Chicago’s schools, its train and bus system and its public housing agency have all been without permanent leaders for at least a year now under Mayor Brandon Johnson, complicating their mission to deliver essential services without someone setting clear goals and funding priorities at the top.

As Johnson is about to reach the three-year mark in his first term, he has not named heads of the Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Housing Authority or Chicago Transit Authority, amid political challenges and sea changes in governance structures.

It has been several mayoral administrations since these jobs leading among the most powerful and important public agencies in the city have been vacant at the same time for so long. Personnel appointments have proven some of the mayor’s most difficult issues as he’s transitioned from a firebrand union organizer to a chief executive tasked with selecting trustworthy people to advance his progressive agenda.

Johnson said last week he intends to change that “as soon as we find individuals that fit the mold.”

“The interim process does not prevent us from executing government,” he said when pressed on his timeline at a City Hall news conference. “It’s not indicative of whether or not we can continue to accomplish our goals. It just shows you how thorough I am.”

The CTA’s last president, Dorval Carter, resigned at the end of January 2025. Ex-CPS CEO Pedro Martinez was fired in December 2024, though he stayed on as a lame-duck schools chief for six months. And the CHA’s CEO spot has been vacant since Tracey Scott stepped down in October 2024.

Ald. Jeanette Taylor, who once spoke out about getting off the CHA voucher waitlist after 29 years, said she is frustrated there is land owned by the CHA that could be used to build public housing in her South Side 20th Ward that is “all being wasted.”

“They are not moving, because they have not put anybody in the seat,” Taylor said, rattling off vacant CHA-owned lots in Washington Park. “We got homeless people. We got people who on the CHA waiting list still waiting 10, 20, 30 years later. And what have we developed in these communities? … So they better figure it out, and they better figure it out fast.”

Johnson, for his part, argued to reporters that “government does not get halted as we go through a full vetting process,” noting that the CTA secured critical funding from Springfield last fall under an interim president. He also said the searches for the next CHA and CPS chiefs have not stymied “how public housing has to show up for working people” or labor groups from securing new contracts, respectively.

Internally, concerns linger over the rudderless status of these agencies and its impact on hiring for other critical positions within them.

A high-level official in one of the agencies told the Tribune the more months roll by with no resolution to who their top boss will be, the more difficult it is to answer candidate inquiries on what’s taking so long.

“It’s killing us. We’re just keeping the lights on,” said the staffer, who asked for anonymity to speak openly. “It’s impossible to effectively steer the ship if you don’t know who’s going to be here in a few months. … By some miracle, we still have candidates.”

Publicly, officials for the three agencies have noted they are making progress. CPS leaders announced latest academic gains during a December update on the district’s five-year plan, which was approved under Martinez and Johnson’s first handpicked school board, though they said more work must be done.

The CHA and the CTA are also in the midst of five-year capital improvement plans that include construction on new mixed-income units and expansion of bus and train service. The latest figures show the CHA built or revamped 249 units last year, compared with 247 in 2024, 280 in 2023 and 161 in 2022. Another 360 units are still under construction.

But the leadership limbo also makes it hard to set long-term agendas, another top official with one of the agencies said.

“We can make sure we’re treading water and fulfilling our day-to-day business operations,” the official said. “A permanent (leader) comes in with a roadmap and a longer term plan to execute against a multiyear strategy. This is the difference between offense and defense, and we need to do both.”

The publicity surrounding the Johnson administration’s handling of that agency’s search process has also turned off finalists, they added.

“People don’t want to come into a situation where the mayor has been very vocal about not wanting them there,” the official said. “Time is passing. Life has happened.”

The CPS chief education officer — the executive office’s No. 2 spot — has been held by an acting official since last June. The district’s chief financial officer, budget director, chief information officer, chief schools officer and chief portfolio officer are also all filled on an interim basis. The chief intergovernmental affairs and chief health officer roles are vacant.

