As questions linger over allegations of unethical behavior by Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, the Tribune has uncovered a new complaint from a former employee who said they were forced to attend an event where seniors were tricked into signing political petitions to receive a free ham.

Newly released records also shed more light on previously reported ethics allegations surrounding Conyears-Ervin and her husband, Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th. Emails released by the city show Conyears-Ervin directly asked top BMO Harris Bank officials to issue a loan to her husband’s landlord, who is a longtime close family friend.

The Tribune first reported in September that two high-ranking employees in the treasurer’s office alleged they were retaliated against and fired after reporting that Conyears-Ervin engaged in a series of unethical and illegal behavior. Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration used city funds to pay the women a $100,000 settlement and then fought for roughly two years to conceal the details of their whistleblower complaint. Brandon Johnson released the information to the Tribune after taking over as mayor.

The new allegations involve a third former city employee, who said in Conyears-Ervin’s first few months in office after being elected in 2019 that they were directed to use a vacation day to accompany Conyears-Ervin and her husband to four senior housing complexes for a holiday ham giveaway.

Residents “had to sign for” the hams, according to a May 2021 email sent by the employee to the city’s inspector general’s office.

“What the residents didn’t know is that they were signing petitions to place two individuals on the state representative ballots to be elected,” the employee wrote in the email, provided to the Tribune under the state’s open records act. The records do not name the employee.

[ Chicago treasurer accused of misconduct and ethical violations in letter city kept secret for years ]

At the time, the couple was supporting candidates Gina Zuccaro and Trina Mangrum in two separate state representative races. Both Zuccaro and Mangrum lost.

The same email alleged Conyears-Ervin also misled the employee into thinking the treasurer would be speaking about city services at churches when Conyears-Ervin was actually campaigning.

The treasurer had said she wanted “to share initiatives out of the City Treasurer’s office” and “that is not what I found her to be doing,” the worker wrote.

The allegations were reported to Chicago’s human resources department and inspector general’s office in 2021. That was months after a lawyer for the two high-ranking aides sent a legal demand letter to City Hall alleging unethical conduct by the treasurer. It’s unclear whether city officials took any action over the third worker’s complaints.

The allegations show more turmoil in Conyears-Ervin’s administration than has been previously reported as she ramps up a run for the congressional seat that represents a district stretching from the West Side to downtown held by longtime U.S. Rep. Danny Davis.

[ City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin running for Congress amid allegations of unethical conduct ]

Conyears-Ervin declined a Tribune interview request, but her office released a statement denying wrongdoing.

“Office policy forbids any official staffer from attending a political event on City time,” the statement said, adding that the worker’s complaint to human resources “greatly misrepresents the work of this office, and bears no resemblance to how this office is managed today.”

A spokesperson for Jason Ervin said he “routinely provides services and assistance to constituents through his political organizations. He offers residents an opportunity to engage in politics if and only if they choose and any allegation implying otherwise is entirely false.”

In their December 2020 letter, the two former aides, Tiffany Harper and Ashley Evans, alleged Conyears-Ervin used government workers for her personal benefit, including to plan her daughter’s birthday party and to be her bodyguard, in addition to broad claims that Conyears-Ervin repeatedly misused taxpayer resources and pressured public employees to help her political allies.

The two alleged Conyears-Ervin used Zuccaro, a treasurer’s office employee, “for personal services like running errands.”

“The Treasurer also used City resources to support Ms. Zuccaro’s run for the … Illinois House of Representatives seat by allowing her to campaign on City time,” the letter stated. “This misuse of hiring to obtain personal services and favor her allies is a pervasive problem, extending well past these two employees to numerous other employees and contractors.”

Zuccaro has not returned messages seeking comment. Conyears-Ervin has denied asking her staff members to run errands on city time but has declined to address whether they did work for her on their personal time.

The December 2020 letter was referred to the city inspector general’s office, according to the head of the Chicago Board of Ethics, who added that the board couldn’t do more unless it received detailed findings from the IG. Inspector General Deborah Witzburg has said she’s unable to comment. Following the Tribune’s reporting about the letter, investigators with Witzburg’s office seized computers from the treasurer’s City Hall offices.

