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All right, good afternoon, everybody. The committee on
ethics and government oversight will now come to order. We
have 3 items on today's agenda. First the appointments of
Cindy Medina Cervantes and Paul Burks to the board of
Ethics. Second a subject matter hearing on the office of
Inspector General's. Quarterly report for the first quarter
of 2025. Um and then third is subject matter, hearing on uh
uh the audit and program review section 2025 annual plan.
We will begin with the roll. Call to establish Quorum.
Please note that your yes or present response will be
deemed a. Yes, vote. When this Quorum call is used for a
reference vote for later items. Uh, chairman Martin is
present, Vice chair Haden,
Alderwoman Lee.
Alderman. OSHA
Alderwoman Taylor.
Alderwoman. Sabares, uh, Alderman waguespack Alderman, spaz
is on his way.
Alderwoman nent.
Alderman. Reilly
Great. We have a quorum. Um, if anyone needs to hop out uh,
back over to Environmental Protection, please do so. Thank
you. Um,
Uh, Alderman Lawson, Talia Fair on Vasquez have requested
remote participation in the committee meeting under rule 59
due to a qualifying event. Is there a motion to allow these
3 to attend?
So so moved by Alderman. OSHA all those in favor, signify
by saying hi.
All those opposed, in the opinion of the chair, the eyes,
have it Alderman? Lawson Talya, Ferro and Vasquez are
allowed to attend this committee meeting remotely at this
time. We will begin public comment which is set for 30
minutes out of respect for everyone's Time. Each speaker is
limited to 3 minutes of public comment, we have 1 person
who has signed up George Blakemore Mr. Blakemore, if you
can come up to the microphone and begin at your
convenience,
What motivated you to come to ethics with the Blakemore?
What do you know about it?
Are these people ethical?
Is Ultimate.
Are they?
I remember when lady light foot was elected,
And she took ethics away from Michelle Harris.
And gave it to Michelle Smith.
Uh, ethics.
But she left her with the rules committee, the most corrupt
committee
of all of them.
Every by rule as a whole, is not a 1 meeting. It's, it's
all of them. She tricked them or she left at the and took
it from Michelle Harrison gave it to Michelle Smith. Now
Matthew, that young man has it
and some new members are coming in to ethics, hopefully,
they will be able to change it.
And give it some clout some power.
Because now, if it's is weak.
This is a weak.
Government here.
They all are Democrats.
And they're going back to the other meeting over here with
people's gas.
With a monopoly.
You all have a monopoly here.
Through where. But evil of, uh, Monopoly is that it is,
they feel like they have total control.
No, check and balance. I am addressing all Democrats.
All blue. I asked for Trump to go read flip red, go red.
But
I'm asking my black people to go black.
It's something evil with a monopoly.
that mean you have told control, you can charge a person
what what you want when you want and how the corruption of
a monopoly.
So some of them have gotten up and ran back over to this
other meeting. So they're watching my time, I'm watching
you.
I'm watching all of you.
So, the evil effect of having a monopoly and people are not
being ethical.
Matthew. I don't think you. You can change that young man.
I don't think you're gonna be able to change that. It's,
it's the system. You are a Democrat and they are too.
No, check inbound.
That's why they can abuse me.
because,
It's a monopoly.
So, my 2 minutes is up.
To you. Thank you, Mr. Blakemore, that concludes our public
comment, our first order of business, is the rule 45 report
from March 2025, which was distributed to the committee via
email, can I have a motion to approve?
Alderman, OSHA so moves all those in favor. Signify by
saying, I all those opposed in the opinion of the chair of
the ice habit, we will now discuss the 2 appointments, uh,
to the board of Ethics, Cindy Medina Cervantes, and Paul
Burks, uh, the committee has received their appointments as
direct introductions For Mayor Johnson. I'd like to thank,
uh, both Miss Medina Cervantes and Mr. Burks for accepting
these appointments, and for being here today. Uh, I'd like
to first thing first, turn things over to miss Medina
Cervantes for a brief opening remarks. And then to you, Mr.
Burke, uh, Miss Medina Cervantes, please begin at your
convenience. Yes. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is
Cindy Medina, Cervantes, and I
Have been a proud resident of Chicago for over 10 years. I
currently live in the tri Taylor neighborhood and have also
lived in Hyde Park. Uptown in Rogers Park I was raised in
Northern California, attended college in Washington DC and
moved to Chicago to attend to Paul University College of
Law. I'm interested in serving on the board because of my
strong commitment to Public Service. I believe in
transparency accountability, and public and public trust
are essential to a well-functioning government. I would be
honored to contribute to the board's important work and
give back to the city. I am proud to call home
I'm a senior associate at Clyde and Co a uk-based law firm
where I focus my practice on products liability and mass
tort litigation. I represent industrial commercial and
residential product manufacturers. As the lawyer, I'm
trained to examine all sides of an issue objectively and
make decisions based on facts and applicable rules.
In addition to my legal practice, I serve as the president
of a bar association hlai, serving the Hispanic lawyers of
Illinois and I'm actively involved in pro bono legal work
early. In my career, I also worked as a law clerk for a
circuit court judge which instilled in me a respect for
impartiality, the rule of law and careful deliberation.
I believe that my combined experiences in litigation Public
Service, professional leadership and public interest. Work
have equip me with the skills necessary to serve with
Integrity impartiality fairness and professionalism. If
given the opportunity to serve on the city of City of
Chicago Board of Ethics, I would remain impartial evaluate
credibility.
Identify relevant facts and apply the governmental. Ethics
ordinance and other applicable rules accordingly. I'm happy
to answer any questions that you might have. Thank you for
your time and consideration. Thank you, Miss Medina
Cervantes Mr. Burks. Thank you. Uh, good afternoon to the
members of the Ethics Committee. Um, it is my honor to be
here today. My name is Paul Burks. I'm a partner with the
law firm, Massie and Gail and I practice law here in
Chicago, in state, and federal court before joining mass
and Gail. I was an Assistant Attorney General in the
Illinois, Attorney General's office. And I was a deputy
general counsel for the Illinois Department of Revenue. I'm
a resident of Chicago. I live in the North Kenwood area and
I've lived there for almost 20 years. My children attend or
have attended Jones High School in the South Loop.
So I'm excited to serve on the city's ethics board. I
appreciate the opportunity to provide public service to the
city which is and has been my home for nearly all my life.
I think I can be an asset to the board. I believe strongly
in the importance of transparency in government and
impartiality and I think my experience in the public sector
and as a litigator for over 2 decades has provided me the
skills necessary to succeed in evaluating complaints,
assessing evidence applying rules reaching a fair and just
outcome consistent with the law. I see your support for my
nomination and I look forward to serving the people of
Chicago. I'd be happy to answer any questions that any
members of the committee may have. Thank you. Thank you Mr.
Burks before we get to questions, I want to acknowledge
Alderman. Cardona, uh, non-voting member.
Uh, we'll start with alderwoman Taylor.
Thank you, Mr. Chair
Um, I see.
See you back there. So
In the 20th. Ward every alderman.
Before myself.
Was convicted and sent to jail.
I remember in my first 6 months I think I called Steve
every other month because I kept getting t-shirts and
pinions and I didn't want to go to jail for taking teachers
and pens. Um, my question to you both is why
When we're in such a time where honesty means nothing,
ethics really mean nothing. Um, and you see what state our
country is in, why these positions.
I think again for that same reason, because we want to
continue maintaining that public interest and ensure the
people that were here to, um, serve them. And that we want
to continue that trust and strengthen it. So I think it's
an important role for us to, uh, to be in and serve serve
the community.
Thank you. Thank you, alderwoman. We, we, we may be in a
time where where maybe ethics is, uh, undervalued. But I
think that the work of this of this of this board and of
this committee, I think we'll move us to a new time when,
uh, when ethics is, is more valued and and, and we can
expect from our from all of our officials to to act
consistently with the eth with the ordinance that that all
that is sub that we are all subject to. Um, and I hope as a
member of the board, I can help move move the the city in
that direction.
Steve is a small crew, but he is a Powerhouse and holding
us accountable. So I appreciate you all wanting to step in
the space and do this.
Is there any conversation around? How we become more
transparent?
Um, in in your thinking, how we come more transparent with
our communities and citizens that you all think that you
can add to what Steve kind of already does.
Um, I I think that my, my first step in answering that
question would be to, to listen, to Steve and to listen to
the people who have been doing this for some time and to to
evaluate all of the, the ideas and opportunities out there.
I, I, I don't think at this, at this moment, I I'm an
expert on that, but I I look forward to maybe um, adding my
voice to that conversation in due time.
I think.
I would just add again. I think based on the experiences
that I have the right, what wide range, I hope that I'm
able to bring in uh, New Perspective and also learn from
people that have been doing this for many years.
Those are all of the, I'll see y'all in 6 months. Uh, to
where you are. I will say what I normally say to people
when they start working here, PTO means prepare the others.
