By the time you read this, Deborah Witzburg will have officially not been Chicago's inspector general for at least two days.
For the last four years, she and her team of investigators have been answering complaints and shining a light on a city government that for decades has been notoriously reluctant to submit itself to such oversight. Indeed, Witzburg made news a few weeks ago when she told Sun-Times reporter Fran Spielman that Mayor Brandon Johnson's administration was "reflexively hostile to oversight" (he has disagreed with that description).
And even as her successor has yet to be named (the mayor says he's reviewing a list of finalists submitted by a search committee), Witzburg told me several weeks ago she has not had "a moment of regret" about her announcement last July that she would not seek appointment to a second term. "I think a great deal of harm can be done by staying in these jobs too long," she said, describing oversight jobs as a "relay race" rather than a marathon or a sprint.
Listening to Witzburg talk about the work she's done, which includes everything from exposing what's become known across the country as the "gift closet" in Mayor Johnson's office to her most recent work analyzing potentially uncollected city debt, it's clear she considers oversight work a calling. "I do believe it's a tremendous privilege to serve in this job," she said.
When asked about the origin of that commitment, she talked about a book ... though not "All The President's Men" or "American Pharaoh." No, her origin story starts with a book she read as a child growing up in New England: "Miss Rumphius."
"Miss Rumphius went off around the world and had these grand adventures," Witzburg recalled, "and eventually came home to this town by the sea, and understood that it was her responsibility to do something to make the world more beautiful. And so, Miss Rumphius rode her bicycle around this seaside town spreading lupine seeds."
The moral of the story, she said, is that it's everyone's job to make the world more beautiful: "I do believe the work we're doing here is making the world more beautiful. No lupine seeds required."
Where or how she intends to continue that work is not clear. She has promised an announcement "soon," and when asked if she's planning to enter the political arena stole a line from once-and-possibly-future politician Rahm Emanuel: "I'm not done with public service, and I hope public service isn't done with me."
