IGO Releases 2011 Fourth Quarter Report
January 23, 2012
The City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (IGO) has transmitted its fourth quarter report for 2011 to the City Council and City officials. Available on the IGO website, the report provides a summary of IGO activity from October 1 through December 31, 2011.
Highlights from IGO misconduct investigations include:
1) The IGO found that a tree trimmer in the Department of Streets & Sanitation (DSS) took the City’s mandatory 2010 Ethics Training for three other DSS employees. The IGO recommended his termination, but DSS instead gave him a 20 day suspension.
2) A senior DSS official, aware of an ongoing IGO investigation, circumvented the IGO investigation by doling out pre-emptive discipline to a ward supervisor who had admitted to IGO investigators that he had collected election signs in his ward, storing the signs of the ward’s incumbent alderman at a DSS facility for later return while throwing competitors’ signs away.
3) A Chicago Fire Department (CFD) Battalion Chief repeatedly violated CFD and City rules over a two-year period by allowing his adult son to stay overnight at a firehouse and ride with him to fire emergencies in a CFD vehicle. The Fire Commissioner served the Battalion Chief with an oral reprimand instead of the recommended 20 day suspension.
In addition to these investigations, the quarterly reports the IGO:
1) Found no accountability, ownership, or standards for the City’s practice of requiring TIF subsidy recipients to make donations to specific charities or public programs;
2) Prompted the City to terminate its residency waiver program in response to an IGO review of the City’s residency waiver process, which temporarily allowed certain non-residents to work for the City, which concluded that the City’s waiver program was not legally authorized under the City’s Residency Ordinance;
3) Prompted the City, in response to an IGO Open Chicago request, to publicly post online materials provided by commissioners to the City Council during the 2012 budget hearings.
###