Ald. Carrie Austin (34th) last year spent 65 percent more than the annual amount allotted to the City Council’s Budget Committee she chaired in the run-up to a federal raid on her ward office.
An annual audit known as the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report shows the Budget Committee’s annual budget was $543,968 and that Austin blew past it — by $352,629. The audit was conducted by the accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche LLP.
Sources attributed at least some of that over-spending to Austin’s decision to place Chester Wilson, her 34th Ward chief of staff, on the Budget Committee payroll at an annual salary of $118,440.
Wilson’s name is among those mentioned in an attachment to a subpoena delivered to the city and other agencies of local government in advance of the June 19 raid on Austin’s ward office.
Austin could not reached for comment.
The only other committee to record significant over-spending was the Zoning Committee, chaired by disgraced former Ald. Danny Solis (25th).
Solis exceeded his $400,574 annual budget by $48,300 — about 12 percent. The over-spending occurred during the two years Solis wore a wire to help federal investigators build their corruption case against Ald. Edward Burke (14th). That was after Solis was confronted with evidence of his own alleged wrongdoing.
The Burke-chaired Finance Committee had an annual budget of $2.26 million and spent $2.05 million, the audit states.
Austin supported Toni Preckwinkle over Lori Lightfoot in the April 2 mayoral runoff.
In a desperate attempt to remain as Budget chairman, she promised to be just as loyal to Lightfoot as she had been to Rahm Emanuel and Richard M. Daley. She also condemned the hateful remarks U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush made about Lightfoot during a March 22 Preckwinkle rally.
It wasn’t enough.
When Lightfoot announced her leadership line-up, Austin was out as budget chairman, but was offered a consolation chair: a new Committee on Contract Oversight and Equity. The move was seen as necessary to win the 26 votes Lightfoot needed to approve her team.
At first, Austin called it a “pansy” committee and said she wasn’t certain she would take it. Ultimately, Austin acquiesced, apparently concluding something was better than nothing.
Newly-appointed Budget Committee Chairman Pat Dowell (3rd) said Monday she could not explain Austin’s over-spending or the city’s apparent decision to allow her to exceed her annual budget by so much.
Dowell would say only that her annual committee budget has been reduced to $280,000—plus court reporting and supplies — and she intends to live within those paramaters.
“You have to ask Carrie these questions. I inherited her committee. I didn’t inherit her situation. I didn’t inherit any of her people,” Dowell said.
“I’m starting with a fresh slate. I’m not carrying forward any of the questions related to her committee. I’m gonna be responsible for everything going forward. Come back to me on anything. I’m an open book.”
The mayor’s office had no immediate comment on Austin’s over-spending. Nor would the mayor’s press secretary say if the Lightfoot administration would move to audit those expenses or seek reimbursement from Austin.
Austin remains a member of Lightfoot’s leadership team. The mayor has demanded Burke’s resignation, but has yet to demand the same from Austin.
Days after the federal raid on her ward office, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Austin, the City Council’s second-longest serving alderman, got a $231,000 federal loan for her October 2018 purchase of a home in a development that’s in line for millions in city subsidies.
That Federal Housing Administration mortgage — usually designed to help low- to moderate-income homebuyers — covered almost the entire $236,000 cost for the single-family home in the 12200 block of South Laflin Street.
The home is part of the $25 million Renaissance Estates, a JTA Development Inc. project earmarked for $5.5 million in tax increment finance money.
Austin’s home is a focus of federal investigators’ interest, according to the grand jury subpoena reviewed by the Sun-Times. Among other items, the subpoena asks for records related to the construction, purchase and financing of the home. Austin purchased the home as the feds were investigating her as part of wide-ranging probes of Chicago aldermen, sources said.
Today, eight months after the purchase, the Cook County assessor’s office estimates Austin’s home is worth at least $500,000.
Contributing: Tim Novak and Lauren Fitzpatrick