And so please know that the the situations and the thing
that are going on in the city period have been here for
decades, um, and it takes time to actually fix some of the
things around, but really being open being able to work
with us. Um, we have Steve on speed dial and so we probably
going to need y'all numbers before y'all leave so that we
can call you all. But thank you all for wanting to do this
work. Thank you, Mr. President.
President, thank you alderwoman. Uh, just chairman not
precedent, but thank you. Uh almond Wags back.
No, thank you.
Thanks chairman and, uh, alderwoman Taylor kind of started
hitting on the points that I wanted to. Ask you about as
well. Um, what do you think? And I know you, you kind of
stated that you both are going to look at things from your
perspective, and maybe touching a little bit on the history
of what the board has done. Um, talking to Steve Berlin,
director of Ethics there who we talked to very often. Um,
but I wonder if, in your time that you were approached to
do this job and um,
And today, if you had time to look at things like, for
instance, the oig report or if you had looked at those in
the past. Um, so we're going to be we're going to hear from
the Inspector General here in a minute. Um and I just
wonder if there was any particular priority issues that you
both saw, um, in the time leading up to today that you
felt, you know, you're on the board. Now, you want to
tackle that particular issue. Um, and if you look at the
Inspector General report for the the first quarter 2025,
there's a few things in there, I'm sure you could pick away
pick away at. Um, we're going to hear about, uh, a lot of
different things. I was just looking at 1. That will
probably ask questions on state officials lobbying the
city, um, unethically knowing violations of lobbying rules
things that over the last
Several years. We've tried to tighten up through
legislation, um, brought by the board of ethics and, and
others. So, I don't know if you had time to look at that
and respond if you like,
That's all I have.
Mine's got me. Yeah, go ahead. Um. Uh, thank you Alderman.
I have not had a chance to look at the at the oig report
from last year at this point. So I don't have uh pre-formed
opinions on on any of the issues that are in it. Um, as to
ethical violations that are identified there in the first
question is deliberate or inadvertent, right? Do we need
we need more education on what the ordinance is required,
or do we need more enforcement? Um, and I think that's the
perspective. I would take is to, is to go through the
report in detail identify, see what, see, what is
identified and then figure out what the remedy for. Those
violations are it might be an enforcement. Um, actions it
might be education more training, um but we, I would have
to look through the report uh, with the, with the guidance
of Mr. Berlin, um, to to see where, where to begin.
Similarly, I haven't fully delved in into everything I did
take. Um
A look at the process. So I have a fairly a fair
understanding in terms of what everything wouldn't tell.
But um,
With regards to that, I, similarly were also look at
whatever investigation. Report is issued to that to, to
the, uh, Board of ethics and would therefore, uh, review,
everything all of the facts that are presented in, um,
Work together with the members on that board to issue the
best decision possible.
That sounds good. Sounds very lawyerly to you just kidding.
Um, well, I appreciate both of those answers. Uh, you know,
we, uh, I think if you compiled all the Inspector General
reports together, it would be create a great epic, you
know, that you could really dive into and see the changes
over time, but uh, the changes that we continue to need to
make. So I hope both of you are able to be at the Forefront
of that provide. Um,
You know your perspectives anytime you need to to the board
of Ethics but um always to aldermen to to reach out and uh
I'm sure everybody here would
Um be open to speak to you. If you had questions about how
we operate, how we should better operate and and make it
better for our citizens across the board. So thank you very
much both of you. Thank you alderman.
Thank you, Alderman. Any other questions?
Seeing none. Can I get a motion to recommend approval of the
appointment of Cindy Medina Cervantes as a member of the
board of ethics?
Alderwoman lie, so moves all those in favor. Signify by
saying I
All those opposed in the opinion of the chair, the eyes
have it and the appointment passes, can I also have a
motion to recommend the approval of the appointment of Paul
Burks as a member of the board of ethics.
Alderwoman lie, so moves all those in favor. Signify by
saying I
All those opposed in the opinion of the chair, the eyes
have it and this appointment passes. Thank you both. Um,
and we look forward to working with you in the coming
years. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Uh, is you all are leaving. We'll transition to the next
topic which will be a subject matter here in regarding the
office of Inspector General's. Quarterly report for the
first quarter of 2025. We would like to invite up Inspector
General, witzburg to provide some brief remarks. If you
could also introduce any members of your team, General, we
would appreciate it. Once you are settled, and then we will
open up the floor to questions.
Thank you.
Good afternoon chair members of the committee.
Um, thank you for having us. I'm Deborah witzburg Inspector
General for the city of Chicago. This is Darwin Jones. He's
our Deputy Inspector General for audit and program review.
Um, we'll start with the the first quarter, the quarterly
report, okay?
All right.
Um as always I I really appreciate the committee's taking
the time to to talk through the quarterly report. I I have
found that to be a very useful opportunity to for us to
connect on the contents of the quarterly reports and to um
and to and to
Shine some shine some light on the work there in. So I
appreciate the committee's time.
Um,
This report was published April 15th that covers our work
in the in the first quarter of this year. This report was
published very close in time to the beginning of the fourth
year of my 4-year term this 4 year, term as Inspector
General. And um, I I reflect on that a little bit in the in
in the cover letter to the report, I will just do that very
briefly here. So as you all know, I was confirmed as
Inspector General on April 27th 2022. Um,
The uh the my term is for my each term as Inspector General
is 4 years long, um, in this committee we we did some I
think very good work to make some changes to the IG
ordinance. Which included term limits on the Inspector
General? I think that was a very positive change for lots
of reasons. Um, so the Inspector General is now limited to
the service of 2 terms. My first term is over, uh, in April
of 2027,
Um, I'm sorry, April of 2026 time flies. It's over in uh, in
just less than a year from now, April of 2026. And so we
are now coming out of this quarter in the in the fourth
year of that term. Um, and that every year that anniversary
has prompted me to sort of look back at the Strategic
priorities, with which I began this term. And, and to take
stock of where we are. Um, I came into this job with 3,
strategic priorities for the office of Inspector General.
Those are 2 prior work which Fosters public trust in
government and pays down the deficit of legitimacy at which
the city operates with its residents. The second is to
engineer oig for long-term, success, and stability. Um,
this is the, the reason that I advocated. So strongly for
term limits is is a firm belief that these jobs in, which
it is a tremendous privilege. To serve. Our stewardship is
not monarchies and that our highest responsibility in these
jobs is to, uh, set up the institutions in which we serve
for Success long after.
We are finished leading them, um, and so that is the that's
the second priority shown here. And then the third has been
to leverage interdisciplinary collaboration in the office
to maximize the impact of our work oig, is a little bit
unusual, uh, among Municipal oversight entities, in the
breadth of our mandate in the number of kinds of oversight
work, that we do all under 1 roof. And so where we have
audit and investigations and data science, and and police
oversight, and other areas. All under 1 roof, we have a
tremendous opportunity to, um,
To do interdisciplinary. Work drawing across those practice
areas and areas of expertise to increase the impact of the
work. And I think, as I look at the work reported in this
quarter, and the work that we have done in in recent
months, I am very pleased to see all of these priorities
reflected in the work that we're doing. And, and, um, the
work that we have ongoing,
so, um,
having reflected a little bit on my on my own life story
here. So the work of the first quarter uh we've talked a
bit about our centralized intake function where, uh, all
intakes coming into the office of Inspector General. Come
through, 1 Central Point, um, and are then kind of
distributed and uh, and spread out to the appropriate
functions in the office. So, in the first quarter we
received 1,752 intakes, that is coincidentally nearly
precisely the same number as in the last quarter, in the
fourth quarter of 2024
It continues to be the case that we received. Most of those
intakes by email, others by phone online, portal letter,
Etc. In the first quarter, we initiated 110 intakes
ourselves.
In our investigation section, we have 280, active misconduct
investigations, 113 of those have been open for more than
12 months, the municipal code requires us to report on
investigations over more than 12 months, including the type
of investigation and the reason for which they've been open
that long. And so we do that in this report that is almost
the same number. Uh as we're open 12 months in the fourth
quarter up up 1 from the fourth quarter. The subjects of
those investigations are as identified here, uh, of those
2800 investigators 233 of them have city employees as their
subjects. 20 elected officials, 18 have contractors
subcontractors or persons seeking contracts as their
subjects 1. Licensee 1 appointed official and 7 falling
into this category of other this category includes although
it's not necessarily limited to members of the public who
for example can come under investigation for bribing or
offering to bribe City officials
Uh, as is always the case. And as is mandated by the
municipal code, our quarterly report includes, deified,
summaries of our sustained administrative investigations,
we report 10 of those this quarter. Um and among them are
the ones uh selected here. We had a former Department of
streets and sanitation employee, who carried a personal
firearm into a city building while and and left it.
In a restroom while at work.
We had a Chicago Police Department, Lieutenant who had an
improper interest in a city contract. The ethics ordinance.
Prohibits city employees from having interests in City
business that the CPD Lieutenant. Uh, not only had an
improper interest in a city contract, but had failed to
disclose the existence of the second B. The existence of
the outside business, which gave him that interest on his
statement of financial interest,
Um and we sustained ethics ordinance violations in that
case.
