A substitute teacher owes City Hall nearly $200,000 for building code violations, fines and traffic tickets he racked up over the past 25 years, making him the single biggest debtor working for the city of Chicago or its sister agencies.
A convicted bank robber landed an entry-level job with the CTA’s Second Chance program even though City Hall says he owes more than $136,000 in fines, mostly for drinking in public and selling individual cigarettes near Douglass Park — a likely case of mistaken identity since he was in prison when the police issued those tickets.
The operator of a West Side religious store owed the city more than $28,000 in water bills, but it didn’t keep her from landing a job as a staff assistant to a City Council member who’s pushing Mayor Brandon Johnson to collect money from deadbeats.
They are among 12,761 people who work for the city or its sister agencies despite collectively owing City Hall more than $19.5 million for delinquent water bills, parking violations, speeding tickets, building-code violations and other infractions, according to data the city’s finance department provided to the Chicago Sun-Times in response to a public records request.
Nearly 80% of those scofflaws have jobs with the Chicago Board of Education or the Chicago Transit Authority, owing nearly $15.7 million to the city, records show.
When it comes to hiring, the Chicago Public Schools and the CTA say they don’t turn away applicants who owe money to City Hall even though the city can later garnish their paychecks.
The CTA “does not consider debt owed to the city of Chicago when making hiring decisions,” the agency said in a written statement. “Additionally, the CTA is unable to deduct city debts from employee paychecks without a court order for wage garnishment or if an employee voluntarily agrees to the deductions.”
Yet more than half of all city workers who owe the city money have never been enrolled in a payment plan with City Hall or had their paychecks garnished to pay their debts, according to a Sun-Times analysis of city records.
These employees owe a fraction of the $8 billion of unpaid debt that Chicago officials have failed to collect over the past 30 years, including $1 billion that has been added since Johnson took office in May 2023.
A push to sell city debt
As Johnson was pushing for new taxes and fees to balance his budget last fall, a majority of the 50 Chicago City Council members ordered him to explore selling at least $1 billion worth of debt, hoping it would bring in millions.
It’s unclear whether any people or businesses will submit bids to buy debt owed to City Hall, everything from unpaid water bills to parking tickets, since the city’s Finance Department tells the Chicago Sun-Times that some of the debts could be owed by city employees who have died.
“Before we explore selling the debt, we have to go after scofflaws,” said 34th Ward Ald. Bill Conway.
“When debts are owed to the city by its employees, we have mechanisms to address that,” he said, noting that City Hall can legally garnish as much as 25% of an employee’s paycheck under state and city laws.
Johnson, who had to pay the city nearly $5,000 to settle his own debts for unpaid water bill and tickets while he was running for mayor, has repeatedly balked at having debt collectors hound people to pay their debts to the city.
As part of the 2026 budget, alderpersons have asked Mayor Brandon Johnson to explore selling at least $1 billion worth of debt, in hopes it would return millions to city coffers.
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times file photo
Conway, a former prosecutor whose political career has been financially supported by his wealthy father, has a different viewpoint.
“It’s appropriate to pursue debt collection for people who have the means to pay,’’ he said. “The city does employ seven law firms to help with debt collection.”
Johnson’s finance team declined to discuss debts owed by any specific employee, but the department “regularly provides lists of outstanding debts to city departments and sister agencies,” the mayor’s deputy press secretary Griffin Krueger said. “Debts are tracked through the city’s collection systems, and individuals are notified of outstanding balances and the available options to resolve them.”
CPS teacher’s tab? $197,052
For 17 years, Walter Lee Turner has been a substitute teacher for CPS, paid $24.82 an hour.
During that time, Turner has owed the city of Chicago for a variety of unpaid debts — from building code violations on residential property he owns to unpaid parking tickets, city records show.
He owes the city $197,052, including $58,000 in penalties and interest, city records show.
Over the last eight years, City Hall has obtained eight garnishment orders against Turner, directing the school system to withhold money from his paychecks. It’s unclear how much the city has collected. In part, that’s because he keeps incurring new debts.
“They’ve been garnishing,” Turner said. “I didn’t go to fight it because I owe a lot.”
