Paul Goodrich at Center of Chicago Intern Contracting Scandal

Paul Goodrich, who ran city operations under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, allegedly used that position to land his son a paid internship at a city contractor and then pushed nearly $10 million in additional taxpayer money toward that same firm, according to a report from the Chicago Inspector General’s office.

The findings drop Goodrich into the middle of a contracting and nepotism scandal that’s put both Lightfoot and her successor, Mayor Brandon Johnson, in an uncomfortable spot.

Inspector General Deborah Witzburg released the report without naming specific officials or their titles. The Chicago Sun-Times confirmed from sources that the unnamed city official is Goodrich and that the contractor at issue is EKI-Digital, a Chicago firm run by businessman Robert Blackwell Jr.

Blackwell isn’t some stranger to Chicago’s political circles. He’s a friend of former President Barack Obama and has contributed to Obama’s campaigns. Witzburg declined comment. Goodrich and Blackwell didn’t return requests for comment.

When Lightfoot brought Goodrich on in 2021, City Hall issued a press release framing his duties as “the oversight, development and implementation of strategic mayoral initiatives and policy priorities for Chicago’s infrastructure, transportation, regulatory and municipal administrative services.” Lightfoot was quoted in that same release: “For years, Paul dedicated his career to making businesses and organizations work more efficiently.”

Five years later, that description sits in a different context entirely.

The inspector general’s report describes a top city official who allegedly arranged a paid internship for his own son inside a firm holding a city contract, then worked to direct roughly $10 million in additional payments to that firm, payments that may not have been legitimately owed. It’s a sequence that cuts hard against the anti-corruption brand Lightfoot spent four years selling to Chicago voters.

The Johnson administration confirmed pieces of the story. A spokesperson said Goodrich directed Blackwell’s firm to perform work in March and April 2023 that fell outside its contract with the city’s Department of Technology and Innovation. The city later settled with Blackwell to head off litigation. “Consequently, the Johnson administration implemented new policies to prevent vendors from performing non-contracted work,” the spokesperson said.

That’s an acknowledgment of a problem. It’s not a full reckoning with one.

EKI-Digital has been on the city’s vendor rolls since the early 2000s, when the late Mayor Richard M. Daley controlled City Hall. The firm held its relationship through Lightfoot’s tenure and has carried on under Johnson. Records in the city’s online contract database show EKI-Digital has remained active under a separate consulting arrangement with the technology department.

What the report captures is a pattern that Chicago residents have seen before. A connected firm. A senior official. Contracts that grow. A family member who benefits. The inspector general’s office documented all of it. Nobody named in the findings has offered a public explanation.

That’s where things stand as of 2026. Witzburg’s office issued its findings. The Johnson administration put out a statement. The Chicago Sun-Times confirmed the identities. And Goodrich, whose job once carried a mandate to make city government run cleaner and smarter, hasn’t said a word publicly.

The $10 million question, whether taxpayers got anything worth that price, hasn’t been answered.