Overview
- Chicago’s inspector general detailed how a senior mayoral aide used City Hall clout to get their child a paid internship and pushed $9.6 million in payments to a contractor, and the Sun-Times identified the aide as former COO Paul Goodrich and the firm as EKI-Digital run by Robert Blackwell Jr.
- The report said the aide sought to expand the vendor’s scope, allowed work outside the contract, and backed invoices the office found contained false claims and other billing irregularities.
- Goodrich’s son interned at EKI-Digital from June 2022 to May 2023, according to his LinkedIn page cited by the Sun-Times.
- Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office said Goodrich directed EKI-Digital to do non-contracted work in March and April 2023, and the city later settled with the firm to avoid a court fight while putting new rules in place to block off-the-books work.
- On the inspector general’s advice, procurement officials began disbarment proceedings that could bar Blackwell and his companies from future city work, as Johnson highlighted actions under a prior administration and former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office said she had not been told of the probe.