CHICAGOBUSINESS.COM I APRIL 22, 2024
City Hall’s new progressive chief of staff Cristina Pacione-Zayas believes government has a role in righting historic wrongs By Leigh Giangreco
PHOTOS BY ERIC WOLFINGER
In Washington, the power brokers of old were JFK and FDR. On Capitol Hill today, congressional gossip buzzes around AOC and MTG. In Chicago politics, the three-letter acronym you need to know now is CPZ. Cristina Pacione-Zayas, or CPZ, as you’ll hear around the fifth floor of City Hall, was appointed as Mayor Brandon Johnson’s new chief of staff at the beginning of this month. Before her promotion, she served as Johnson’s deputy chief of staff. In that role, her acronymic moniker became well known in part as she took the helm of the city's migrant response — a task that raised her profile while also making her a lightning rod as the Johnson administration struggled to deal with the influx of asylumseekers being bussed in from Texas. She is the lone Latina inside the male-dominated “Core Four” — a group that until March included her predecessor in the chief of staff role, Rich Guidice, as well as city Chief Operating Officer John Roberson and senior adviser
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Cristina Pacione-Zayas | WTTW NEWS
Jason Lee, who is known to throw his weight around City Council members with a bluster mimicking the Machine days of old-school, Chicago horse trading. By contrast, politicians and colleagues describe PacioneZayas as assertive yet compassionate. She is a selfdescribed Type A personality, one who is armored with an electronic writing tablet where she takes detailed notes. Her former colleague in the Illinois Senate, state Sen. Omar Aquino, described the first time she presented a See CITY HALL on Page 24
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DINING Restaurateur’s plan for a dining and entertainment complex on Goose Island is scrapped. PAGE 3
SPORTS Fight over a signage law has exposed an ongoing feud between the Cubs and a nearby rooftop owner. PAGE 8