The staffing at the CTA, where interim head Nora Leerhsen has been gunning for the permanent appointment, appears more stable, though there is no permanent general counsel at the moment. At the CHA, the general counsel, chief financial officer, chief operating officer, head of property and asset management and chief of development are held by acting heads. Some employees are wearing multiple hats, too.

Johnson has pushed back on controversies over his struggles to fill key roles in city government by questioning why his predecessors had the right to fire and hire as they pleased, but his moves are suddenly challenged.

The messy firing of Martinez dominated much of the mayor’s second year in office, but the Chicago Board of Education’s search for his replacement has been bumpy as well. The mayor last fall distanced himself from the contenders — which did not include interim CEO Macquline King after she rejected Johnson’s latest push to borrow more money to cover the district’s budget shortfall.

An earlier campaign against Carter saw Johnson defending the embattled CTA president against transit advocates, who later protested Johnson’s potential appointment of his former chief operating officer, John Roberson, to the role.

Meanwhile at the CHA, the appointment of Johnson’s close ally, ex-Ald. Walter Burnett, remains in jeopardy as the public housing agency’s board has made clear it does not recommend him for the job. Johnson defended Burnett as “the strongest candidate” in December, noting he grew up in the Cabrini-Green housing complex, though he would require a waiver from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development due to possible conflicts.

With about a year left until the next mayoral election, the attacks from Johnson’s opponents attempting to preemptively paint him as a lame-duck mayor could also turn off candidates worried about job stability, but their contract specifics would vary by agency.

By the time the current term ends in 2027, the CPS board will be fully independently elected, instead of its current hybrid makeup of elected and mayorally appointed members.

Local transit leadership will be governed by a new board created by Springfield that removes mayoral control of the CTA, though Johnson still has the power to choose the next president free from oversight before June. The CHA board is appointed by the mayor, but requires City Council approval; currently, four of the 10 members’ terms have expired.

Asked whether he was still in the running for the CHA job last week, Burnett responded, “No idea.” Johnson’s spokesperson Cassio Mendoza confirmed Friday that he was.

Chicago Board of Education President Sean Harden, a Johnson appointee, did not respond to questions about the superintendent search. Mendoza said the mayor’s office was expecting the board to move on “new recommendations” soon.

Taylor said she urged the mayor against Burnett because of the gentrification that took place in his ward, though she stressed the final decision is Johnson’s alone. As chair of the council’s Education Committee, she also disagreed with King being eliminated from the CPS superintendent search.

“She didn’t get time. This wasn’t her budget,” Taylor said, noting King just came in after Martinez left. “But, of course, we’re not great at listening to Black women, are we? … And so we continue to play politics with the education of our young people.”

Other key positions in City Hall have also languished without permanent appointments. The City Council Zoning Committee, for one, has been led by an interim chair, Ald. Bennett Lawson, 44th, roughly as long as under Johnson’s chosen leaders, Burnett and former 35th Ward Ald. Carlos Ramírez-Rosa, combined. The mayor has faced challenges with hammering out a compromise between the Black and Latino caucuses for the influential role; now Lawson, who is white, could be poised to clinch the spot.

Ald. Matt Martin, 47th, said last week a vacancy on the city’s board of ethics has contributed to meetings not occurring due to lack of quorum, leading to allegations of campaign finance violations and other problems being punted. “When you’re not meeting, you are not doing the work of the city,” Martin said.

Some of this impasse could just be that “we are in a little bit of uneasy times than what we’ve been used to here in the city of Chicago,” said Johnson’s former chief of staff, Rich Guidice. But, he added, there’s a reason these are critical decisions.

“You have to lead with common strategies from the administration,” said Guidice, a City Hall veteran who served four mayors before retiring just under a year into the Johnson administration. “If it’s lacking a leader, you run the risk of people giving them the ability to manage themselves. And it may not always be in the direction that is best for the city.”

The Tribune’s Jake Sheridan and Talia Soglin contributed reporting.