FOR RELEASE:
January 29, 2025
PRESS CONTACT:
Deanna Shoss, Communications, 773-478-8417
The City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG) has released an advisory with recommendations to the Mayor’s Office to improve transparency and accountability around gifts accepted “on behalf of the City.” As a general rule, gifts accepted on behalf of the City must be reported to the Board of Ethics (BOE) and the City’s Comptroller, and those reports are publicly available. Pursuant to a long-running, unwritten arrangement dating back to the administration of Mayor Eugene Sawyer, gifts accepted by the Mayor’s Office on behalf of the City were not reported in this way, but rather were to be logged in a book which would be available for public viewing on the Fifth Floor of City Hall.
OIG visited the Fifth Floor in a covert capacity and asked to see this logbook; that request was denied and undercover OIG personnel were directed to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the log. OIG did so, again in a covert capacity; the Mayor’s Office failed to timely respond, constituting a denial of the FOIA request. Thereafter, OIG sent an official document request for the log, and received a spreadsheet detailing gifts accepted by the Mayor’s Office on behalf of the City. The log identified many of those gifts—including Hugo Boss cufflinks; Givenchy, Gucci, and Kate Spade handbags; a personalized Mont Blanc pen; and size 14 men’s shoes—as being stored in a “Gift Room,” and others in the Mayor’s personal office in City Hall. OIG subsequently visited the Fifth Floor to conduct an unannounced inspection of the Gift Room, and was denied access.
“When gifts are changing hands—perhaps literally—in a windowless room in City Hall, there is no opportunity for oversight and public scrutiny of the propriety of such gifts, the identities or intentions of the gift-givers, or what it means for gifts like whiskey, jewelry, handbags, and size 14 men’s shoes to be accepted ‘on behalf of the City,’” says Deborah Witzburg, Inspector General for the City of Chicago. “It is perhaps more important than ever that Chicagoans can trust their City government, and for decades we have given people no reason at all to trust what goes on in the dark. These gifts are, by definition, City property; if they are squirreled away and hidden from view, people are only left to assume the worst about how they are being handled. If we do not govern responsibly on the small things, we cannot ask people to trust the government on the big ones.”
OIG recommended that the Mayor’s Office comply with the generally applicable rules for public reporting of gifts accepted on behalf of the City, and that the Gift Room be made available for announced or unannounced inspection by OIG. In its response, the Mayor’s Office indicates that it would allow OIG access to the Gift Room, but only with “a properly scheduled appointment.” Their response further attaches a letter from BOE in which BOE “concurs” with OIG’s recommendation on public reporting; the Mayor’s Office says it will “work closely with [BOE] to transition to this new guidance.”
Read the Advisory
Read the full report, released on January 29, 2025.
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