" srcset="data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyNzVweCIgd2lkdGg9IjQ5MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=" /> <img class="Image" alt="Mayor Brandon Johnson, left, and Annette Guzman, Budget Director for the city of Chicago meet with students during a Youth Budget Roundtable in the Winter Garden at Harold Washington Library, Tuesday, July 25, 2023. " srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/f2c0c12/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+158/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F3c%2F00%2F9db1979a41fa9a1b8366e6fa87c3%2Froundtable-072623-1.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/102d463/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+158/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F3c%2F00%2F9db1979a41fa9a1b8366e6fa87c3%2Froundtable-072623-1.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275" data-src="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/f2c0c12/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+158/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F3c%2F00%2F9db1979a41fa9a1b8366e6fa87c3%2Froundtable-072623-1.jpg" data-lazy-load="true" src="data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyNzVweCIgd2lkdGg9IjQ5MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=" > </picture> <div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Mayor Brandon Johnson (left) and Annette Guzman, then the city’s budget director, meet with students during a Youth Budget Roundtable in the Winter Garden at Harold Washington Library in July 2023.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times file photo</p></div></div> </figure> </div> </div><p>Mahr replaced Jill Jaworski, who left City Hall in January for a job at Navy Pier shortly after a renegade City Council majority rejected Johnson’s corporate head tax and muscled through an alternative city budget with major elements Johnson continues to oppose .</p><p>The revolving door has Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th) wondering “Who’s minding the store?” and where Chicagoans can turn for stability.</p><p>On Tuesday, a defiant Johnson answered.</p><p>“They have stability. They have stability in me,” Johnson told reporters at his weekly City Hall news conference.</p><p>“One person does not run the operation around here.
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- <p>Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday denied the revolving door at City Hall is a scary sign of instability for Chicago, claiming “I’m the stability” and the “visionary” — and that he will find other people to “carry out my vision.”</p><p>The latest high-level departure from Johnson's City Hall is Budget Director Annette Guzman, whom <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2024/10/29/chicago-budget-2025-brandon-johnson" >the mayor once praised</a> as a "bad, Black, shut-your-mouth" administrator.</p><p>Guzman is “stepping away” to care for her ailing mother, resigning from the $201,564-a-year job she has held from the start of Johnson’s administration.</p><p>Guzman’s abrupt departure is raising serious questions about financial instability because of the timing of it, the wave of high-level departures that preceded it and the enormity of the city’s fiscal problems.</p><p>Chicago faces a $90 million mid-year shortfall, a $1 billion budget gap next year and a $36 billion pension crisis that has two of four city employee pension funds hovering dangerously close to insolvency — even after receiving a city loan to avoid selling assets to pay liabilities.</p><p>The city is weeks away for a grueling election year budget season and days away from an all-important investors conference.</p><p>And Guzman’s resignation comes just days after Acting Chief Financial Officer Steven Mahr and Mahr’s top deputy also resigned.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center> <div class="Enhancement-item" data-crop=""> <figure class="Figure"><a class="AnchorLink" id="image-250000" name="image-250000"></a> <picture data-crop="medium"> <source type="image/webp" width="490" height="275" data-srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/7c7328b/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+158/resize/490x275!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F3c%2F00%2F9db1979a41fa9a1b8366e6fa87c3%2Froundtable-072623-1.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/6d00dc4/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+158/resize/980x550!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F3c%2F00%2F9db1979a41fa9a1b8366e6fa87c3%2Froundtable-072623-1.jpg 2x" data-lazy-load="true" srcset="data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyNzVweCIgd2lkdGg9IjQ5MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=" /> <source width="490" height="275" data-srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/f2c0c12/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+158/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F3c%2F00%2F9db1979a41fa9a1b8366e6fa87c3%2Froundtable-072623-1.jpg" data-lazy-load="true" srcset="data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyNzVweCIgd2lkdGg9IjQ5MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=" /> <img class="Image" alt="Mayor Brandon Johnson, left, and Annette Guzman, Budget Director for the city of Chicago meet with students during a Youth Budget Roundtable in the Winter Garden at Harold Washington Library, Tuesday, July 25, 2023. " srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/f2c0c12/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+158/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F3c%2F00%2F9db1979a41fa9a1b8366e6fa87c3%2Froundtable-072623-1.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/102d463/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+158/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F3c%2F00%2F9db1979a41fa9a1b8366e6fa87c3%2Froundtable-072623-1.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275" data-src="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/f2c0c12/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1684+0+158/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F3c%2F00%2F9db1979a41fa9a1b8366e6fa87c3%2Froundtable-072623-1.jpg" data-lazy-load="true" src="data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyNzVweCIgd2lkdGg9IjQ5MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=" > </picture> <div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Mayor Brandon Johnson (left) and Annette Guzman, then the city’s budget director, meet with students during a Youth Budget Roundtable in the Winter Garden at Harold Washington Library in July 2023.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times file photo</p></div></div> </figure> </div> </div><p>Mahr replaced Jill Jaworski, who left City Hall in January for a job at Navy Pier shortly after a renegade City Council majority rejected Johnson’s corporate head tax and muscled through an alternative city budget with major elements Johnson continues to oppose .</p><p>The revolving door has Ald.
- How widely is it covered?
- 1 outlet, average source rating 6.0/10.
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- 8m ago.
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Johnson: 'I'm the stability' Chicago needs after budget director departs
Sources1TypeCoverageChicago Sun-Times