Chicago Ethics Board to address allegations against Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin

The Chicago Board of Ethics is expected to address allegations that city Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin abused her office and violated the state’s whistleblower act following the recent release of a 2020 letter that laid out a series of accusations from two former top aides Conyears-Ervin fired.

The Chicago Tribune first reported earlier this week the details of the letter, written by the women’s attorney, that alleged Conyears-Ervin abused her power and misused taxpayer resources by using government workers to run errands for her, hiring a former police officer to be her personal bodyguard and pressuring public employees to hold events benefiting political allies, among other accusations.

The city kept the December 2020 letter secret and fought requests for years by the Tribune that it be released until late last week when Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration decided to drop the efforts to keep the letter confidential.

The Conyears-Ervin matter was added to the ethics board’s monthly meeting, which is scheduled for Monday afternoon, following the letter’s release.

The board had been sent a copy of the letter at the time it was written in 2020 and board Executive Director Steve Berlin said earlier this week that the board at the time had opened a case looking into the allegations but closed it after the city’s Law Department settled the matter as part of a private $100,000 settlement the two women shared.

“This matter was settled by the City, and, as you know, the Board of Ethics cannot adjudicate a case like this — which requires a full factual investigation — without a full factual investigation by the Office of Inspector General,” which the board did not receive, Berlin said.

Asked why the matter was being placed on the upcoming agenda when it hadn’t been on previous board agendas, Berlin said, “the case has been in the news of late, even though it is not new.”

It’s not clear whether the board will take any action against Conyears-Ervin. Although the Board of Ethics has the power to issue fines, it is not able to conduct any investigations on its own and often relies on the inspector general to present findings.

Conyears-Ervin previously declined to address the allegations that are detailed in the four-page letter, which also alleged the treasurer, who oversees city investments, tried to force BMO Harris — one of the banks where city money is deposited — to issue a mortgage tied to the building that houses the aldermanic office for Conyears-Ervin’s husband, Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th.

Conyears-Ervin threatened retaliation against employees who raised concerns about the conduct and other alleged misdeeds and told employees they “should not care if her plans are illegal since the only way they could lose their jobs is if she fires them,” the letter stated.

A former state representative who earlier this year was reelected to a second term as city treasurer, Conyears-Ervin has said she is considering a run for Congress to replace U.S. Rep. Danny Davis.

The controversy dates back to November 2020, when Conyears-Ervin dismissed Tiffany Harper, her chief of staff at the time, as well as Ashley Evans and two other workers, as part of what she called an office shake-up. Harper and Evans, the treasurer’s former chief impact officer, alleged their firings “violated the Illinois whistleblower act, federal laws, and a city ordinance,” and sent the letter to the city demanding an investigation and a reinstatement of their jobs.

In response to their dismissals, their attorney, Michael Kanovitz, wrote the blistering letter and addressed it to the city’s then-corporation counsel, Mark Flessner, and Berlin. Kanovitz has not returned repeated messages seeking comment.

The letter disputed Conyears-Ervin’s statement that she fired the workers because she was taking the treasurer’s office in a new direction.

“Treasurer Conyears-Ervin engaged in a pattern of disturbing conduct against the public trust, many of which violated the City of Chicago ethics rules as well as state and federal law,” the letter stated. “Her consistent and pervasive practice has been to misuse City money, City employees and City resources to benefit her private interests as well as those of her friends and campaign supporters.”

Staffers, according to the letter, raised concerns about Conyears-Ervin’s decision to hire a former Chicago police officer as her private security guard and driver and the hiring of Gina Zuccaro to be an administrative assistant.

The letter stated neither the former cop nor Zuccaro were qualified for their jobs and that both served more at the pleasure of Conyears-Ervin’s personal needs than to serve the public. Zuccaro is a political ally of both Conyears-Ervin and her husband, and the letter stated Zuccaro was allowed to campaign for a seat in the Illinois General Assembly on city time. Zuccaro lost the election.

In the letter, the two former employees alleged that rather than fulfilling the duties of being an administrative assistant, the treasurer used Zuccaro “for personal services like running errands, planning her daughter’s birthday party, grocery shopping and the like.”

Zuccaro has not returned repeated messages for comment.

The two former aides also alleged Conyears-Ervin made “contentious demands of City contractors to benefit the Treasurer’s friends and political supporters,” including attempts to use her public position to leverage BMO Harris to authorize a third-party mortgage for the building where her husband maintains his aldermanic office.

A spokesman from BMO Harris has declined to comment, as has Ald. Ervin.

Conyears-Ervin also used city resources to advance the agenda of churches and other religious organizations, “many of which support her and her husband … politically and turn out church members to vote for their respective campaigns,” the letter said.

Staffers told Conyears-Ervin she should not spend city money to promote religion. But Conyears-Ervin rebuffed those suggestions and even hand-picked the prayer leaders, including her political supporters, the letter said.

Before they were fired, according to the letter, Conyears-Ervin threatened the women with retaliation for opposing her plans and warned them that if they refused to implement her ideas their “asses can walk” and that they “will be walking the f--- up out of here” and that “this is (her) f---ing office and (her) vision,” according to the letter.

“The retaliation is clear, as is the corruption in the Treasurer’s office,” the letter stated.

The Tribune sought a copy of the letter but was repeatedly denied access by the administration of Mayor Lori Lightfoot. After the Illinois attorney general’s office last year said in a binding opinion that the Tribune should get a copy of the letter, Lightfoot’s administration went to court to block its release. But Johnson’s administration released the letter late last week.

gpratt@chicagotribune.com