OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL
ADVISORY CONCERNING INEQUITIES IN CHICAGO'S RESIDENTIAL STREET V : INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT .
JOSEPH M FERGUSON INSPECTOR GENERAL
VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL
June 13, 2019
Mayor Lori Lightfoot City of Chicago
121 North LaSalle Street, Room 507 Chicago, Illinois 60602
Dear Mayor Lightfoot:
A 2017 audit by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that the City perpetuates significant inequities between wards and underfunds residential street infrastructure needs by approximately $228.8 million annually, primarily because it does not follow best practices for multi-year capital planning.' The previous administration disagreed with our findings and declined to reform its residential street infrastructure management. Below, we summarize OIG's audit findings and urge you implement the recommendations.
I. THE ALDERMANIC MENU PROGRAM CREATES SIGNIFICANT FUNDING INEQUITIES, INCLUDING A GAP OF $9.3 MILLION BETWEEN THE BEST- AND WORST-FUNDED WARDS.
The Aldermanic Menu Program ("Menu") is the City's primary means of funding residential street infrastructure, including street and alley resurfacing, street lighting, speed humps, and sidewalk replacement. The City gives each alderman control of $1.32 million in Menu funds annually, regardless of ward size or the amount of infrastructure in need of rehabilitation. Consequently, wards with more miles of residential streets and alleys have a much lower percentage of their needs met by Menu funding. Our audit found that, in 2015, this resulted in a funding disparity relative to need of $9.3 million between the best- and worst-funded wards. We have no reason to believe this gap has changed significantly since 2015, when we estimated that the best-funded ward (46) received 88.5% of necessary funding from
1 City of Chicago, Office of Inspector General, "Chicago Department, of Transportation Aldermanic Menu Audit," April 2017, accessed May 16, 2019, https//icichicacio orq/2017/04/20/cdot-ald...
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