Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin has been accused of using government employees for personal services, two former top aides allege in a nearly three-year-old letter released by the city last week.
In a long-sought four-page letter that former Mayor Lori Lightfoot attempted to block the release of in court, lawyers for Tiffany Harper, the treasurer’s former chief of staff, and Ashley Evans, former chief impact officer, detailed workplace misconduct claims in a demand for an ethics investigation into Conyears-Ervin.
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Evans and Harper were dismissed from their roles in November 2020, along with multiple other workers in what Conyears-Ervin, a political ally to Lightfoot, called an office shake-up. Harper told the city’s Board of Ethics that she believed she and Evans were fired “without cause or reason” and moved to file a whistleblower complaint. Lightfoot’s administration agreed to pay $100,000 to the aides to settle whistleblower complaints in November 2021, with Harper and Evans each promised $41,000 and their attorney receiving $18,000.
“In the lead up to the termination, Treasurer Conyears-Ervin engaged in a pattern of disturbing conduct against the public trust, many of which violated City of Chicago ethics rules as well as state and federal law,” the letter reads.
The letter claims Gina Zuccaro, who was hired as an administrative assistant, performed duties outside her job description, such as planning Conyears-Ervin’s daughter’s birthday party, grocery shopping, and other errands. The ex-aides’ attorneys detail multiple instances in which the treasury hired people to work in positions they were not qualified for, including Conyears-Ervin bringing on an ex-Chicago Police Department officer to fill the opening of assistant to the city treasurer, accusing the employee of lacking the proper financial background and acting as the treasurer’s bodyguard and personal driver.
Attorneys claimed Conyears-Ervin used city resources, employees, and time to hold church events that benefited her and her husband’s campaigning efforts and pushed for prayer leaders who preached with the Bible instead of opening “the opportunity to all faiths.”
“The Treasurer has also been using City resources to advance the agenda of several churches and other religious organizations, many of which support her and her husband (Alderman Jason Ervin) politically and turn out church members to vote for their respective campaigns,” the letter reads.
The Chicago Tribune attempted to obtain the newly released letter for years and was in the middle of a lawsuit with Lightfoot, who tried to conceal the letter, and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, who ruled in favor of the outlet under the Freedom of Information Act. In November 2022, Raoul issued a “binding opinion” saying the city “improperly denied” releasing the letter to the Chicago Tribune.
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The Lightfoot administration went to court to oppose the attorney general’s binding opinion, but the battle ended when she placed third in her bid for reelection this year, defeated by Brandon Johnson. Johnson was pressed early on in his term if he would uphold his predecessor’s mission of ensuring the public does not obtain the letter.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Conyears-Ervin’s office and Johnson for comment.
