ILL-inois: Tourism marketing boss got 6-figure severance after just 2 years on job

Chicago River

Stories such this one contribute to the numbing of Chicago.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Choose Chicago, the city's taxpayer-subsidized tourism bureau, secretly gave its chief marketing officer a six-figure payout when he left after just two and a half years on the job, newly released records show.

Warren R. Wilkinson abruptly left the organization in July 2013. That was less than two months after Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed President Barack Obama’s former White House social secretary Desiree Rogers as chairman of the Choose Chicago board, replacing Bruce Rauner, who stepped down to run for governor.

Wilkinson's sudden departure caused a stir because he'd just crafted a new advertising and marketing campaign for the city.

Choose Chicago officials won’t disclose the amount of Wilkinson's severance. They say that as a private, not-for-profit organization, Choose Chicago doesn't have to explain how it spends its $32 million budget, even though 87 percent of its money comes from taxpayers.

Taxpayers should choose to tell the politicians to shut off the cash spigot to Choose Chicago.

Wilkinson's severance was $253,000.

Shameful.