We had a Department of Water Management laborer, who
illegally possessed a firearm on the clock, uh, without
either a FOID or a uh, without either a Firearms owner or
ID card, or a concealed carry license,
and then we had a supervisor of business compliance from
the Department of Business Affairs and consumer protection,
who got into a intoxicated altercation with a business
under DBA acp's jurisdiction, um, and and verbally, abused
employees of that business. Those are, as I say among the
sustained, administrative investigations, we report this
quarter.
We also have an update on a Charged criminal case. This
person is named, um, because they were charged in a, in a
criminal case arising from oig's investigation. This was a,
uh, former employee of the office of the city clerk Who as
a result of an oig investigation was charged with theft
Computer, Fraud, and official misconduct resulting from,
um, her her taking cash from the drawer, basically, um, in,
uh, City sick or sticker sales for her own use,
So, in the first quarter, this is reported here as an
update, um, because she entered a plea of guilty on
February 27th, 2025 and was sentenced um among other terms
to restitution to the city in the in the amount of 150,000
dollars. So I highlight this here, I think this this is a
very good outcome from this case both in terms of
accountability um in a criminal conviction arising from our
investigation but also in in making the city hole or at
least substantially hole with the restitution order.
Um, we've talked a bit in recent quarters about campaign,
Finance oversight. And the fact that unlike in the past
oig, has in recent years, undertaken both reactive and
proactive investigative work around around campaign
contributions to City officials.
We have always done some amount of reactive investigative
work here. That is to say responding to complaints that we
get. If if somebody identifies to us and improper
contribution, um, we've always had some capacity to look
into that. What is relatively new is, is our proactive
oversight here? I I I think appropriate oversight of
campaign contributions is vital to the work of paying down,
the deficit of legitimacy that we talk about, um, where you
know, unfettered campaign contributions from restricted
contributors. I leave the public with the sense that there
is a for sale sign on the door to City Hall. And so this is
this work is designed to get at that problem. Um there are
many different categories of restricted. Contributors that
is to say many different categories of people have limits.
On how much money they can contribute to the campaigns of
various City. Officials city employees City contractors,
Etc.
and we have developed uh databases of those restricted
contributors and have developed a system to proactively
match those identities of contributors against the state
data on campaign contributions. To identify to basically to
generate investigative leads to identify potentially
improper contributions. Um, the ethics ordinance,
provisions on campaign contributions say that the
cured, There's an opportunity to cure that is by both the
that is by both the contributor and the recipient of
improper contributions. And so, that is our first that is
always our first step. When we identify an improper
contribution, we send notice both to the contributor and to
the recipient and provide an opportunity to cure. And so,
in this quarter in the first quarter, we identified and
effectuated the return of more than 54,000 in illegal
contributions to City officials.
How does that number compared to Prior quarters? It's much
easier. Much higher. What would you attribute that to?
um,
2 things, 1 process, and 1 case. Specific this process of
proactive. Identification of potentially, problematic
contributions has substantially increased. Our awareness of
them before we were equipped to do this kind of data
matching, um,
This was a sort of scattershot.
At best to for us to know where there were excess
contributions. So I think that that has we are now seeing
the output of that proactive work. Um,
In some of these cases, the other, the second Point
specific to this quarter, uh, a single contribution, um,
among those returned dollars was for 48,500. So, um, we we
are now seeing
Very we we are we've now been able to identify and they'll
be others of these to come in a similar scale very large
improper contributions um and have we've and and the way
the Cure Provisions work is that the excess amount must be
returned. So this was a this particular 1 was a 50,000
Conte $50,000 contribution.
From a contributor who was limited to 1,500. Um, and so we
were able to effectuate the return of the excess 48,500
Um, we have some updates in this quarter. This is not
something that we have reported in a in a comprehensive way
in the past and and we will do so going forward because I
think this is good information to have you. All you all
have heard me talk a lot about our increased uh
Sort of thoroughness and aggressiveness in the enforcement
of governmental ethics ordinance violations. In this
quarter, we report on finds that the board of Ethics has
settled with subjects in oig investigations. And so, the
finest reported just in this quarter total 27,000 in Board
of Ethics settlements,
Um, coming out of our Public Safety section moving on from
investigations, we published a report this quarter as you
all know. We published, uh, we have a, a, a process for
following up on the subject. Matter of our large scale
evaluations and reviews where we will publish a report that
includes recommendations. And then some period of time
later, we will go back and do a follow-up report where we
look at the status of the implementation of corrective
actions. And so we published a report in the first quarter
out of our Public Safety section, which was a follow-up on
a 2020 report that looked at the use of the affidavit
override process in police, disciplinary investigations.
The affidavit override process was 1, which allowed the
police disciplinary invest, the, the, the police oversight
agencies that is the Bureau of internal affairs and Coppa
to complete police misconduct investigations, even where
there was no signed affidavit from a complainant, the state
of the law and the requirements of the collective
bargaining agreements. Used to be that
Um a signed affidavit was required to complete an
investigation of a member of the Chicago Police Department.
That is no longer the case in most situations, so in 2021
changes to the state law removed the signed affidavit
requirement um such that it it had to be removed from
subsequent collective bargaining agreements um members of
the Chicago Police Department represented by the fop. That
is people below the rank of Sergeant are no longer subject
to the requirement for a signed affidavit and therefore to
the affidavit override process. There is a similar process
called certifications, which is now in place for fop
members. Um, this the requirements of the affidavit
override process continues to apply to pbpa members that is
people at the rank of Sergeant and above in the Chicago,
Police Department. And so the recommendations and the
potential corrective actions continue to have some
relevance. Um, and so we we've gone back, we've done this
follow-up. Our original report
Found that the lack of a signed affidavit. From a
complainant was responsible, for the closure of the
majority of of police disciplinary cases. So this is a,
this is a significant question in terms of how and whether
these investigations go forward. Um, we found that the
investigative agencies Bia and Coppa often did not pursue
overrides, even when they might have been available and
improperly closed investigations for lacking in affidavit
even in cases accompanied by a civil suit. So, you know,
the the sort of philosophical principle behind
Mind, requiring a signed affidavit was, at least articulated
as a desire to weed out unserious, complaints or unserious
complainants. Um, so the idea was that we would proceed in
investigations only where somebody was willing to sign
their name to an accusation that something happened. Um, 1
of the things we looked at in our original report was the
question of whether this, whether we were in the interest
the interest of of thorough investigative work, whether we
were looking at other ways to satisfy the same needs so
where someone has filed a lawsuit,
Um, arising from an act of alleged misconduct, where there
is a complaint, including sometimes a verified complaint,
that is a signed complaint in a lawsuit, there are certain
opportunity to to consider that a signed statement of a
complaint. And we and we looked at whether the
investigative agencies were were using those as well. They
were not and and I I spend I'm spending a moment here to
just highlight this problem because I think
1 of the things, 1 of the issues that frequently comes
before the council, um, are recommendations to settle
police, misconduct lawsuits. And I, and I think that the
frankly, the council is in a challenging position to make
good and well-informed decisions on those recommendations
where there has not necessarily been a misconduct
investigation into the same underlying incident. And and
when you all are faced with the question of whether to
approve a payout, um, arising out of conduct where there
has been no determination of misconduct, I think is a
challenging place to be and so I I highlight those cases
for that reason.
um,
The in any event, the follow-up on this project found that
inconsistencies persist in the way. The investigative
agencies collect data around complainants and around their
ongoing involvement in the investigative process.
Um,
There are also inconsistencies in policies on how to
proceed in those investigations. I talked about that our
accompanied by lawsuits. We did find that there. Had been
some improvements in the aftermath of the original report
in Clarity, on in certain policies, in the investigative
agencies, um, including some which lowered barriers to
access to the complaint process. So we look, we certainly
do not want a police disciplinary system, which is flooded
by other than good faith complaints. But we do want to make
sure that people who have real complaints to make can do
so, even if they cannot, for example, get to a city office
Um, also published in this quarter was the public safety.
section outlook on police, oversight, and accountability,
for 2025. That is the public safety section equivalent of
the audit and program review, annual plan, which we'll talk
more about in a few minutes.
That document identifies potential projects for the public
safety section. Um, for 2025 in 3, straight priority areas,
those are the police departments operational competence.
The police department is a large and complex entity. Um,
and so some of these topics look at how well-built it is to
succeed as a as a large and complex City Department. The
second area of focus is the disciplinary, uh, the
disciplinary system, the discipline and accountability, and
then the third is constitutional policing. So across those
3 topic areas,
Potential projects for 2025 include although are not limited
to the topics identified here. Um, the police department's
clinical counseling services that is related to other work.
We've done on officer Wellness, that continues to be an
area of tremendous concern to us. That is the police
department's support for its members. We look at, um,
operational efficiencies realized or Not by the by opsa by
the office of public safety administration. As you all
know, opsa is a city department, created in recent years to
house administrative functions from the police department.
The fire department at oemc and the motivating notion
notion behind the creation of that department. Was that
there should be some operational efficiencies realized by
combining those administrative functions. Um,
I think it is sensible at this point. Several years in, to
look at the question of whether those efficiencies have
been realized whether we are saving time and money, um, or
not.
