One of the running gags in "This Is Spinal Tap" deals with the frequent and sudden turnover of the band's drummers, with one dying in a "freak gardening accident" and another spontaneously combusting. That position seems relatively stable, however, compared with the recent history of the job of Chief Financial Officer for the City of Chicago.
As 2026 began, Mayor Brandon Johnson's CFO Jill Jaworski was on a glide path out of the Administration, having accepted a similar position at Navy Pier. Her acting replacement Steven Mahr quit over the summer, around the same time as the resignation of budget director Annette Guzman. The mayor's selection to be the next CFO, Fitch Ratings senior analyst Ashlee Gabrysch, had spent years reviewing the city's finances for purposes of determining bond and credit ratings, and when she was hired in August the mayor praised her experience and her understanding of how rating agencies saw finances.
But she resigned on Friday, submitting a letter to the mayor which appears to suggest that she believed she was being asked to compromise her integrity.
"The Chief Financial Officer's statements about the City's finances are relied upon by investors, rating agencies, City Council, and taxpayers, and they must be complete and accurate," Gabrysch wrote in her letter. "I am not able to fulfill those obligations under the conditions in which I have been asked to serve."
The mayor's office responded with a statement which claims in part that Gabrysch was "largely absent" during preparations leading up to the introduction of the budget. A spokesperson also suggested that Gabrysch acted without legal authority on November 6, when she directed a $75 million parking meter windfall toward pension debt, four days after 44 aldermen approved a measure calling for that payment but before the mayor had formally signed it. Johnson's office says it's asked Inspector General David Glockner, himself appointed by the mayor in April, to look into the matter.
Gabrysch publicly broke with the mayor during City Council budget hearings October 26 when she contradicted his claims that the $17.6 billion "Fair Share" spending plan for 2027 closed a budget gap of $660 million (it was actually $882 million, she said), and that the revenue on which it depended was 76% "structural," meaning long-term and not one-time (more like 56%, she said).
"That sent a very loud signal to us that something was very wrong right out of the box with the mayor's budget," North side Ald. Scott Waguespack told me Friday morning, barely an hour after the news of Gabrysch's resignation broke. The longtime 32nd Ward alderman is calling for City Council hearings to find out more about Gabrysch's experience working inside the Johnson Administration, including (if possible) testimony from her: "That would be great."
South side Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd Ward), the chair of the City Council's powerful Finance Committee, has also publicly called for an independent audit of the mayor's budget before any votes are taken, though Ald. Waguespack noted that "the audit was done by this CFO, who just resigned."
The mayor and Council were already heading toward a showdown when a majority of aldermen signed a letter at the conclusion of budget hearings this week saying his spending plan as introduced did not have enough votes to pass, in part because of his insistence on including a per-worker corporate "head tax," which many aldermen consider a "job killer." He's responded by deriding opponents as the "corporate caucus."
But Ald. Waguespack says Gabrysch's resignation suggests she's sending a message that "you can't trust this mayor's budget," and that Johnson needs to rework it if it has any hopes of passing muster with 26 of his colleagues before December 31st. The mayor's office has tried to refute Gabrysch's suggestions that she was being asked to be less than transparent, but the allegations now hang large over City Council chambers, and may erode whatever leverage the mayor's been hoping to gain by trying to link his opponents to the "billionaire class."
In the meantime, the mayor's picked city Comptroller Michael Belsky, a former suburban elected leader who seems to enjoy the respect of City Council, as acting CFO. One hopes Belsky doesn't take up drumming in the meantime.
