Advisory on Department of Law’s Cooperation with Oversight of Its Employment Actions

Executive Summary

Oversight of the City’s employment actions and related activities is among the statutory functions of the City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG). In January 2026, OIG advised the City’s Department of Law (DOL) that it had failed to meet its duty to cooperate with that oversight by refusing to provide hiring records to which OIG is entitled, and recommended that, going forward, DOL comply with oversight of its employment actions. DOL declined, in part, to provide the records OIG requested because they related to a position DOL described as “high profile.” OIG noted in its advisory that neither OIG’s legal authority to review employment actions nor DOL’s duty to cooperate with OIG permit exceptions for “high profile” matters. OIG’s advisory further reflects that, following DOL’s refusal to provide OIG with the requested records, OIG submitted a covert and anonymous request for those records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). DOL produced the records which it had previously declined to provide to OIG in response to that FOIA request, in a determination at odds with a suggestion that the records were so confidential as to be exempt from oversight.

OIG’s January 2026 letter is attached at Appendix A. In a response to OIG’s letter, dated February 27, 2026, and attached at Appendix B, DOL acknowledges that OIG has the authority to monitor employment actions under the City’s Employment Plan, but does not explain why employment records were withheld from OIG. Instead, DOL only states that it recognizes “inconsistencies in production” between its responses to OIG and to FOIA requestors. DOL reports that it has provided “additional training on policy and procedures” to the employees involved in those tasks. The Mayor’s Office, to which OIG sent a copy of its advisory, also responded despite not being required to do so. In that response, dated February 3, 2026, and attached at Appendix C, the Mayor’s Office notes that it asked DOL “to review the matter to ensure that [DOL’s] approach remains consistent with all applicable legal obligations” and further that OIG’s January 2026 letter was “the first notice the Mayor’s Office has received regarding these concerns.”