Raging email from Chicago mayor reveals tense relationship with workers

An angry email sent by Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to then-aide Taylor Lewis reveals a toughness — bordering on toxicity — that has sparked public scrutiny.

In the missive, she repeats several sentences in a condescending fashion.

“Since my prior requests for office time are routinely ignored, I am now resorting to this,” Lightfoot says in the email, which was sent on Jan. 28 and posted on Twitter by Chicago Tribute reporter Gregory Pratt.

Following the introduction, Lightfoot goes one to say: “I need office time everyday!” which she repeats 16 times.

Her tirade continues in the next paragraph, where she harps: “Not just one a week or some days, everyday! … breaks or transition times between meetings are not office time,” she says — seven times.

And it continues: “If this doesn’t change immediately, I will just start unilaterally canceling things every day,” before delivering one final blow: “Have I made myself clear, finally?!” (repeated 13 times).

The email, obtained by the Chicago Tribune, comes after many top City Hall staffers quit or planned to quit their jobs because of the mayor’s notoriously abrasive leadership style.

“It is somewhat unusual. I haven’t seen it like this,” veteran Alderman Walter Burnett Jr. said about the staff turnover.

On Monday, Lightfoot, who has held office since 2019, addressed the email at a news conference, where she said she feels that things are in a “better place” now.

“Obviously, to write an email like that comes after a lot of conversation and borne of frustration,” she said.

“We got beyond that and solved the challenges which were at the heart of that email, which was written some five months ago,” she added. “I think we’re in a better place.”

Other mayors bully as well

Lightfoot’s email isn’t anything new in the world of politics. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was labeled a bully in the workplace when the New York Post in 2017 obtained emails that showed him using threatening tactics.

“I’m not raising this again: fix it, or I will [have] no choice but to find a way to penalize people. Not my preference, but I won’t have my instructions ignored,” de Blasio said in one email from 2015.

Another showed his displeasure when staffers failed to use phonetic versions of words for speeches or talking engagements.

“This is literally the 100th time I am reminding you all that phonetic spellings require one syllable to be capitalized to indicate emphasis in pronunciation,” de Blasio said.

“I have no idea why you guys can’t get it. All of the folks in comms, speechwriting, and my personal staff who looked at these remarks — it just takes ONE to catch it.”

More recently, former Bozeman, Montana, Mayor Chris Mehl resigned in September over allegations that he bullied his staff and interfered with the city administration.

Public documents show numerous exchanges between city staffers and Bozeman city commissioners, including a memo between a city commissioner and the interim city manager, which details Mehl’s alleged behavior: “… on at least three separate occasions, in meetings with Mayor Mehl, the Mayor became angry and abusive toward him, causing the interim city manager to be concerned for his safety and consider whether he wished to continue serving in the Interim City Manager role.”

One of the documents acquired via the Freedom of Information Act showed that a former city manager left her job at Mehl’s office because of how he treated her, according to the report.