The new standards will scrutinize whether a firm’s behavior or activities undermine democratic institutions and norms, weaken labor and civil rights protections or enable government overreach and the militarization of civil immigration enforcement, according to the mayor’s office. 

“Chicagoans work hard for their tax dollars, and they deserve to know those dollars are being used responsibly,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a statement. “Public money should strengthen our neighborhoods, create opportunity and serve the people who call Chicago home, not support practices that harm our communities.”

The directive (2026-6) is in line with the work of the Not With Our Money campaign, which aims to stop local and state governments from doing business with companies that are “underwriting authoritarianism.” While the order is not explicit, the organization names companies who have donated to Trump administration- or campaign-affiliated political action committees and then have benefited in terms of government contracts for immigration operations, White House ballroom construction or large-scale data analytics or have received other favorable government treatment.

The executive order makes Chicago the first major municipality to partner with the organization to put its goals into practice. 

“Follow the money and you find the same pattern in city after city: companies enriching this White House's political operation or underwriting the president’s pet construction projects, are winning lucrative federal contracts in return, and then showing up on municipal vendor lists for the cities they helped attack,” said Dorian Warren, co-president of Community Change Action and a spokesperson for Not With Our Money. “The people's checkbook is not a getaway car. If you want the privilege of doing business with the City of Chicago, you have to do business the right way.”

The executive order directs the city’s chief procurement officer to establish rules that prohibit individuals and businesses from entering into contracts or subcontracts with the city if they have committed certain “public integrity violations” or violations of wage theft or local anti-discrimination laws within the previous five years.  

Such public integrity violations would broadly include offering government officials or campaigns money or gifts in exchange for favorable decisions and actions or documented violations of anti-bribery, bid-rigging and price-fixing laws. 

The order also requires the Department of Procurement Services to obtain compliance certifications from existing and prospective contractors and subcontractors holding or seeking contracts worth at least $250,000 to ensure they have not committed any violations and to obligate them to avoid any violations going forward if they receive city money.

The chief procurement officer must develop the rules for prospective contractors and notify existing contractors within 90 days, according to the order. The department will also certify on an annual basis.

The order also kicks off an audit of existing contractors to get them to disclose information such as whether they have or will receive $500,000 or more from other governmental or law enforcement entities over a five-year span or whether they’ve been the subject of allegations of “excessive force, unlawful detention, unconstitutional policing, discrimination or other violations of federal or state civil rights laws,” according to the mayor’s office.

The audit will also seek disclosure of the contractors’ board composition and charitable giving. Disclosures will be updated annually. 

The executive order also steps up a 12-person task force — to be appointed by the mayor — that will work to “establish additional criteria for evaluating vendor and contractor conduct and promote responsible stewardship of public resources, compliance with civil rights and workplace protections and ethical business practices,” the mayor’s office said.

Over the next two months, the task force will hold public hearings to gauge feedback from Chicagoans on enhancing procurement standards, whistleblower protections and worker rights. Within the following two months from that, the body must release recommended policy changes that can be enacted either legislatively or via ordinance.