CHICAGO — Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is declining to dump one of his closest advisors even though the City Watchdog, probing potential misconduct, called on the mayor to do so.

On Wednesday, the eve of the mayor’s budget speech, an old controversy resurfaces.

The City Inspector General Deborah Witzburg recommended Johnson fire his senior advisor Jason Lee. The mayor refused.

The controversy is from two years ago during the height of the migrant emergency. Alderman Bill Conway says he reached out to Johnson’s team for help removing a homeless encampment he says had become a hotspot for crime.

“The mayor’s office was already, in fact, planning a clean out at this point and then Mr. Lee took me back into the coatroom, back here, and he said they would help me with this problem as long

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