Recently, the Chicago Board of Ethics fined Northwest Side Ald. Jim Gardiner $20,000 for an ethics violation incident in September 2019.
Ald. Gardiner faced accusations of retaliating illegally against a constituent and critic, Pete Czosnyka, with fabricated city citations on overgrown weeds and rodents. Gardiner broke the city's ethics laws in ten separate cases. WTTW News have reported that this case marks the first time a sitting City Council member has been fined from an ethics investigation.
City Inspector General Deborah Witzburg expressed her commitment to investigating potential ethics violations thoroughly. The fine serves as a warning to elected officials who might consider exploiting their position for personal gain.
Despite the complexities of the case, including Gardiner's efforts at refuting the board's findings in August and September 2023, the final decision handed Gardiner a $20,000 fine for five fiduciary duty violations and five unauthorized city property uses. For Czosnyka, the decision brought a level of satisfaction with Gardiner's formal censure. He hopes it will warn other aldermen against similar unethical behavior.
Gardiner, who was reelected in April, has faced other investigations and lawsuits according to WTTW News. Recently, a federal judge ruled he violated the First Amendment by blocking several critics, including Czosnyka, from his official Facebook page in 2021. A trial will determine if Gardiner must pay these critics' damages.
Resolving a lawsuit filed by a man who claimed unjust arrest at Gardiner's request over a phone belonging to an associate of Gardiner's cost Chicago taxpayers $100,000. This associate now faces illegal machine gun sale charges while employed with the city.
Gardiner's case required four years to reach a judgement, although Inspector General Witzburg assures they worked for accurate findings primarily.
Gardiner, elected in 2019 and reelected in 2023, has grappled with a series of scandals, including leaked texts which displayed his use of profane descriptions for a gay colleague, a female city employee, and a female political consultant. Gardiner apologized publicly in 2021 for these messages. This year, a sworn deposition revealed details on how a former aide claimed Gardiner obsessed over Facebook criticism and committed to eliminating his distractors, labelling them as "rats."