He we have a a potential topic around annual performance
evaluations for police officers. This is um we've looked
out of our audit and program review section at performance
evaluations in other City, departments. And the Department
of Human Resources has done a lot of work this year in
standardizing and distributing a performance evaluation
process for the civilian departments. Um, this is a
potential project that would look at at performance
evaluations in the police department. I think this is
closely tied to a topic in consent, decree compliance
around, um, early detection early risk detection. Um, and
early intervention opportunities, where we might be able to
identify CPD members, at risk for misconduct or at risk for
wellness challenges. And we might have an opportunity to
intervene before things go wrong.
we have a potential topic on Specialized units and on
deescalate techniques. And again the the potential projects
on the police oversight and accountability Outlook include,
but are not limited to to those listed here.
The second function of our Public Safety section, in
addition to the performance analysis section um or units
which perform those projects is our investigative analysis
unit which as you all know, performs reviews of closed.
Disciplinary cases. That is when the Bureau of internal
affairs and Coppa close in investigation are IIA unit. And
our Public Safety section reviews, reviews, reviews that
investigation to ensure that it is complete thorough
objective and fair, this is a sort of a quality control
mechanism designed to ensure uh, the integrity and the
robustness of police misconduct investigation.
Investigations where we identify in that case review work.
Where we identify cases that have a deficiency materially
affecting their outcome, that is where we think something
has gone. So wrong that we've landed on the wrong result,
we can and do recommend that those cases be reopened, we
send them back to either the Bureau of internal affairs or
to Coppa. So, during the first quarter, we looked at 275
closed, disciplinary investigations. We conducted an
in-depth review of 31 of them. We report out on these cases
and in fact, we published the exchange of letters. Um, once
they are in a final kind of a final resting place.
so among the cases we report in this quarter are these we
looked at a case where Copa put in a closed, hold status
that is in a sort of permanently suspended status in in
investigation into allegations that a CPD member strangled,
their pregnant intimate partner.
That member then plead guilty to misdemeanor battery.
Went on a leave of absence from the police department and
Coppa closed its investigation. Um,
With the characterization that they were unable to proceed,
because the member was on leave.
Um, we recommended that. They reopen the investigation to
complete it. Um they're being no legal barrier to to their
failing, to proceed with a member on leave of absence so
they did. So upon our recommendation, they did reopen that
case, they sustained multiple allegations and recommended
separation of the member.
The second case here was 1 in which the Bureau of internal
affairs. Investigated allegations that a CPD member wore a
3% or mask on duty. We found that um this is related to
issues that that we we and you all have have discussed
before um dealing with allegations that CPD members are
associated with with certain extremists and anti-government
organizations. We recommended that this investigation be
reopened for the Bureau of internal affairs to conduct an
analysis. We did not recommend a specific finding, but we
recommended in that they conduct in analysis of whether the
act of wearing a 3% or as masks on duty violated rules 2,
and 3 of The Police Department's rules of conduct. Those
are the rules prohibiting conduct, which bring discredit on
the department, or which interferes with the Department's
ability to pursue its goals.
The Bureau of internal affairs did reopen this matter. Um,
And sustained a violation of the uniform rules. Um, but did
not conduct an analysis of whether rule 2 or 3 had been
violated,
Finally, the last selected matter here was a Copa
investigation in which Copa investigated allegations,
involving a CBD member, who was arrested for battery and
criminal sexual abuse.
um, that member
having been charged with a crime testified in the criminal
proceedings and was found guilty was convicted in court,
was interviewed by Copa Copa. Found contradictions between
between the accused members, testimony and criminal court
and in their interview statements. But failed to conduct
any analysis of, whether rule 14 had been violated, that is
to say, whether the member had violated the rule against
false reports. In the statements that Copa itself found
were inconsistent between the court testimony and the
interview statements.
Um Copa, then reached findings of not sustained on sexual
misconduct allegations dealing with the same conduct which
had led to the criminal conviction.
um, we recommended that copper reopened that investigation,
at a minimum, to conduct a rule, 14 analysis to determine
whether the member had made any false report. Again, not
recommending a specific finding but, but recommending an
analysis of whether that rule has been violated Coppa
declined to reopen that matter to conduct that analysis. In
this case um, the superintendent uh, non-concurrent
original findings, that is to say he declined to implement
copas original. Uh, not sustained findings the
superintendent noted in, in his non-concurrent that the
accused member had been convicted of a criminal offense,
based on the same conduct and that the burden of proof for
criminal conviction was substantially higher than that. Um,
for
or misconduct allegation and that he therefore was
did not concur with having not sustained the administrative
findings, when the same conduct led to a criminal
conviction,
um, elsewhere in the office, uh, in the first quarter
audits, follow-up, advisories and notifications. These are
various other oversight products that that came out of the
office in the first quarter. Um, we published an advisory
concerning gifts, accepted on behalf of the city. This had
to do with the mayor's office handling of gifts, um
accepted on behalf of the city including public reporting
and public access to those gifts.
We published an advisory, which has been the subject of a
hearing in this committee on non-compliance separation of
water and sewer. Mains, you know, that's something. We've
talked a bit about. We sent a notification to oemc and
published a summary of it here on procedures and policies
around dispatching of 911 calls. Um, there are obviously
tremendous life and safety implications to the handling of
911 calls which explains our interest in this topic. We um,
received some complaints around, uh, the handling of calls
when there was not an available response and whether calls
calls were being basically wiped off the call board for
lack of available resources. Um and so we sent some
suggestions to oemc around clarification of policy and
training.
And then finally, we sent a notification to the fire
department dealing with secondary employment policies. Um,
the city's employment, the uh, the city's Personnel rule is
is that is, um, include requirements that city employees
get approval to work a job outside of their City job. That
is fundamentally a conflict of interest policy. It is to
ensure that people are not kind of serving more than 1
master in in their interests. Um, so that they must get
permission to to work a job outside their City job. That
job that rule does not apply to members of to most members
of the police department. It applies to supervisors in the
police department. Um, but it is in the Personnel rules as
applying to all other city employees, the Chicago Fire
Department's policies incorporate, the the Personnel Rules
by reference, but the fire department has taken the
position that they're unable to enforce the secondary
employment policy, um, in less than until it is bargained
for
Um this is finally I want to talk a little bit about the
work of our Compliance Unit. This is the unit of our office
which uh, oversees compliance with the city's employment
plans. And often when we, when we get to this, this part of
this conversation in most quarters, I I have previously
just sort of reported on. Um,
Numbers of hiring sequences where we have engaged in some
kind of monitoring activity. As this function in our
office, has gotten a bit more more robust. I wanted instead
this time to highlight a few of the things we did find and
a few of the the hiring oversight employment action matters
that we looked into in more substantial detail. So the
the first here was a review of Contracting activity. The
contractor policy is a piece of the city's employment plan
which lays out the rules for how city offices City
departments. And City officials can use independent
contractors. That is, they can hire people who are not city
employees this. There's there's a fundamental oversight
interest here because these are people doing the work of
the city, but they are not city employees. And so they're
not necessarily subject to the same kinds of transparency
and accountability obligations, that's in my mind. Why? The
contract, why why personal service contractors are of of
some interest to us.
We found violations of the contractor policy associated with
an arrangement between an older person and a former
aldermanic employee that is someone who used to be a city
employee had moved out of that position into a contractor
role.
Um we found that the former employee. Now an independent
contractor was in fact a common law employee that is they
satisfied the balancing test for a common law employee
The thinking there again, back to the kind of philosophical
interest here, is that if someone walks and talks like a
city employee, they ought to be a city employee for
purposes of of oversight, um, for transparency and
accountability.
The contractor policy in addition to, its kind of
substantive and requirements. It's it's in principle
requirements. It also has some procedural requirements
around, approvals from the office of budget management. And
the involvement of DHR, we found that some of those
procedural requirements had not been met here as well,
including that work. Um, had begun.
Before the contract was in place.
um, so we made some recommendations, the Department of
Human Resources met with the older person at issue
committed to not approving extensions of this particular
contract and and that it would review future requests with
OBM as required by the policy.
The second note here has to do with violations of the of
the employment plan rules around minimum qualifications and
and we talked a little bit about some related questions
when I was here last quarter.
Um, the employment plan includes requirements that all
positions in city government have a class specification, a
job specification. That is a, a description of the job
which includes minimum qualifications, for the role that
requirement exists. Both for shackman covered and for
shackman exempt positions, and we received a complaint that
a deputy mayor had been hired only due to political
connections of a family member, and not due to appropriate.
qualifications for the job. We found as a result of that
complained, that there were no minimum qualifications, for
the deputy mayor position that is to say despite the hiring
plan requirements, there there was no list of minimum
qualifications for that position, despite it being a
position, obviously of of substantial public trust. And so
we recommended that the Department of Human Resources work
with the mayor's office to ensure that the requirements
that all positions have job specifications, including those
at at very high levels. Um, in fact have those requirements
and DHR has committed to doing so. And in fact has sent us
an update confirming that that work is underway with the
mayor's office.
finally um we reported out of this out of our Compliance
Unit in this quarter, a violation um of of the rules around
Ward superintendents in the department of streets and
sanitation for lots of reasons, including that, that is a
position where there have historically been concerns around
compliance with the, with the hiring rules, there is a
separate section of the employment plan dealing
specifically with Ward superintendents, 1 of the rules
there, perhaps in a common sense, sort of way is that, um,
1 Word gets 1, Word superintendent and we found that there
were in fact, 2 words.