[ Chicago inspector general’s office seizes computers from city treasurer’s office ]

In their letter, Harper and Evans also alleged Conyears-Ervin attempted to leverage the city’s banking relationship with BMO to “force” the bank to issue a mortgage on a building that houses her husband’s aldermanic office.

Conyears-Ervin has said she simply made a connection “to aid the organization in finding out its options.”

The landlord of that building, the Rev. Johnny Miller, is a longtime family friend and the couple’s pastor at Mount Vernon Baptist Church, records and interviews show.

Conyears-Ervin also personally raised the possibility of a loan for Miller’s church in a meeting with top bank officials David Casper and Mary Kenney, emails obtained by the Tribune show. Conyears-Ervin’s congressional campaign office is located in the church building, according to her campaign.

Kenney documented the request in an email to Evans.

“Dave and I met with the Treasurer earlier this week and she asked if we could meet with the Pastor to discuss options for refinancing his community center,” Kenney wrote in the email.

Kenney later followed up to say they connected with Miller “and are going to review his file.”

“I’m not sure that we will be able to help, but we are going to review and see what we can do,” Kenney wrote. “He is sending us materials. Please let the Treasurer know.”

Casper has since retired and did not return a message seeking comment. Kenney is head of U.S. public affairs at BMO Financial Group. A spokesperson for the bank declined to comment.

In a statement, Conyears-Ervin’s spokesperson said “the sole intent and extent of the Treasurer’s involvement” was making an introduction for Miller.

Miller has long-standing ties to the Ervin family. In an interview, Miller told the Tribune he has known Conyears-Ervin since she was a child and that he drove her to school along with his daughter.

Conyears-Ervin acknowledged the relationship through her spokesperson, who said: “Pastor Miller has and continues to play an important role in the City Treasurer’s life, and she will always be grateful for his love, support, and spiritual guidance over the years.”

In 1997, Miller was chairman of a West Side vigil committee with Jason Ervin’s father, Claudell, who was a police commander overseeing the area.

That same year, Miller started talks with the city to buy land at 2622 W. Jackson Blvd. that later became home to his church and a community center. In February 2001, the city of Chicago sold the property to Mount Vernon for $110,000. Miller signed for the Mount Vernon Community Foundation, which he leads.

In June 2006, the foundation took out a loan for $5 million, due on June 1, 2009. In addition to the church, the building has amenities such as basketball courts for community programs.

But the center has had financial struggles over the years. In 2011, the lender, Evangelical Christian Credit Union, foreclosed on the property, though it later dropped the proceedings.

In September 2011, the Illinois Department of Revenue granted the property a 100% property tax exemption for the 2010 assessment year based on the property’s purported use for 100% religious purposes. Public records, however, show the church has received $152,386 from the city over the past decade, most of it for rent on behalf of Ervin’s office. It also received $431,128 from Chicago Public Schools.

Miller told the Tribune he did not ask Conyears-Ervin to intercede on his behalf and said the bank’s loan status wasn’t a secret, as he discussed it at church. Ervin, the alderman, is a board member at the church, he said.

Miller said he wanted to refinance his building because the mortgage was sold to another lender. BMO Harris did not ultimately give the church a loan.

“If BMO had done us a favor or anything like that, we wouldn’t be paying $34,000 a month now,” Miller said.

The treasurer and the alderman have remained close with Miller. Last November, Conyears-Ervin beamed as Miller renewed her wedding vows to Ervin, who smiled in a tuxedo. Lightfoot sat near the front.

The allegations of misconduct against Conyears-Ervin aren’t the first faced by the couple. Before becoming alderman in 2011, Ervin was the village manager for west suburban Maywood and was suspended by the town’s trustees for engaging in political activities during a workday. A Fox-32 TV camera captured him reviewing campaign petitions belonging to a rival of the mayor’s wife. Ervin denied wrongdoing at the time.

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