Johnson picks new deputy mayor of community safety, transportation commissioner, 7 more new hires

Mayor Brandon Johnson announced a big round of new hires Wednesday morning, including a replacement for Garien Gatewood, who was fired last month from his post as deputy mayor for community safety.

Johnson also announced that William Cheaks Jr. will serve as commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation, an appointment that requires City Council approval. Craig Turner has been serving as acting commissioner since last summer.

The rest of the new hires are positions in the mayor’s office.

Emmanuel Andre is the new deputy mayor for community safety. A news release from the mayor’s office calls him a “leader in Chicago’s restorative justice movement.”

Andre is an attorney who most recently served as a senior member of the Cook County public defender’s office. While there, he built support systems for young people navigating the court system and focused on the ones “most impacted by systemic harm,” according to the news release. Andre also helped expand Cook County’s restorative justice community courts and co-founded Circles and Ciphers, a nonprofit focused on restorative justice and community-based approaches to safety.

Gatewood was abruptly fired from the post last month. He had been serving in the role since Johnson took office and created the job in May 2023. One of Gatewood’s top deputies, Manuel Whitfield, director of violence prevention and community safety, was also fired.

Gatewood oversaw the community safety plan Johnson credits with historic drops in violent crime. He was fired amid allegations of a hostile work environment and self-promotion. Before he was fired, Gatewood filed a formal complaint against top mayoral aides with the city inspector general’s office in October, accusing them of interference in City Hall’s contracting process.

Cheaks, Johnson’s pick to lead the city’s transportation department, is a City Hall veteran with more than four decades of experience “managing large-scale infrastructure and public operations,” according to the mayor’s news release.

He most recently served as managing deputy commissioner at the Department of Water Management. He oversaw a workforce of 1,800 employees, a $1.58 billion budget and led efforts to modernize the department and improve accountability and workplace safety.

Before that, he spent over a decade at CDOT as the deputy commissioner of infrastructure management and in-house construction. A lifelong Chicagoan, Cheaks began his career as a laborer, according to the news release.

Turner was elevated to serve as CDOT’s acting commissioner last July. He previously served as the department’s first deputy commissioner for over two years. Before that, he led the department’s electrical operations division.

Johnson announced seven other new hires Tuesday:

• Jonah Anderson will now serve in a dual role as first deputy mayor for health and human services and director of the mayor’s office of homelessness. Within the mayor’s office, Anderson has helped lead Johnson’s homelessness strategy and was the primary point of contact for Health and Human Services on the office of homelessness. Sendy Soto recently left her role as the city’s first-ever chief homelessness officer. The mayor’s office said her two-year role was a temporary one supported by a grant.
• Max Budovitch is now the deputy mayor for business, economic, and neighborhood development. Budovitch previously was the first deputy for BEND, where he worked with eight city departments and sister agencies relating to planning, housing, business affairs, consumer protection, economic development, tourism, cultural affairs and special events, according to the mayor’s office.
• Brian Tyler replaces Budovitch as the first deputy for BEND. He previously was BEND’s managing deputy.
• Militza M. Pagán will now be the deputy mayor for labor relations. Pagán previously served as the first deputy of labor relations since April 2023.
• Marissa Arrez becomes the deputy chief of external affairs. She previously served as first deputy for the mayor’s office of immigrant, migrant and refugee rights.
• Joshua Smyser-De Leon was hired as the deputy director of City Council intergovernmental affairs. He previously worked as the communications director for 1st Ward Ald. Daniel La Spata and was a government affairs manager at Comcast.
• Allison Novelo was hired as a press secretary for Johnson’s office. She previously worked in communications for Cook County government. She also was a reporter for CBS News and the Chicago Sun-Times.