To the Mayor, City Council, City Clerk, City Treasurer, and Community Members of the City of Chicago:
Published and linked for your review is the public report on the operations of the City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG) during the first quarter of 2023, filed with City Council pursuant to Section 2-56-120 of the Municipal Code of Chicago.
As we publish this report, the City is at the edge of a critical transition in government. We look forward to opportunities to partner with the incoming mayoral administration and a new City Council, to amplify our work in pursuit of effective, efficient, and accountable City government.
Meanwhile, OIG continues its work. We are beginning to see tremendous returns on our efforts to engage with more Chicagoans in more of the City’s neighborhoods, and to improve, centralize, and modernize our intake function. In the first quarter of 2023, OIG received nearly 2,400 intakes; that’s up from more than 1,800 in the last quarter and more than 1,700 during the quarter before that. More than ever before, we are hearing from Chicagoans—those who know the City best—about how to make City government better.
This month also marks the end of the first year of my term as Inspector General. I am deeply proud of the work OIG is doing and what my colleagues here have accomplished in that time. We have restructured our operations and improved our internal processes, allowing us to cast a brighter light on critical problems in City government, collaborate with our partners on meaningful solutions, and hold those who have abused the public trust to account.
Our focus on interdisciplinary, integrative oversight work has allowed us to address a huge swath of issues across the City. As reported here, in the last quarter we successfully investigated forgery, time fraud, violence in the workplace, verbal abuse and assault, and violations of the City’s residency rule, among others. An OIG investigation resulted in felony criminal charges of forgery and perjury against a former member of the Chicago Police Department (CPD). We re-examined the City’s enforcement of recycling requirements and its practices around employee evaluations. We issued an advisory on the City’s long-vacant administrative officer position and the opportunities to improve operations by filling and empowering that position to improve coordination among City departments. We issued notifications on City Council transitions, proper procedures for disciplining City employees, and personnel management and recordkeeping at CPD. We evaluated results as the City ended the Procurement Reform Task Force, and we continued to monitor the City’s employment actions and review closed police disciplinary investigations.
There is, as always, a great deal more to do. I am honored to have spent a year in this job and I so look forward to continuing to do this work.
Respectfully,
Deborah Witzburg
Inspector General
City of Chicago