After facing an onslaught of criticism last week for a shake-up in his City Hall lobbying team that involved elevating a key appointee who drew fire for comments about police officers and the Gaza war, Mayor Brandon Johnson downplayed the mounting broadsides Monday.

The mayor defended former progressive organizer Kennedy Bartley, whose appointment to head up his intergovernmental affairs office set off the controversy.

“Here’s someone who has apologized. She has sought atonement,” Johnson said. “I mean, isn’t that what this is about? Being able to have the grace of God, where, even when we say things that are harmful, that we can recognize those who seek atonement and then ask for grace and for forgiveness?”

Bartley started her job as chief external affairs officer in hot water for newly surfaced controversial statements.

She referred to police as “f—ing pigs” in a 2021 podcast where she discussed the police slaying of Elijah McClain in Colorado. City Council critics also took issue with a tweet she shared two days after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack: “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free. Amen!”

Asked Monday about Bartley’s comments, Johnson said they do not reflect his positions. He touted his administration’s work to reduce homicides — down 2.1% this summer compared to last year — and highlighted the annual 5% raises a new collective bargaining agreement gave Chicago’s police rank and file.

Then he praised “the grace the people of Chicago have given” Bartley.

When Johnson named Bartley to her new post, his top political lobbyist, Sydney Holman, promptly resigned. Then a top progressive City Council ally blasted him for having police walk two more fired intergovernmental affairs workers out the door.

The co-chair of the council’s Progressive Caucus, Ald. Maria Hadden, 49th, took issue with the way he handled the firing of the staffers.

Hadden called the entire reshuffling “very disturbing” in a newsletter to constituents and added that she was disappointed Johnson had the two employees, who she said are both Black women, walked out of City Hall by police.

She told the Tribune Monday that she has learned the police-removal policy had already been in place, but added that it is nonetheless a bad use of officers and “humiliating.” She called on the mayor to tweak the firing protocol.

“Our simple existence in a system that is not progressive does not all of a sudden make that system progressive,” she said. “You can’t just let everything be the same.”

But Johnson quickly brushed aside Hadden’s critique at the news conference. Police removing fired employees is “what happens in the adult world,” he said.

“It’s very standard procedure,” Johnson said.

The mayor declined to say what prompted the intergovernmental affairs shake-up after an unrelated event Monday at Soldier Field. As usual, he cited his policy of never discussing “personnel issues,” adding that to do so would be “infinitely unproductive and unconscionable.”

“When people earn my confidence and maintain that confidence, they will continue to be a part of the transformation of being a better, stronger, safer Chicago,” he said.

Bartley apologized to aldermen in phone calls and emails last week. In one note, she offered “unequivocal” remorse for the comments.

“I take full responsibility for the impact that they’ve made,” she wrote. “I want nothing more than to build and rebuild relationships, do the work of understanding and listening, and continuing the honor of serving our great city by bringing all 50 wards and all 77 communities areas the resources and infrastructure they deserve.”

jsheridan@chicagotribune.com

Originally Published: September 16, 2024 at 5:35 p.m.