Turner filed for bankruptcy last summer without the aide of an attorney. His petition doesn’t mention the money he owes City Hall, the property he owns or his failure to file state income tax returns.
On top of his debts to City Hall, Turner also owes Cook County nearly $20,000 in delinquent property taxes on his Chatham condo, along with five other homes and a vacant lot in the city and two homes in Harvey, according to county records. Four of those properties weren’t disclosed in his bankruptcy petition.
A bankruptcy court trustee has asked a judge to dismiss Turner’s petition, which is one of 13 bankruptcy petitions he has filed since 1994.
Six years ago, CPS decided to stop disqualifying job applicants who owe money to the city, maintaining those applicants need a job to pay their debts.
“A candidate’s debt to the city of Chicago is not among the factors considered when making a hiring decision at CPS. Instead, the district prioritizes a candidate’s qualifications, experience and ability to support student success,” according to a written statement from CPS officials.
City Hall’s finance department regularly combs the payrolls, looking for scofflaws who are collecting paychecks from the city or its sister agencies, trying to collect debts through garnishments or payment plans.
In prison but still ticketed
City Hall’s records show the employee with the second-largest debt is Nikita Hampton, 58, who has a low-level job with the CTA after he spent more than 20 years in a federal prison for 11 bank robberies on the North Side.
Johnson’s administration provided the Sun-Times with records showing Hampton owes the city $136,000 — $75,450 in fines, $60,108 in interest and $1,320 in fees — from 34 citations Chicago police issued in his name between 2010 and 2019.
City Hall billed a man, now a CTA worker, for thousands of dollars in fines associated with offenses committed at Douglass Park, even though the man was in prison at the time the offenses occurred.
There’s a $200 fine for riding a bicycle on the sidewalk near Douglass Park on March 29, 2016. On July 18, 2017, there’s a $5,000 fine for selling loose cigarettes on the street near Douglass Park. On July 25, 2017, police issued a $10,000 fine to Hampton for selling loose cigarettes without a valid tobacco license on the sidewalk near Douglass Park.
Hampton was in prison when all 34 citations were issued in his name, likely for his namesake son, who was fatally stabbed three years ago. That’s difficult to confirm since the city redacted the birth dates and addresses from those tickets.
“No, that is not me,” Hampton said. “That must be somebody else. I didn’t get out until ‘23, so that’s not me. I don’t know how they got that confused with me. All you got to do is just check with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. I went in 2003 and didn’t get out until 2023. I don’t need no problems with my job with the city, or none of that, because they got some wrong information.”
Though city records show Hampton owes $136,180, the city hasn’t tried to garnish his CTA paycheck or enroll him in a payment plan.
City officials won’t discuss the Hampton citations.
A federal judge released Hampton from prison in December 2023. Seven months later, he got a job as a bus maintenance apprentice in the CTA’s Second Chance program. He was promoted to a train safety worker a few months ago, and now makes $23.93 an hour.
‘I’m on a payment plan’
Elizabeth Lockhart owed City Hall thousands of dollars for her water bill when she landed a $70,000-a-year job in November 2024 as an assistant to 37th Ward Ald. Emma Mitts, one of numerous City Council members pushing the mayor to collect money from debtors before raising taxes.
Ald. Emma Mitts (37th) says she didn’t know an assistant of hers owed the city more than $28,000 in unpaid water bills.
Mitts said she wasn’t aware Lockhart owed the city money until being asked about that by a Sun-Times reporter.
“I had no knowledge of that until I saw your email. I asked her about it, and she said she’s on a payment plan,” said Mitts, who said she doesn’t “have anything to do with the city on their hiring process.”
Lockhart is also executive director of the Healing Temple Church of God in Christ and owner of the Queen Liz Gospel Expression and Cafe in Oak Park.
Asked about her delinquent water bill, Lockhart said, “Why does the Sun-Times care if city employees owe money? I don’t owe the city money. I’m on a payment plan.”
Lockhart owes the city $28,621.64 for her delinquent water bill. She’s among 32 City Council employees who owe a combined $82,014 to the city treasury. She’s the single largest debtor.
“We have to make sure we’re doing everything to collect that money,” Mitts said. “I always thought everybody had to pay their bills.”
