CHICAGO — Former Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. was supposed to be leading the Chicago Housing Authority by now.

That was Mayor Brandon Johnson’s plan, anyway. After weeks of political and bureaucratic snags, the CHA’s governing board scheduled a Tuesday meeting to formally sign off on Burnett as the agency’s next CEO.

But when the meeting got underway, Burnett wasn’t there — and the board soon made it clear that the mayor’s plan was again on hold.

“It’s an unusual and unfortunate situation that we find ourselves in,” interim board chair Matthew Brewer said Tuesday.

The sequence of events certainly didn’t follow the typical Chicago script. By law, Chicago mayors have the power to nominate the head of the CHA, along with the leaders of the CTA, Chicago Public Schools and other sister agencies.

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