Mayor Johnson's acting CFO abruptly departs as budget season looms
<p>Mayor Brandon Johnson is losing his chief financial officer just as Chicago prepares to host a crucial investors conference and an emboldened City Council gears up for a grueling election-year budget season.</p><p>Acting Chief Financial Officer Steven 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 battle.</p><p>Now, Mahr is also leaving after less than eight months as Jaworski’s interim replacement. </p><p>For Wall Street rating agencies and investors soon to arrive in Chicago for the annual investors conference, Mahr's departure could signal a level of instability — with an embattled mayor at the helm, facing an uphill battle for second-term if he chooses to seek re-election, and a City Council more independent than it has ever been.</p><p>Chicago is facing a $90 million mid-year budget shortfall, with a $1 billion-plus hole in next year’s budget and a $36 billion pension crisis.</p><p>Ald.
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<p>Mayor Brandon Johnson is losing his chief financial officer just as Chicago prepares to host a crucial investors conference and an emboldened City Council gears up for a grueling election-year budget season.</p><p>Acting Chief Financial Officer Steven 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 battle.</p><p>Now, Mahr is also leaving after less than eight months as Jaworski’s interim replacement. </p><p>For Wall Street rating agencies and investors soon to arrive in Chicago for the annual investors conference, Mahr's departure could signal a level of instability — with an embattled mayor at the helm, facing an uphill battle for second-term if he chooses to seek re-election, and a City Council more independent than it has ever been.</p><p>Chicago is facing a $90 million mid-year budget shortfall, with a $1 billion-plus hole in next year’s budget and a $36 billion pension crisis.</p><p>Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd), chair of the City Council’s Finance Committee, said Mahr “stepped into a big job” when Jaworski left, was “really good at explaining complex finances” and took “tons of shots for the administration when they basically hung him out to dry during hearings” before the City Council.</p><p>His departure is “bad timing considering that the budget process is beginning,” Dowell said.</p><p>“When you step into a position like that and you’re fairly junior, you need to have support and I’m not sure he had that,” Dowell told the Sun-Times.</p><p>Asked whether it was Budget Direct Annette Guzman who pulled the rug out from under Mahr, Dowell said, “Who is more senior? I couldn’t even point to somebody.”</p><p>Ald.
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- What's the story?
- <p>Mayor Brandon Johnson is losing his chief financial officer just as Chicago prepares to host a crucial investors conference and an emboldened City Council gears up for a grueling election-year budget season.</p><p>Acting Chief Financial Officer Steven 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 battle.</p><p>Now, Mahr is also leaving after less than eight months as Jaworski’s interim replacement. </p><p>For Wall Street rating agencies and investors soon to arrive in Chicago for the annual investors conference, Mahr's departure could signal a level of instability — with an embattled mayor at the helm, facing an uphill battle for second-term if he chooses to seek re-election, and a City Council more independent than it has ever been.</p><p>Chicago is facing a $90 million mid-year budget shortfall, with a $1 billion-plus hole in next year’s budget and a $36 billion pension crisis.</p><p>Ald.
- How widely is it covered?
- 1 outlet, average source rating 6.0/10.
- When was it last updated?
- 15h ago.
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Mayor Johnson's acting CFO abruptly departs as budget season looms
Sources1TypeCoverageChicago Sun-Times