JOSEPH M. FERGUSON INSPECTOR GENERAL
CITY OF CHICAGO OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL 740 NORTH SEDGWICK STREET, SUITE 200 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60654 TELEPHONE" (773) 478-7799 FAX (773) 478-3949
AUGUST 23, 2018
TO THE MAYOR, MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL, CITY CLERK, CITY TREASURER, AND RESIDENTS OF THE CITY OF CHICAGO:
The City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG) has completed a follow-up to its September 2017 audit of the City's compliance with the Language Access Ordinance (LAO), Municipal Code of Chicago (MCC) Chapter 2-40, "Citywide Language Access to Ensure the Effective Delivery of City Services," Based on the Department's responses, OIG concludes that the City has partially implemented corrective actions related to the audit findings.
The purpose of the September 2017 audit was to determine if the City was in compliance with the language access requirements of MCC Chapter 2-40. Our audit found that the City is not in compliance with those requirements. Specifically, the Mayor's Office of New Americans (ONA) focused its compliance efforts on the seven City departments it deemed fully subject to LAO,1 and did not ensure that other departments complied with the Ordinance's mandate to implement those requirements "to the degree practicable." Moreover, none of the seven prioritized departments were in full compliance with the LAO requirements. While all seven designated a Language Access Coordinator, one had not submitted the required language access and compliance plans, and none had implemented procedures to solicit community comment. None of the submitted language access plans were developed with the department-specific four-factor analyses required by LAO, and one plan did not include all six of the required elements.
Based upon the results of the audit, OIG recommended that the Mayor's Office:
clarify which LAO requirements apply to each of the various City departments;
endow ONA or another entity with the power and duty to enforce compliance with the...
Click here for full text