A Chicago Housing Authority board member had a “sexually graphic conversation” in front of agency employees and has been reprimanded by the interim board chair, according to a report from the housing authority’s Office of the Inspector General.
The report did not name the board member, nor did it get into the details of the incident. The “allegations of misconduct,” the report said, were received in January 2023, including that the commissioner “may have communicated inappropriately with multiple employees in public forums.” Per OIG policy, the complaint was referred to outside counsel.
Francine Washington, who has been on the board since 2014, told the Tribune that she was the board member discussed in the report.
She said she thinks the report was in reference to a crude comment she made about needing to go home and have sex after CHA’s attorney representing the agency in contract negotiations with the union spoke negatively about one of CHA’s employee union representatives in front of the board. Washington said the attorney said, “Negotiations would have been OK except for you know who,” calling the union rep “a problem.”
Washington said the attorney’s comments “shocked” her and were coming from a place of “white privilege.”
“I said, ‘I need to go home and get laid.’ (My statement had) no sexual connotations against anyone and was not as bad as what she (the attorney) said,” Washington told the Tribune. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
The report on Washington comes as the CHA is in a tussle with another resident leader about the Chicago Fire soccer team’s land lease deal. The public housing authority, the third-largest in the country, has also been bleeding staff in recent months. Eight high-ranking officials have left the agency since August, including one who was fired. As it reckons with the departures of these senior leaders and searches for a new CEO, the agency has launched a series of initiatives for 2025, including moves meant to increase housing and safety for residents.
In response to Tribune questions, the CHA said in a statement: “The Chicago Housing Authority is committed to fostering a culture of respect and accountability to uphold ethical and professional standards for all stakeholders, including our Commissioners and staff members.” The agency said it could not comment on personnel matters but that “we take all allegations of misconduct seriously.”
Through a spokesperson, Mayor Brandon Johnson declined to comment. The mayor appoints CHA board commissioners.
The OIG also found that the CHA has no harassment policy applicable to the board.
Outside legal counsel recommended, according to the OIG report, that the agency amend the board’s bylaws and employee handbook and that the board undergo annual ethics training.
The bylaw amendment recommendations included a code of conduct that addresses harassment and bullying, a formal reporting and review process to “address commissioner misconduct, with appropriate sanctions, including but not limited to censure, up to and including a recommendation for removal,” and a requirement that board commissioners attend annual training on CHA’s board bylaws, ethics policy “and other topics, including discrimination and harassment.”
The CHA’s interim board chairman, Matthew Brewer, agreed with the OIG’s recommendations, the report said, and confirmed that the agency has engaged outside counsel to help draft amendments to the board’s bylaws. Brewer said in the report that commissioners have participated in annual ethics and sexual harassment training for the last few years and that future training will be held on the code of conduct. CHA did not respond to Tribune questions regarding the status of those bylaw revisions.
The OIG report also says Brewer met with the commissioner whose behavior was in question and that the commissioner “committed to the Chair that they would not engage in similar behavior in the future.”
Washington, known for her candor and direct questions, said she remembers Brewer talking to her after the incident but does not recall the details of the conversation. She said the person she thinks reported her comment, the head of human resources at the CHA, was trying to make her look bad and was mad at her for asking a lot of questions of the agency.
“I tell on myself all the time,” Washington said. “If I say something, I mean what I said, and I’m not going to say something and then deny it.”
Dominick Maniscalco, the CHA’s head of human resources, declined to comment through an attorney he is considering retaining in relation to the matter with Washington.
Separately from the incident with the CHA attorney, Washington said if someone talks to her about religion or politics, she will “ask about their love life” to change the subject. The CHA did not respond to a Tribune question asking whether that line of inquiry would be permitted under the new board bylaws.
Bylaws aside, Washington said she is not going to change her ways.
“All the board members know me,” Washington said. “I don’t change with the weather. … I love being a public housing resident and I love my residents and am not going to do anything to hurt the residents or the authority.”
The Tribune’s Gregory Royal Pratt contributed.