Superintendent assigned to a single Ward. Um, in violation
of those rules. We recommended that the department of
streets and sanitation, correct. Its Staffing allocations.
So that, um, there was only no more than 1 and they have,
they accepted that recommendation and and used, uh, moved 1
of those wart superintendents into a vacancy in a different
Ward. So, um,
Chairman with that, I'm happy to take questions on our on
our quarterly report. Um, want to recognize to start, uh,
Alderman specific committee members as well as non-members.
Vice mayor brunette Alderman, siko Lopez. Uh, we'll start
with Alderman, Spas then, uh, Alderman Reilly.
And clear alderman.
Yep.
Yes.
54,000 involved 5 people but only 20,000 about the 20
people when they have be more of a problem 20,000 by 20
people. Yeah. That's a really good question. I think that
um we want to be getting at both of these things. We want
to be getting at all of the people making improper
contributions and we want to get the improperly contributed
dollars out of city government. So we want to be doing both
of those things and I think that now with this proactive
data analysis in place, I think we're well equipped to do
both of those things. As it happened, the cases which came
to a resolution
This quarter, um, we're a relatively small number of cases
with a relatively large number of dollars.
And whatever. I mean, so,
just making these numbers up, you say wrongfully 25,000 and
get some stuff but most of it is all small stuff like
subtract it or we say well it wasn't everything you
explained to me, that 1. Yeah. So the the rules in the
ethics ordinance around the handling of gifts, right? The
the ethics ordinance governs, the handling of gifts because
in the big picture improperly handled gifts look like
bribes.
Um, and so that is why there are ethics ordinance rules
around the handling of gifts and those rules apply to
This set of rules that issue here, apply to gifts, accepted
on behalf of the city. That is 1 of the categories in which
otherwise prohibited gifts might be accepted and those
rules are designed right to deal with things. Like um, I I
have always read them to, to be intended to deal with
things, like contributions of public art or things, that
might be displayed in a library, or, you know, some sort of
that sort of thing, things of some benefit of some use to
the public. Um, we found in the course of some of our
investigative work that for decades going back to be clear.
Beginning long before this Administration going back to the
administration of of Eugene, Sawyer the mayor's office had
not complied with the otherwise, the generally applicable
rules which apply to all of you and all of us um, for
public reporting and the and handling of G gifts, accepted
on behalf of the city. That is to say that that going back
for decades, the mayor's office had operated pursuant to an
Unwritten agreement with the board of Ethics, by which
instead of this public reporting, they were keeping a log
book of gifts, um, which was to be accessible to the
public, on the 5th floor of this building.
I don't know, I'm just gonna say, followers, I'm not gonna
mention other city employees that. No, I don't think I did
wrong and I won my case. Certainly, yes, that certainly
happens. Um, the the reporting on the handling of gifts,
accepted on behalf of the city was not a misconduct
investigation. We did not find in any active misconduct
here. The yes, absolutely. I I just want to just say
quickly the significance of the reporting around the
handling of gifts. In my mind, um, is is 2 things. We talk
a lot about the things that can go wrong in City Hall
behind closed doors and in windowless rooms usually, when I
say that, I mean it metaphorically, I'm talking about
metaphorical windowless rooms and closed doors. This is a
situation where we have gifts some of them of value being
exchanged, literally.
In windowless rooms. And so I think there is just a, there's
a transparency challenge there. The other thing that is
that is important, and I think significant about that work,
um, our oig's access to, um, the the storage of those gifts
was blocked by, um, by the law department at the behest of
the mayor's office. And I think that a a failure to
to cooperate with the office of Inspector General as
required by the ordinance is is a significant piece of that
reporting. And so I just want to highlight that in terms of
of of what that work was about.
Well, that sounds right.
Everybody, the best employees in the city that work on
weekends work, nice and so on and so forth. And then I say,
hey Johnny I need you to work this weekend and be an event
or whatever and they're like so yeah.
Know a lot of money so yeah. Um that rule is not about um
the selection of like who is selected or their work
schedules or anything like that but rather it says that
every job in city government has to have minimum
qualifications and that is to make sure that taxpayer
dollars are being used to pay people who are likely to
succeed at their jobs. Yes, it implies to all city
employees.
Thank you before we turn over to Alderman. Reilly. Um, I
just want to note I I know we've in Prior Committee hearing
it's been a discussion about your work a lot, Department's
work in dhr's work in terms of the do not hire a list and
um just HR issues more generally for older manic offices
because we're obviously leanly staffed making a lot of
decisions. And sometimes some of these requirements can,
uh, to be polite fall through the cracks. Um, we'll be
having a hearing, uh, as quickly as that work is finalized
but would encourage the office as you all are thinking
about your your kind of this point in the calendar in terms
of your overall term. We're about to be halfway through and
with an eye towards 2027. Um, it would be great if your
if your office could think to say uh, aldermanic onboarding
things that aren't just dealt with in a in a vacuum in
discrete ways. But if maybe some of this is symptomatic of
broader issues that we can flag for new colleagues in a
more orderly way as they join. Uh, I just want to put in
that plug.
Um ottoman. Riley followed by Alderman, OSHA.
Thank you. Uh, chairman, I just have a couple of questions,
um, about the the report and I wanted to go back to
Uh, the mayor's Secret gift room. Um, and
Wanted to get your, your thoughts on this. So while I
understand that, um, historically people have given gifts
to the city of Chicago specifically to the mayor, um, and I
know that mayor Daly would kind of inventory, those and put
them in this gifts closet or whatever, they're calling
that. Um, but when we got a detailed, look at the types of
gifts that were being stored in inventoried,
um, it seems that there are a whole class of gifts that
don't make any sense to accept in the first place.
Um, for example, uh shoes.
Gucci shoes or thousands of dollars um, with a very
specific size, right? So say
I pair a size 12 shoes.
Under, I guess, how does this line up with ethics? Why on
Earth would the city? Accept a pair of size 12 shoes that
are worth thousands of dollars? What can the city do with
those shoes? Besides put them in a closet.
Um,
The rules in the ethics ordinance around accepting gifts on
behalf of the city, do not limit the types of gifts, that
may be accepted that way.
That is separate. I think from a practical consideration
around what it means to accept shoes or handbags or, or
Whiskey on behalf of the city. I think that's a separate
question. That's not a rules. Compliance question. In my
mind, that's a sort of, um, that's a sort of philosophical
question about what we, what we mean when we talk about
gifts like that. Um, so the rules don't speak to that. I
think, as we think about the way we want to write and
enforce ethics policies, I think that is worth thinking
about.
Um, would it be a violation of the ethics ordinance for the
mayor to say slip on those Gucci shoes and wear them for a
week or 2 and then put them back in the closet?
Uh, if gifts are accepted on behalf of the city, the
intention of the rules is just that that they be accepted
on behalf of the city and not for use by any individual
city. Employer, official.
and that also would apply then to the
Essentially, the wet bar that exists in the mayor's gift
closet.
I would read that to apply to all gifts, accepted on behalf
of the city. Well, we need to take a look at that. Um, I
have a pretty narrow view on this gifts. Don't belong in
government.
You picked the wrong job. You want to get gifts, go work in
the private sector.
Um, that's not why we're here. Um so that needs a lot of
work. I have no sympathy for the bad press, this mayor got.
Um, if you're going to take these gifts and, and a lot of
them are ridiculous gifts to accept in the first place.
At least inventory them and certainly don't thwart. Our
inspector General's, efforts to go and look at those
things. So shame on Mayor Johnson, he knows better. Um, I
wanted to hear a little bit more about this contractor, uh,
working in an automatic office. I just want to make sure I
understood the the contact there. Um, this was a
a, a person who was
a contractor being paid with City funds, correct?
And I guess, what was the red flag that popped up?
Um, that caused you to look at that relationship.
um,
because the contractor policy is part of the employment
plan. We have, we do some amount of regular review of
personal service contracts that are entered across the
city. And so um, we have undertaken recently a, a more
thorough review of the contractor policy as we kind of
cycle through employment plan issues. And so we've
identified a handful where both these substantive
violations around common law employees and procedural
violations like missing missing approvals and so on have
come up.
Okay, and then finally, um, just because I, I'd love to have
2 words superintendents. Um, could you provide context
there as well? Um, how is there a situation that
Um, 2 different people were serving as a award
superintendent for 1 Ward at the same time.
