Johnson proposes more debt to settle police misconduct suits
[October 29, 2026]
By Sean Reed | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – As a part of the city's budget negotiations,
Chicago aldermen discussed the city's obligation to pay for Chicago
Police Department misconduct settlements, which the mayor's budget
recommends be paid for by taking on $481 million of debt.
The city’s near half-million-dollar recommended debt issuance stems from
multiple police misconduct settlements, including the largest single
settlement in U.S. history.
On Oct. 14, the city council approved a $260 million settlement over the
misconduct of former Det. Reynaldo Guevara, who was accused of coercing
false confessions, falsifying records and more.
An earlier $90 million settlement tied to 200 different misconduct suits
related to former Sgt. Ronald Watts, also accused of framing suspects
and other misconduct, combined with the Guevara settlement, drew
scrutiny from aldermen, including Samantha Nugent.
“I just want to really emphasize this point with my colleagues. We've
heard today from our folks in the panel that it's pretty unprecedented
to borrow for settlements. It has changed the budget gap by $200
million,” Nugent said.
There's a dispute between how Johnson's office and Chief Financial
Officer Ashlee Gabrysch described the budget based on if they count the
debt toward the full city budget’s funding gap, which greatly differs
depending on if it's counted.
Mayor Brandon Johnson said the cases being settled together could save
the city upwards of $400 million and significantly cut their backlog of
misconduct lawsuits, rather than taking each case to a trial.
“Between those two cases, they comprise over 72% of those legacy cases.
So just put that into context, over the course of my three years, we've
been able to resolve 72% of the lingering settlements that have dogged
this city for generations,” Johnson said.
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A Chicago police car is parked in downtown Chicago. Photo: Greg
Bishop / The Center Square
Gabrysch gave aldermen a breakdown of the borrowing and how much the
city would have to pay for misconduct settlements and additional
costs related to the bond issuance.
“The authority being asked for is $480 million. Only $350 million of
that is what the city plans to bond out for in fiscal [year] 2027,
with the remaining $130 million being bonded out for in fiscal
[year] 2028 – corresponding to the second half of the Guvera
settlement,” Gabrysch said.
Gabrysch was appointed in August, giving the officer a
shorter-than-usual amount of time to prepare for the budgeting
process.
Nonetheless, she had recommendations for how the city could improve
some processes in budgeting for settlements in the future.
“I would highly suggest that we engage with an actuarial firm that
can do analysis and probabilistic projections of what this looks
like. Our sister agencies, Cook County, has been doing that for 15
years,” Gabrysch said. “If we want to start budgeting differently, I
think we need to start analyzing the numbers differently.”
The city council will continue their nearly two-week series of
meetings through Thursday, before picking back up next Wednesday.
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