Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) said Thursday he’s working to explain to the Illinois State Board of Elections what happened to $165,000 in campaign contributions he has received over the years. But, he added, if there were anything “nefarious” about how the money was spent, “I’d be in jail.”
“My accountant and my lawyers are working on that. It’s fine. It hasn’t gone anywhere. We’ve just got to reconcile it. And it will be reconciled,” Burnett said Thursday.
The Chicago City Council’s 60-year-old dean and newly-designated vice-mayor was asked whether there was “anything nefarious going on” or whether he used the money improperly for personal use.
“Not at all. Not at all. If that was the case, I’d be in jail,” Burnett said.
As for why the money has been difficult to account for, he said, “I don’t want to comment on that.”
The Chicago Sun-Times disclosed in November that Burnett had told the state board he’d put $375,000 from campaign contributions over the past two decades in investment accounts with various banks. Candidates are required to file periodic updates on what they do with campaign contributions. But Burnett stopped including any mention of $300,000 of that money in his campaign-finance reports.
Even after filing amended campaign-finance reports covering six years, his filings still haven’t accounted for $165,000.
While investigating Burnett’s campaign spending, the Sun-Times uncovered another controversy involving a West Garfield Park two-flat owned by Burnett and his wife.
Chicago police twice raided the property in 2019 looking for drug dealers selling heroin, marijuana and other drugs, seized a quantity of drugs and bullets and sued the Burnetts, taking the unusual step of accusing a member of the Chicago City Council of violating the city’s Drug and Gang House Ordinance and seeking more than $40,000 in fines for maintaining what they called a “public nuisance.”
They also arrested the Burnetts’ tenant — a woman who was on parole, who the police said had 2.5 grams of heroin and three handguns — and two men they said were found in possession of small amounts of crack cocaine and ecstasy.
The two police raids, the lawsuit and a court order that prevented anyone from living in the two-flat for a year came months after Burnett publicly backed Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s losing run in the 2019 mayoral election, Lightfoot’s first run for mayor.
Burnett said Thursday he has no idea whether the lawsuit was Lightfoot’s way of getting even.
He attributed the controversy to a “bad tenant” who was difficult to evict.
“We was doing everything right to put ’em out. Finally, we got ’em out. Every homeowner — in particular on the West and the South Side — goes through this. You get one of these people. The drug dealers coerce them. And you have to try to get ’em out of your building. And it’s hard to just put people out,” Burnett said.
“People sticking their fingers and nose up at us telling us you can’t do nothing to us. But we took care of it. It’s gone. It’s over with.”
Darlena Williams-Burnett has told the Sun-Times her husband didn’t want to purchase the property because it was located in a drug-ridden neighborhood. Had she heeded her husband’s advice, Darlena Williams-Burnett said the embarrassing controversy could have been avoided.
“That’s my wife. I love her,” said Walter Burnett, who’s been married for 32 years.
“I’m not looking to get in no fights with my wife.”
Contributing: Tim Novak
