A bizarre stand-off has developed in the office created 10 years ago to provide the City Council with independent advice on financial issues and avoid a repeat of the parking meter fiasco.

Budget Committe Chair Jason Ervin (28th) wants his colleagues to empower him to dump Kenneth Williams Sr. as the $123,000-a-year director of the Council Office of Financial Analysis after Williams refused to leave to make way for a director of Ervin’s own choosing.

The stand-off began on July 14, when Williams said he was summoned to Ervin’s office and told the newly-appointed Budget chair was “going in a different direction and I’m putting you on administrative leave” with pay.

“He took all my credentials and access away. I would love to come to work. I wasn’t allowed to come to work,” Williams, 50, said Wednesday.

“I enjoyed what I was doing. It was one of the best opportunities I ever had. I was denied access to come to work. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to come to work. I couldn’t come to work.”

Ever since then, Williams has been collecting a paycheck for doing nothing while serving out the remainder of a four-year term that ends June 1.

On Tuesday, Ervin tried to bring the stalemate to a conclusion.

After a brief executive session, he pushed a resolution through the Budget Committee that “hereby directs the removal” of Williams from the COFA director’s job.

The resolution notes the director “may be removed at any time with or without cause by a two-thirds” vote or 34 alderpersons.

Without saying why, the resolution states “it has become necessary and appropriate” for Williams to be removed.

“It’s not fair. I was appointed in May during COVID. It’s a four-year term. He should honor the terms of the appointment, which ends on June 1,” Wiliams said.

“I’m assuming he just wanted his own people. But that’s not what this job is supposed to be. It’s supposed to be a support system for the Council. ... It’s supposed to be a totally independent office similar to the [inspector general] where they come to me for unbiased consultation for any matter that they have regarding finances. It’s not supposed to be controlled by any one person or committee.”

Further complicating the issue is Williams’ health crisis. He is still recovering from a kidney transplant paid for with city health insurance he cannot go without.

Ervin refused to discuss his reasons for putting Williams on paid leave or seeking his ouster.

“The Council has the ability to move with or without cause. The reasons behind that are a personnel matter and I don’t want to get into … the whys of that,” Ervin told the Sun-Times.

Ervin said he has not yet offered the job to anyone.

Asked whether he has a replacement in mind, the chairman said, “Not specifically. We’ll go through a process for that if and when the position becomes available.”

COFA was created in 2014 to provide aldermen with expert advice on fiscal issues.

For nearly two years the reform was stuck in the mud over whether former Ald. Helen Shiller (46th) had the independence and policy expertise to lead the office.

Shiller ultimately withdrew her name, but the office was a bust, nevertheless.

In an attempt to breathe new life into the office, sponsors pushed through a series of changes.

Instead of allowing the Budget chair alone to request a financial analysis on a proposal impacting the city budget, any aldermen was allowed to make that request. The office was further required to produce activity reports quarterly instead of just annually.

The revised ordinance also transferred the power to hire a new director from a selection committee to the Budget chair alone, provided the City Council confirms the chairman’s choice by a two-thirds vote. 

Although the analyst would serve a four-year term, a two-thirds vote also could remove that person without cause.

Now former-Budget Chair Pat Dowell (3rd) then chose Williams, a former COFA analyst, citing his “extensive experience managing government budgets.”

Williams’ resume included stints as director of financial planning and analysis for the Chicago Housing Authority; financial research analyst and director of financial controls for Cook County and its bureau of economic development and director of resource management and support for the Chicago Public Schools.

Under Dowell, Williams said he was given the “autonomy” the ordinance demands.

“It’s not part of the Budget Committee. It has nothing to do with the Budget Committee. We had our own separate department, our own separate office and Ervin is merging the two together. He moved the office ... into City Hall,” Williams said.

“He’s merging everything together, which is distorting the independence of the department. He’s expanding the Budget Committee.”