That may be a question in more detail for the Department of
streets and sanitation. I, I think that this was a
situation where as I can determine from the Department's
response. Um,
where there were also vacancies in some word,
superintendent positions, 1 of these people would kind of
cover for other areas, when needs arose. Um, that's not
the rules say. That was the The Prompt for our
recommendation was to align the Staffing so that there was
only 1 person in each position. Um and that is what
happened here. Is 1 of these people was moved to a vacant a
a vacant wart soup job. Okay. All right, well, I'll take
that up with a department, um, offline. Um, thank you
inspector. Appreciate all the great work that you and your
team do I thank you chair. Thank you, Alderman. Reilly.
We'll have Alderman Oshay Taylor and then wage aspect. Yes.
Thanks chairman.
Good afternoon, General, good afternoon. Uh, you had
mentioned uh, a few minutes ago that your term.
Is, uh, would scheduled to expire in April of 26? That would
be 11 months from now, that's right. Um,
I appreciate the work you do. Thank you. Appreciate your
staff.
Uh, and my 14 years here.
Um,
This last 3 years um all the work you've done the
communication uh these type of meetings.
um, Coming, uh, before us, uh, it's much appreciated and,
uh, put me in the column of someone who believes that, uh,
we'd be lucky to have you for a second term. Thanks, thank
you, sir.
Thank you, man. Uh, alderwoman Taylor, followed by Alderman
wax back.
Thank you, chairman.
um,
You you started to have a conversation about opsa. Yes. And
like its ability to
To still be there. Um, how close are you all to coming to
that conclusion of whether
It was.
and I'm not going to say not a waste of time, but something
we could have done without
that is among our proposed project topics. So we are so not
that close to coming to that conclusion is the short
answer, I think. Um I think that that project would would
set out to answer 2 questions. 1 would be whether we have
achieved good results by combining those functions and the
other is whether we've saved any money, doing it and and I
can imagine those
Questions having either the same or different answers? You
can imagine us getting good results. But it costing a lot
to get there or maybe we have not improved results but we
have saved some money in the process so I think so we're
not that close in time, frankly, to that conclusion, but I
think it continues to be an important question. Um, and I
know that this is 1 that comes up in every year in the
budget cycle because the budget for opsa is a substantial 1
1. Um and and that probably makes more sense as a as a
budget item if we are seeing corresponding reductions in
the budgets of the constituent departments. So we're not
that close but I do think it's an important question.
Have there been any conversation with you all about
rightsizing government and some of these departments you
get
Uh, a supervisor who has somebody who does social media,
somebody that gets the coffee.
Somebody that takes notes, somebody that gets lunch. It
seems like they have a lot of
Of extra folks in the office um, that could be the reason
for some of these overflowed committees or departments.
Have you all kind of looked to see us how we could
rightsize government?
Yes. And in fact, I I think that perspective animates a lot
of the work that we do including in fact, this workaround
minimum qualifications the way I think about that is that
if we can make sure that we have people in city jobs who
are equipped to succeed in them, then we have a better shot
at at achieving good results in each 1 of those job
positions. Um, rather than needing 5 people to do a job
that 1 person could do if they were appropriately qualified
to do it, right. Um,
also, when we look at things like um you know, time
management and overtime and competence in positions, all of
those are questions motivated by the underlying notion that
we ought to have the right number of people doing the work.
Um, we've talked a lot about, right? Sizing in exactly that
framing, um, in the police department, where I think,
think, right? Sizing, the footprint of policing is the
right way to think about the right way to frame our
Police Department Staffing. I think the same, you know,
where we think about which functions belong and which
department, whether we are equipping the department to
succeed at those functions and which functions belong
elsewhere, whether that's elsewhere in city government or
elsewhere outside of government. I think that that's the
right way to think about those, um, particularly where all
resources are finite in city government, never truer than
now, right, as we navigate in 2025, what is an extremely
challenging budget, landscape, and 1, which does not
promise to improve in in the next couple of years. The
conversation we ought to be having at every turn is about
right sizing. And is it about allocating Finn?
Resources. Um,
More might. Well, be better in some places in city
government. But when there is no more available, the I
think the only responsible approach is to talk is to think
about how we can best allocate the resources. We have.
Has there ever been any conversation about training? I feel
like
from the very top all the way to the very bottom. There is
no real training and so you look to other offices who might
not necessarily do it, right? But they do have an answer on
how to do certain things and you don't find out to maybe 2
years later that this is the wrong way to do it. So has
there been any conversation around training even when it
comes to the mayor I feel like mistakes are made on every
level.
That the city runs and it's because of no training, no
training, no manuals, no videos, no nothing. Yeah. Um I
agree. I think there are gaps and training in lots of
places and inertia is a very powerful thing in the absence
of good training and good policies. The way things have
always been done is a very strong predictor I think for the
way they will be done going forward. Um we have looked at
training training and the strength of policies comes up in
in almost every subject area that we delve into. And so we
often find ourselves making recommendations around training
and policy drafting. Um, I will say we have done that in a
very kind of vertical way where when we do a deep dive into
a topic, we often look at training and strength of policy.
We have not taken a sort of horizontal approach to training
that is to say, we haven't set out to look at training.
Itself for its own sake across City departments. Um, that's
not actually framing I'd given any thought to, but I think
that that's an interesting idea. I think we could do it
that way.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll give all them in a book and say go
run that that Ward and we're in charge of billion dollar
budgets and salaries and some of us have no clue.
How to do that. And so it's very interesting and I thought
it was
Crazy when I first got here that there's no training
anywhere and so that that's another way for us to be to
become wasteful number 1 and number 2 to have all these
ethic violations because nobody kind of tells you how to do
that. Um, my last question is you talked about and I don't
know what's going on with the screens because I couldn't
see nothing on that screen. It wasn't right, it's something
going on here, right? So it was, it was really, yeah, sorry
about that. It was really blurry. I couldn't see it, but I
was trying to figure out
We got it, we just got to find where it's at. Um,
my last question to you is what do you feel like has been
the hardest thing to get the city to kind of change and
have it. Like we talked about gifts, I give away more mugs
and pens and t-shirts than anybody because I'm just I'm not
going to jail, I'm not going to do it, but what do you feel
like it's the hardest thing to be able to change in habit
when it comes to the city of Chicago?
Um, I really appreciate that question. I I think um,
You know, there's the old expression that Chicago isn't
ready for reform. Um,
The city continues to operate as a reluctant subject of
reform efforts, rather than taking opportunities to be a
proactive driver of them. And that has been really
challenging and really frankly, disappointing, um,
I um there are tremendous opportunities for reform. There
are tremendous Opportunities For Change in city government.
They will be slow coming and hard 1 for as long as we allow
a reflexive resistance to transparency and accountability
in government.
Thank you for always being honest and telling us the truth
too often. We don't get that. My last question is
What you gonna do afterwards?
Um, well I um to be clear. I I hope to continue to serve in
in this job. There is more work to be done. I am proud of
work we are doing. Um, it is up to the mayor, whether to
reappoint me in 11 months. I think that a decision made on
the merits of the work we've done, would allow me to stay
in the job and that's what I hope to continue to do.
Just about to say, don't don't don't leave us. We really
gonna be in trouble. Uh, thank you chairman. Thank you,
thank you. And before we um, turn it over to Alderman
waguespack, I want to note, I think, um, in your
predecessors 10 years, somewhat early on there was at least
1 year where oig issued a budget facing documents. Um I
think that it included but wasn't limited to revenue. I
think there were also potential efficiencies. Um, clearly
the work that your department is continuing to do has uh a
a budget related component. And so, not asking you to
reinvent the wheel. Of course, in terms of the work that
you're doing but you may want to consider even if it's a a
1 or 2 page summary that highlights some of the uh, audits
that your office has done over the last year, or in recent
years that you think may be most relevant to our budget.
Yes. Um, because again, I I'm not saying go back and do
exactly what your predecessors office did, but there's a
lot of good work that, uh, maybe we.
Uh, we'll have forgotten by the time fall rolls around,
yes, and if I could just respond very quickly on that, I, I
very much appreciate that. That note, I think much of our
work does, or should have some sort of budget, implications
it in 1 direction, or the other either we identify
potential efficiencies or we identify need where we need
investment to improve outcomes, 1 of the things that we
have done is that we have, um, we have set up a sort of
understanding, with OBM, with the office of budget
management where, um, we send notification letters where
where we have audit findings or recommendations that do go
directly to budget implications in 1 direction or another
and um and I think we there's we have we have an
opportunity to do that in a more robust way and I think
that we could easily compile all of those going into the
budget cycle so that you all had had all of those kind of
at your fingertips. And that would be work already done. I
think we could do that. Great, thank you Alderman
waguespack followed by alderwoman Lee.
Uh, thank you, chairman, uh, just a quick question
follow-up, with allerman. Riley's question on, uh, the gift
room.
Um, have you thought about specific things to do with that
stuff? Um I mean something as simple as just a public
auction on it and say let's clear out this room and you
know, I I know it's not going to raise any money but uh it
would
You know, we have to have an answer to what we're going to
do with that and short of anything that's unethical like an
auction. Um that the city does for other property. Um why
not
Put it into that list and say, let's divulge of all these
items. Unless, unless there's something very specific like,
you know, uh uh, mayor of Osaka or mayor of Warsaw sends a
portrait, or something, or something that the public can
see that could go up on the walls of City Hall. I mean
there, but the size 12 shoes.
