Ethical concerns have been raised surrounding Mayor Brandon Johnson’s leave of absence from CPS

As the Chicago Teachers Union pushes hard to strike a deal with Chicago Public Schools — and accused CPS on Thursday of suddenly stalling — a lawsuit filed by CPS CEO Pedro Martinez raises ethical questions about Mayor Brandon Johnson.

That filing states that the mayor, a former teacher, remains on leave from CPS and therefore will benefit financially from any negotiated raises should he return to a teaching position in the district.

A 2023 memo written by CPS Chief Talent Officer Ben Felton and attached to the lawsuit raises questions about that agreement not only with respect to the mayor, but also with respect to former Deputy Mayor Jen Johnson (none relationship with the mayor). The deputy mayor later told Felton that the matter had been discussed with the city’s ethics consultant, who had “no concerns.”

The CPS board voted last week to fire Martinez, although he will remain in the position for six months under the terms of his contract. But Martinez went to court last week to block any change in his role as leader. A Cook County judge issued one Tuesday interim injunction Prevent board members from interfering with Martinez’s job duties or directing CPS employees.

An amended version of Martinez’s filing states that Mayor Johnson remains on leave from CPS and “his time on leave and as mayor will be counted by CPS when calculating salary increases and pension benefits.”

In the memo, first reported by the Chicago Tribune, Felton documented conversations he had with Deputy Mayor Johnson about CPS leave granted to work at the Chicago Teachers Union. The mayor has resigned from this position.

Felton said he was “concerned that it could present a potential conflict of interest for the mayor to be an employee of an organization he oversees (by appointing the Board of Education).”

“My primary concern is that the mayor and deputy mayor will be able to guarantee future employment with CPS if they choose to return to the district, as our current practice is to place employees returning from CTU leave in.” to accommodate the reassigned teacher pool,” Felton wrote. “While I imagine it is unlikely that Mayor Johnson will return to the classroom, this is not an intangible benefit.”

Felton suggested that Johnson resign from CPS and that Deputy Mayor Johnson take a personal leave of absence from the district.

But in May 2023, Deputy Mayor Johnson told Felton that Mayor Johnson did not want to leave office to “signal his support for education and teachers.”

According to the memo, on June 6, 2023, Felton suggested that the deputy mayor speak with the city’s ethics counsel about the issue. Ten days later, Deputy Mayor Johnson told Felton that she had done so and that they “had no concerns about being placed on leave from CTU and that they would ‘maintain the status quo for now’.”

Johnson’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Martinez’s attorneys sought the injunction, which was granted after board members showed up to a union bargaining meeting Monday without Martinez’s knowledge or consent. Cook County Judge Joel Chupack ordered the board not to participate in ongoing contract negotiations without Martinez’s consent.

Also on Thursday, the CTU reported on the current status of these talks after negotiations concluded for the day. Zeidre Foster, a member of the union bargaining team, told reporters that talks had slowed significantly.

“Our negotiating sessions earlier this week were really promising. “We felt the urgency and commitment from both sides to engage the guild to obtain a contract that our students and teachers deserve,” Foster said. “Today, after four hours of planned negotiations, they only had one suggestion for us. So we believe CPS has really drawn the line and shown us that they are no longer interested in closing the deal by January 6th.”

The CTU is pushing hard to reach a deal before a new, partially elected school board meets on January 15th and Donald Trump is sworn in as president on January 20th.

Chicago Public Schools officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But they argued that many of CPS’s proposals were unaffordable for a district facing significant deficits in the coming years.

In his court filing, Martinez also cites a letter from CPS’s chief labor relations officer saying CTU has shortened the negotiation timeline by months compared to recent contract negotiations.

Contributor: Sarah Karp