Lightfoot's former deputy mayor for public safety accused of drinking on the job

Chicago’s former deputy mayor for public safety was accused Monday of drinking on city time and encouraging subordinates to do the same, prompting an underling to return from lunch and say, “I’m drunk I want to leave.”

The explosive accusation included in Inspector General Deborah Witzburg’s quarterly report does not identify the former deputy mayor or any other accused employees.

But Elena Gottreich, the last of former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s deputy mayors for public safety, identified herself as the accused and flatly denied ever drinking on the job. The allegations are “ridiculous and absurd," she said.

“I worked 24 hours [a day] in that job. I barely had time to sleep, let alone drink on the job. I was constantly out at events, either with the mayor, with myself. I was in the office. I was on the scene. I was at police stations. I was at funerals. You know what the job is,” said Gottreich, who served as deputy mayor for public safety from June 2022 until Mayor Brandon Johnson took office the following May.

“They took the unsubstantiated stories of a former employee — a disgruntled employee. They just took it as fact. … They didn’t substantiate anything. They had no evidence against me and I was not even interviewed because they started the investigation after I had left my employment there," Gottreich added.

"I’m a former prosecutor. I don’t know of any investigation that can be concluded without speaking to all of the parties involved. … I fought tooth-and-nail to even discover what this investigation was about. And I had to FOI my own records multiple times," she said, referring to requesting public documents under the Freedom of Information Act. “I only just now received a copy of their redacted report."

Gottreich couldn't say what the inspector general's motives might be for what the former deputy mayor called a biased investigation.

“I have my suspicions about how the inspector general is doing their investigations. But I can’t speak to their process or mindset. I will say that the former employee was extremely disgruntled when she left and made several accusations about people and even things about herself came out that were very disappointing to learn," she said.

“I actually drafted a letter in response on advice of my lawyer. But honestly, part of me wants to just leave the whole thing behind."

Gottreich followed up by text: "Now that they have made this sham investigation public, I will be providing documentation of all the deprivations of due process and the significant toll that this has had on my personal and professional life."

Witzburg refused to comment on Gottreich’s allegations.

Earlier Monday, Witzburg told the Sun-Times she considered the drinking-on-the-job allegations to be so serious, she recommended placing the deputy mayor on the city’s do-not-hire list.

“These are positions of tremendous public trust, and people in them have a responsibility to behave in a way deserving of public trust,” Witzburg said Monday.

“The evidence here is really clear. Not only evidence that we gathered in the course of our investigation but also we have witness statements saying that one of these people was in the office saying that they were too drunk to carry out their duties to interview mayoral fellows. That is the kind of thing that erodes public trust in government. ... We cannot have people in positions of public trust behaving that way.”

Contractor accused of lying to land contract

The quarterly report also talks about a now-debarred Water Management contractor who secured five contracts valued at over $50 million after misrepresenting its status as a city-based business to gain bid preferences the company was ineligible to receive. The contractors “claimed that all of its employees were based in Chicago when, in reality, the majority of its workforce did not work at a facility located in the city.”

"This wasn't an accident. It wasn't a mistake. They lied," Witzburg said.

"Sometimes, misconduct defeats even adequate controls. Whether or not controls were adequate here does not change the fact that there was intentional misconduct on behalf of this contractor." 

Contributing: Tom Schuba