There's only 1 reason for that, and that's something, I
think that, you know, should be uh, put out publicly.
Just a thought you don't have to answer. Well I uh I I will
will just say briefly that I think from an oversight
perspective, our interest has been in, um, compliance with
the ethics rules, both the letter and the spirit of the
rules. And I think that, um, you know, when we talk about
gifts, accepted on behalf of the city, I take that to mean
what it says that those are gifts that belong to the city
of Chicago and its residents. And that the way we ought to
be handling, those gifts is a way that ensures that they
have some benefit to the public and I think that that
benefit could look a number of different ways depending on
the nature of the item. But that's from my perspective,
that would be the appropriate goal would be to ensure some
benefit to the to the city and its residents.
Thank you alter woman. Leave followed by Alderman s. Chill
Lopez.
I had to look at the time, it's afternoon now, good
afternoon, Inspector General whisper, it's great to see you
as usual, good to see you. Um, I really appreciate all the
work that, uh, that you and your team have done. Um, you
are the first person I, uh, voted on to a point, uh, to
approve an appointment on, so, you know, special to me in
many ways, uh, but I was just remembering when, uh, when
you were appointed and I certainly, uh, would Echo the
sentiments of so many of my colleagues that would love to
see you continue on in this capacity. Thank you. Um, I'm
just picking up on a couple of the things from this really
comprehensive report and going back to training.
Um, you know, I I do think that there if you can look at
of the training that's available to department heads here
Um that can be transferable and really we should be
providing to aldermanic offices um because we as Alderman
don't necessarily get the same type of um direction that we
should. And it really is a disservice to our uh, our
aldermanic staff, who are city employees, who are entitled
to all of the same sort of Rights, uh, as, as a non
aldermanic staff member. Um, but
I'll, I'll leave that 1 there. Um, in particular, I'm
wondering if you've ever studied the efficacy of um, online
training, um, in particular, for uh, Chicago Police
Department. It's just it came up in a conversation
recently. Um,
with some folks that I was talking to, um, and you know,
CPD gets so much training.
Many of its I think it's like 40 hours of training on an
annual basis, um, and I don't know how much of that is done
online versus in person. Um and I would I would posit that
that the online training, um, maybe is not as effective, as
we would like it to be. No. We, we sit through all of the
trainings that we're required to do for the, for the board
of Ethics. Um, yeah.
Yes, it's so much fun. Um and some of the stuff is I I
you know, I've worked in Corporate America for worked
worked there, longer than I've worked here and I'm
accustomed to all of those trainings. A lot of the things
are common sense things and then there are things that are
notably more specific to the city in terms of ethical
rules, um, and specific rules on, um, you know, whether
that's sexual harassment or harassment in the workplace and
and the like, um, but I just wonder if there's any sort of,
you know,
conversation around when, when it is an in-person training,
actually makes more of a difference than, um, you know,
sitting behind a computer with cell phones and other
distractions and just clicking through the screens to be
able to get through something. Yeah.
That's a really interesting question and not 1 that we've
looked at in in an evaluative way. I will say, um, what we
know about training from the various places in which we
take this kind of vertical. Look at it, is that as you say
the city has some of both of those things, we have some
in-person training, we have a lot of of online training.
They're obviously are going to be some kinds of training
for which, um, in-person is the only option. So, for
example, the police department has scenario-based trainings
in use of force and in the escalation techniques and some
others, um, where there are in-person kind of um, scenario
based components. That's the only way perhaps to do those
things. Um,
Some of the considerations around online training are for
very large departments. The police department also has for
example, lots of e-learning modules, lots of their training
is is um, distributed online. There's lots of other online
training for city employees as well. I think that there is
probably some recognition built into the city's training
rules that there are advantages to in-person training. The
thing that I have in mind is that we are all subject to
periodic requirements for in-person ethics training. You
don't, we don't have to do that every year like we do with
the online training, but we are all subject to this
periodic requirement. I take that to be a sort of
recognition that that at least every so often, you ought to
do some of that training in person. Um, so we have not
evaluated in a comparative way in person versus online
training. Um we will give that some thought as we continue
to make training related recommendations, great, um and
then 1 other question regarding um complaints uh about city
employees are very many of those are. Do you have a sense
of how many of those are sort of more customer service?
Focused.
Um,
Uh, yes and no. Um many of them are and I will say,
particularly now that we have, um, this centralized intake
function, we get many many intakes, which are not at least
on their face, a misconduct complaint, right? We get many
that are we get many of the, you know, this building
inspector solicited at a bribe. We get many of those
More than I would have anticipated. Um, but we also get many
that are not and they are some combination of suggestions
and programmatic concerns and customer service complaints.
So we don't count those. We get some substantial number of
them, I will say,
1 of the, the motivators behind the centralized intake
function is to make sure that we are learning what we can
from each of those intakes. And some of those those intakes
which amount to sort of customer service complaints, serve
an important purpose for us in that they help us identify
breakdowns in service and areas where city services are not
being delivered, effectively or efficiently or equitably.
And so those have some real value to us as we think about
prioritizing our work, even if they are not actionable on a
1 by 1 level.
So does does that kind of information then? Get turned over
to somebody else in the city to take a look at it's really
not your lane necessarily, um, but you've got access to the
data, you know, we're we're noticing an uptick in customer
service complaints about and I won't even pick a department
because someone will think that I don't like them. So, but
in any Department, it could just be an aldermanic office
too. I'm just, you know, you and I have talked recently
about some customer service type things. Um, and, you know,
folks, uh, folks are Frontline public facing employees,
whether they're at an aldermanic office or sitting behind a
counter here at City Hall. Um, take a fair amount of abuse.
Um, and, you know, I, I think that there's
If there's an opportunity for training at all ever, it's
just really how to, how to handle those situations. Um, you
know, where where the limits are on, you know, what, what 1
has to accept versus you know, how do I deescalate a
situation to
All all of the above. Yeah, I agree. There are certain
training opportunities and, and probably better resources
and better support that we can provide to city employees.
The question of whether that information goes somewhere
else in city, government is sort of sometimes, but not
always some of these products. Like, for example, some of
the notifications that we talked about in this quarterly
report were the product of a complaint or some collection
of intakes that identified a concern, like the 9111 calls.
Um, so sometimes there is we do. We do provide that
information to a department along with maybe some
recommendations other times.
Less. So other times, the way we use that information is to
inform our thinking about where there might be gaps in city
services.
That's all I got. Thank you very much, thank you. Thank you
last uh Alderman 6 Lopez.
Thank you.
A few questions.
The oversight.
inherited a position from
oh, there you go. Can you give me now? Thank you. Um, as
someone who inherited a position on, um, uh, serious. Um,
um, corruption allegations and cases that do appreciate the
importance of oversight, uh, of your office and I support
your, um, investigate of authority as well. Independence of
the office, thank you. Um, I do have, um, some more recent
and a few pending that maybe just alluded in this last
report.
Um, but in terms of I think that there was a good section
here around, um, campaign Finance. I think that there was
very important how campaign Finance investigations are
monitored by the office. As, you know, there was a, a
really important Friday. Uh, but the Chicago Tribune about
um, packs are being set up. I mean, this is not, I mean
talk about gifts and I do, welcome the investigation. I do
think that we got to look at the, the size of this, kind of
operation. We talk about 10 million dollars, that is being
set up, um, to actually compromise Integrity. Not only of
Elections, but the functioning of government itself. I am
particularly interested about 1 of the members of this
pack, um, because of previous important, um, and I want to
talk to you about, you know, there's any um,
Uh leads on that. But in 2015, there were reports about
connections with investments in the Chicago, Teachers
pension fund. Um, there were emails back in between over
1500 messages between the, uh, previous mayor, Emanuel, as
well as, uh, Michael sax in this particular case. Um, my
concern in this, uh, in, in this particular, um, time is
the clearly, you know, we all serious conflicts here on
people who either steering businesses or want to influence
policy, um, for the uh, city council and and these
connections, I do think that are important for the council
to be aware. I I will find really problematic. Um, if we
are questioning, uh, the um, acceptance of gifts, but it
seems like it's okay to take 10 million dollars, uh, from
interest again connected to
Serious irregularities around the management of Pension
funds which has also been subject of discussion in the city
council. So, my question again, is if there's anything that
your office is monitoring around, this particular
operations, and how they're steering, um, policy in the
city council.
Thank you Alderman. Um,
without speaking to any specific contributor or
contribution, the question of whether contributors have an
interest in City business or whether they have an action
before the city council or have, um,
a financial interest distinguishable from that of the
public in any city. Um,
Decision or action is certainly 1 of the things that we
look at. In this campaign oversight work, where we look at
these classes of restricted. Contributors people who have
some interest in in City business, in 1 of those forms. For
example, are restricted, contributors the amount of money,
they are individually allowed to give is limited. Um, so I
will say 2 things we are um we are working actively and
proactively to enforce the rules that exist. We have also
identified what I think are some gaps in the campaign
Finance rules which allow for um,
Which I think allow for some contributions which risk
conflicts of interest or at least the appearance of them
just as damaging from a legitimacy perspective. Um, where
there are these gaps in the rules and where um, we've
identified some of those gaps, some of them have been
filled. Their, this committee has has acted on some
legislation to close, or at least to narrow some of those
gaps. Others of them persist. And so I think, I think
historically, we've had 2 problems. Um, we've had imperfect
rules and under enforcement of the rules. We have had we
are working very hard to correct. At least 1, piece of
that, that is to say we are working to correct what I think
is a historic underinvestment.
