Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been accused in a new lawsuit of throwing a temper tantrum over a plan to display a Christopher Columbus statue in the city’s annual Columbus parade last fall – threatening to pull the permit for the entire parade and then berating city officials in a ‘hastily called Zoom meeting.’
In a lawsuit against Lightfoot and the city, Former Chicago Park District deputy general counsel George Smyrniotis says he was tasked with hammering out a deal with lawyers for an Italian American group in order to try and settle a lawsuit over Lightfoot’s removal of Columbus statues from the city. According to Timothy King, then the district’s top lawyer, and then-superintendent Michael Kelly, the lawsuit needed to disappear “as soon as possible.”
Smyrniotis says that after hammering out the deal to display the Columbus statue in the annual parade (last, and covered up until the very end), Lightfoot flipped out.
During the contentious Zoom call with Park District Officials, Lighfoot “proceeded to berate and defame” the lawyers for the city – reportedly asking “Where did you go to law school? Did you even go to law school? Do you even have a law license?”
She then told them that they had to submit their pleadings to a city lawyer for approval, and were told “not to do a fucking thing with that statue without my approval,” according to the Chicago Tribune.
“Get that fucking statue back before noon tomorrow or I am going to have you fired,” Lightfoot said, per the complaint.
Smyrniotis then says Lightfoot made obscene comments to he and King – calling them “dicks,” and asking “What the fuck were you thinking?”
“You make some kind of secret agreement with Italians. … You are out there stroking your dick over the Columbus statue, I am trying to keep Chicago police officers from being shot and you are trying to get them shot,” she allegedly said, adding “My dick is bigger than yours and the Italians, I have the biggest dick in Chicago.”
Smyrniotis asserts the alleged comments defamed him by imputing that he lacked the ability to perform his job duties. He resigned from the Park District last month, according to the lawsuit. King has also since left the Park District.
In response to a request for a statement, a Law Department spokeswoman said, “The city has not yet been served with a complaint and will have no further comment as the matter is now in litigation.”
The lawsuit by Smyrniotis is just the latest fallout over Lightfoot’s July 2020 decision to remove Columbus statues from Chicago’s public places. -Chicago Tribune
Last July, the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans sued the Chicago Park District – asserting that the city violated a 1973 deal to display the Columbus statue in Little Italy, when Lightfoot had the statue removed in Summer 2020.
Lightfoot says she ordered Columbus statues removed after activists clashed with police and other protesters following their removal of a prominent Columbus statue in Grant Park.
An attorney for the Italian American group, Enrico Mirabelli, says Smyrniotis’ allegations strengthen his case.
“Presuming the mayor has been accurately quoted, her comments give proof to the claim that she has wrongfully interfered with my client’s contract with the Chicago Park District in a degree that is unprecedented,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ron Onesti, president of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans says he’s “literally outraged that someone in her position would ever use words like that to refer to any group of individuals.”
“When will it end with the disrespect?“
