Embattled Chicago Housing Authority CEO Lewis Jordan officially resigned on Tuesday following threats from Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Jordan who has been getting a lot of fire lately for his suspected misuse of the city’s credit card said, "This issue has become an impediment to my ability to steer this $1 billion a year organization.”
Last week, Emanuel said that he was in the process of conducting a review of city credit card use at the housing authority and other agencies and showed disfavor for Jordan by taking away Jordan's use of two agency cars and the police officers assigned to drive them. Since that time, the administration has posted select information online that indicates that Jordan paid for flowers and gift cards for employees using the card and charged more than $12,800 in meals over the course of three years. While it appears that nearly if not all of the meals appear to be documented business meetings the numbers have no doubt left some people gasping.
Jordan, who grew up in a Near West Side public housing complex, has done a lot for the company during his nearly four-year tenure but he feels that "over the past two weeks questions about the propriety of credit card use have overshadowed the good and important work of CHA.
"The charges in question amount to approximately $15,000 over three years, were not used for any personal expenditures, and were consistent with CHA and HUD policies and practices," Jordan wrote in his resignation letter to CHA Chairman Jim Reynolds.
Jordan was one of the few holdovers from Mayor Richard Daley’s tenure and many suspect he is just the first casualty of Emanuel’s administration.
As always, stay tuned to Credit Cards Professor for more credit card news and updates.
Image: http://www.thecha.org/pages/ceo_statement/122.php
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