Enforcement of the rules, we will we will stay at that and
I'd be happy to talk offline about any specific concerns um
that you have in particular. I will also say we I I
continue to be concerned about what, what our gaps in the
rules. Um, and I know this committee has been active as I
say in addressing some of those. I think there's more work
to do um, that we can do together on on addressing gaps in
the rules.
thank you, Inspector General, definitely again and I as as
I mentioned to, the chair will definitely love to um
contribute to this conversation as we seen the effects and
the damage to communities when corruption is normalized.
Uh, to the point that we have had a, um,
An unprecedented number of indictments in members of the
city council. Um, that's what I think. The other question
that I have, I ran, and I appreciate the chairman, when the
codify the acceptance of, um, contributions by lobbyists in
the mayor's office, I do. Uh, I do think that it is also
only fair and important that we also codify that for city
council members, in the sense of holding each other
accountable. So, I do hope that we can continue with that.
Um, and lastly, I do want to mention and ask, you know, in
terms of the collaboration with a lot of Department, as I
mentioned with, uh, the chairman of the committee. Um, it
is important that your office and the Law Department work
in collaboration and coordination, uh, to close those gaps.
and find ways to find common ground in a very difficult,
uh, time. I think that we got to work together. So, my
question is, have you seen, um, more
for collaboration between the Law Department, you know, in
in in working with your office in terms of some some of
these ethics um proposals
Um, we have frankly seen some challenges uh, with uh in our
our interactions with the law Department, around our
investigative work and oig's Independence and
Effectiveness, we continue to look for opportunities for
collaboration. I agree with you, that that's incredibly
important. Um, the fact of the matter is, the Corporation
Council is our lawyer too. Um, and, and so we continue to
look for opportunities to work together. We have, we have
had some recent conversations um, about some of those those
Independents and Effectiveness challenges, I look forward
to finding opportunities to have others. Yeah. And I had my
voice to that to, um, collaborate in, in, in terms. I know
that there there's some pending legislation around uh
subpoena power. And again, this is why we it is super
important. I want to give the context I do will follow up
with you in this particular cases, um, because we do need
to, um, address the root causes of corruption. And when Big
Money tried to buy buy seats in city council, that do think
that as we look in gifts, I think that we look with the
same energy and determination
And potential conflict of interest when pension, uh, Pension
funds, as well as policy in the city council. So I would
say I'm sorry, I interrupt you. I I just I, I agree. You
know, I I said a few minutes ago, that the reason we have
rules around gifts, is that improperly handled gifts look
like bribes? The reason we have rules around campaign
contributions is that improperly handled campaign
contributions look like bribes. Um I think the the
motivator is the same, the principal the importance of the
principle is the same. I agree with you. That is why we've
been we've been much more aggressive in our oversight of of
campaign contributions and I would be happy to to discuss
that further. Yeah, no, I appreciate it. Inspector General,
I know that you have and that's what I think. I'll I'll
call on all collaboration, especially for the, for the Law
Department. Um, and I'm glad that we agree on the
problematic nature of seeing, um, millions of dollars
already set up to affect the Integrity of government. I
really welcome your oversight. My, my, uh, next question I
know and appreciate the chair indulge me with a few more
questions. Um, the 1 is about the, the, um, issues with the
extremism in in digital Police Department. I think that's
something again that I, I welcome. Um, there's a number of
of reports that I think that you have provided, uh, on the
action of of city council. Uh, unfortunately that has
continued to to, um, to linger. Uh, I am again, my
community again, um, concerned about what we've seen with
the actions of the federal government and links with, uh,
extremism, uh, or extremist groups. Um, even in person,
aiding federal agents, uh, creating Terror in
Communities. That's what I do think, is important that the
council look at the recommendations. I know that you
mentioned here about, you know, some, uh, pending uh,
businesses in terms of police oversight, um, misconduct and
settlements and so forth. Uh, this was very specific
because I know that you have been a champion of these, uh,
of these efforts, and I do appreciate your courage and your
integrity to push this forward. What can be done? I think,
I think at the, um, in this committee, or in city council
to follow your recommendations, and maybe how important and
Urgent is this,
Um, I very much appreciate all those questions and
Alderman. I have appreciated your partnership. We've, we've
had an opportunity to work together on some of those
issues. I appreciate that. I think that, um, in terms of
our broader concerns about extremism in policing and the
handling of allegations of extremist affiliations in the
police department, um, we made a recommendation last summer
to the mayor's office as, you know, to convene a task force
force, to take a sort of whole of government approach to
the issue of extremism in law enforcement. It's an issue
that is not unique to Chicago by any means, but is but
rather as being confronted by um law enforcement and chain
of command organizations all over the country. Um, and so
we recommended that the mayor's office convene that task
force, uh, many many months. After we issued that
recommendation, we learned that the mayor's office had. In
fact, convened, a task force. Um, there has been very
little public transparency into the functions of that task
force, um, whether and when they are meeting and what they
are doing and what they are focusing,
On, Etc. Um, that is concerning to me. I think we cannot do
transparency work in secret. Um, and we've given people
know no reason to trust government, that happens behind
closed doors. And I think on that of all issues, where
public trust and the legitimacy of law enforcement is so
close to the heart of the problem. Um, that is a public
policy conversation that ought to happen in the light of
day. We ought to be conducting the business of the public
in public. And so I think, um,
For what it's worth. I would like to see the city council.
Um,
Convene hearings on that task force and on its progress.
And I I think that that would be a useful mechanism for
transparency into what efforts the city is taking.
Thank you. Uh finally and um, my question is around the
special about transparency, the inspector General's office,
what kind of I know that different delegate agencies
Chicago, public schools, and others have their own offices,
are there regular communication between these delegate
agencies and yours in terms of like standardizing and, you
know, promoting some of the same
You know, policies, is there something that you that is
happening regularly? Yes, um, yes it is. I think that there
there are certainly always more opportunities, um, for
regular communication. But, but yes, there is communication
among our offices. So, there are separate offices of
Inspector General. As you say, for Chicago, public schools
and the park district and city colleges and the Chicago
Housing, Authority Etc. Um, we have different sources of
sources of authority, different scopes of authority. And we
do different kinds of oversight work, but, um, we are
certainly generally speaking all pulling in the same
direction and we, we, we find and we take opportunities to
work together. I will also say, just very quickly, we have
worked very hard over the last couple of years, to kind of
increase our profile on and be good citizens of the
national oversight landscape, and community. And so, both
both Darwin. And I and other members of our office are very
active in the International Association of inspectors
General, as our as our, our colleagues across those
offices. And so, we have been working very hard to to
To kind of um stay on top of and aligned with best
practices. Not only just across the oversight agencies here
in the city but on the national landscape as well. So that
we are not Reinventing Wheels. We are not, um, starting
from scratch on problems that have been solved elsewhere.
That's good to hear. Especially as we see in the, you know,
fortunately the um, persecution of Inspector generals and
oversight bodies. You know, I think it's good to, you know,
to hear that. And again, from the chairman and and to, you,
we'll look forward to collaborating and, uh, work.
together for um uh the the item that is sitting in rules
committee with a lot of Department, I understand chairman
is working through a memo but publicly want to um, you
know, commit to following through and make sure that that's
done in a timely matter. Thank you sir, thank you. Um, 1
piece, I'll note about uh, extremism is based on uh
General. Your helpful work at a a hearing a number of
months ago, we've introduced legislation. Um, because we
think that, in addition to continuing to have public
conversations, you've certainly shared more than enough
that merits action and not continued conversation. Uh uh
that ordinance is sitting in the workforce committee. Um we
are engaging City attorneys and other stakeholders uh to
continue to revise that in the hopes that we can get
something uh for that committee. And hopefully the broader
city councils um consideration. Um that would be
specifically addressing um, anti-government extremism um,
in city government. Uh, so would note that as well as uh,
your offices
Um uh continued work on a whole host of issues. Hopefully we
can minimize the extent to which issues like um uh oig
investigations, and our Fair elections proposal, go to the
rules committee because that's never a good place for
dialogue but um uh at least 1 of those will hopefully be
coming out of the rules committee before too long. Um, we
are going to hold uh, the final item, the audit and program
review section, uh, for the 2025 audit plan for a
subsequent conversation as we've already had a good 1
today. So appreciate, um, you and your brothers work on
that, uh, we'll be in touch and with that, we have no
further business before the committee Alderman, OSHA moves
to adjourn, uh, seeing no disagreement there. Uh, this
committee is adjourned and thank you all, uh, for your
time.
Thank you.