(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The head of Chicago's Office of the Inspector General says, in the end, the cases of wrongdoing that they investigate, are about violations of the public trust.
Chicago’s Office of the Inspector General is out with a long and varied list of investigations of wrongdoing, waste and inefficiency that it might pursue this year. And IG Deborah Witzburg says there’s been no shortage of complaints from people about what may need investigating:
“We received nearly 11,000 intakes over the course of 2024. That's an increase of about 30% over 2023,” Witzburg said.
“I think that is a really good news story. You know, we are not getting more intakes because more things are going wrong in city government – we're hearing from more people more often.”
Talking with Chicagoans is a key part of the process when planning out investigations.
“We use input from lots of different sources to draft project plans for the year ahead, both for our public safety section and our audit and program review section. We put together proposed project topics and then we go out and pound the pavement and ask Chicagoans what they think about those potential project ideas.”
Last year, she says, her team investigated things ranging from city employees fraudulently obtaining federal COVID relief money to firefighters covering up misconduct by a supervisor.
“There is a huge range of misconduct committed by city officials which earn every bit of the mistrust that surrounds City Hall. And the cases that we reported in the fourth quarter, are the kinds of serious misconduct that feed the deficit of legitimacy at which Chicago operates.
People often don’t trust government. Holding wrongdoers accountable, she says, can help change that.
Possible probes include how well the police department cares for the mental health of officers and the City’s street resurfacing operations, to how well City Council members attend meetings.
“This is not a perfect filter, but the organizing principle for me, as I think about this, really is the observation that the city operates at this tremendous deficit of legitimacy with its residents,” Witzburg said.
“And I try to focus our energy and attention and resources on those problems, those failings, those shortcomings, which most and fastest contribute to that deficit of legitimacy.”
Inspector General Deborah Witzburg is the guest on our AT ISSUE program this weekend and you can hear more of her thoughts at 9:30 p.m. on Sunday.
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