Mayor Brandon Johnson on Wednesday removed the Chicago Housing Authority board chair from his leadership position after the mayorally appointed body openly revolted against him last month in installing a new CEO.
In a statement, Johnson said he demoted CHA board chair Matthew Brewer because the mayor believes the appointment of Keith Pettigrew to be the next leader of the nation’s third-largest housing agency violated state law.
“(Brewer’s) stewardship of this process disenfranchised both fellow Commissioners and the communities the CHA serves,” Johnson wrote. “CHA residents deserve leadership decisions that are transparent, lawful, and grounded in their lived experiences, not a process that prioritizes expediency over accountability. … Any actions taken or agreements entered into under Mr. Brewer’s claimed authority are invalid and without legal effect.”
Johnson named CHA board member Jawanza Malone to succeed Brewer as chair, per his statement, which was first reported by Crain’s.
The mayor also sought to remove Brewer from his role as the CHA’s operating chairman, an executive position at the agency under the CEO. And Johnson said any actions Brewer has taken as operating chairman are “null and void.”
In his own statement, Brewer lambasted Johnson’s accusations and refused to cede his role as operating chairman, which he said is derived from the CHA board and not the mayor.
“The Mayor may disagree with the outcome, but rewriting the facts doesn’t change them and mischaracterizing the law does not change the actual law,” Brewer wrote. “Now, the Mayor is attempting to unilaterally disregard the process and put politics and cronies over the best interests of our CHA residents, and they deserve better.”
On March 17, the board under Brewer voted 7-2 to appoint Pettigrew to be its next CEO, dealing Johnson a critical loss and setting him up for another showdown with a city government board — after similar tensions at the Chicago Board of Education shook up his second year in office and only just concluded this week.
Similar to Chicago Public Schools, the permanent CHA CEO job had been vacant since the end of 2024.
Johnson for months endeavored to appoint his ally ex-Ald. Walter Burnett to the CHA post, repeatedly saying he believed the vote on Pettigrew to be illegitimate and that he would “take the necessary measures” to exert his wishes for Burnett to get the job.
“This was orchestrated by one particular individual,” Johnson had said last month, in reference to Brewer. “We have to have an open and transparent process where everybody and all the stakeholders get to weigh in.”
The day after the board fully revolted and approved Pettigrew, Johnson told reporters he took issue with his name not being publicly revealed until the vote. A group of housing activists concurred, arguing his appointment violated the Open Meetings Act because the resolution only said “Approval of Personnel Actions.”
A spokesman for Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said the office “would need a formal request for review in order to look into the allegation” of violating the meetings act. A previous attorney general opinion from 2023 ruled the statute “does not require the agenda to identify the subject” of the personnel vote — but it should specify the type of employee and action.
Six other CHA board members joined Brewer in a Wednesday statement arguing the vote on the new CEO “was not a unilateral action” by Brewer but a “transparent vote of the Board.”
Absent a lawsuit, which could be lengthy, Johnson’s options for actually removing Pettigrew could be trickier than merely demoting Brewer, however.
CHA commissioners are each appointed to five-year terms by the mayor, who can remove them for cause. Three were installed by Johnson, but four other members’ terms have already expired, meaning Johnson could replace them at any time and wield a majority. He put forth two names in the City Council last month, which mayoral opponents stalled via a parliamentary maneuver.
But Pettigrew’s four-year contract says that during his first year, he can only be removed for cause. Any such firing would require a supermajority, or eight out of 10 board members.
The soonest Johnson could replace enough board members to possess a supermajority would be July, when Brewer, an appointee of former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and the rest of the board’s terms expire. It’s the same conundrum Johnson ran up against with the CPS board, one that saw the mayor’s Springfield lobbyist at one time explore pursuing a change to the state law before the body becomes fully elected next year.
Pettigrew, the head of the public housing agency in Washington, D.C., assumes a role that’s been vacant since November 2024 and been the source of much turmoil between the CHA board and Johnson. Two interim CEOs, including Brewer, have led CHA operations as the search for a permanent leader stalled.
Burnett stepped down from the City Council last July with the expectation of being appointed to lead the CHA but has faced steady resistance from the Board of Commissioners, with Brewer accusing the mayor of pressuring the agency behind the scenes on his ally even though the body never seriously considered Burnett.
Johnson, for his part, has argued Burnett’s lived experience as a former resident of the Cabrini-Green public housing complex and as longtime “dean” of the City Council made him more than qualified for the role. Last month, the mayor also asserted that there are no conflicts with Burnett’s candidacy that necessitate a pending waiver from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, a question posed by Brewer due to the fact Burnett and his wife own property in which CHA voucher recipients live.
The freshman progressive mayor began 2026 with all three of the city’s sister agencies lacking permanent heads for at least a year amid political turmoil at City Hall. CPS settled its superintendent search on Monday by approving Macquline King, while the question of the next permanent leader of the Chicago Transit Authority remains in limbo. Johnson on Tuesday did not answer a question on his timeline on appointing a new CTA president, after Dorval Carter resigned in January 2025.
Meanwhile, the unusual conflict at the CHA board comes as the mayor approaches the end of his third year in office. Besides the flap over Pettigrew’s appointment, board member Debra Parker has also battled Brewer following a probe into her alleged fraud with her CHA voucher.
Parker, the other “No” on Pettigrew besides Malone, tried to disrupt the board’s approval of the new CEO by repeating, “This vote is out of order.” On Wednesday, she indicated she may be heading for the exit.
“(I’m) strongly considering stepping down at the next Board meeting, that’s what my children want,” Parker said in a text statement.
