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
TO THE MAYOR, MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL, CITY CLERK, CITY TREASURER, AND RESIDENTS OF THE CITY OF CHICAGO:
Enclosed for your review is the public report on the operations of the City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG) during the second quarter of 2019, filed with the City Council pursuant to Section 2-56-120 of the Municipal Code of Chicago.
This report covers a period that spans the final weeks of the Emanuel Administration and the first weeks of the Lightfoot Administration. During such a major transition, it bears noting that while individual conduct revealed through investigation often captures public attention, nearly all of what is reported—whether from OIC's Investigations, Audit and Program Review, Public Safety, or Hiring Oversight sections—can and should be mined for potential insights on how we might programmatically improve how government can better execute its critical functions going forward. To that end, OIG is endeavoring to speak to broader dynamics and patterns in operations, which signal opportunities for paradigm shifts to new ways City government can do better and more for less and, in the process, free up fiscal resources to address our broader, long-running fiscal challenges.
The recently concluded quarter also marks a major change in the composition of the City Council. The new faces, voices, and perspectives are in many ways representative of the public's desire for fresh ideas and sharpened focus on new solutions to old problems. That, however, cannot happen unless the Council as a body makes a decisive move to inhabit its legislative oversight authority. That is best conducted through regular subject matter committee hearings on an extraordinary range of issues important to the City as a whole. One place where that is desperately needed, if...
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