Members of Chicago's City Council used the latest round of budget hearings to say a formal "goodbye" to the city's official government watchdog.
Deborah Witzburg explained to aldermen during Wednesday's hearing why she chose not to seek another term as Inspector General, a job she's done since 2022.
"Most positions in the city should have term limits - this one certainly should," she said. "This work is neither a sprint nor a marathon - it's a relay race."
And while she made a couple of references to the 179 days she had left in the position ... "but who's counting?" she joked at one point ... she said she was "lucky" to have served as the city's inspector general.
And most aldermen offered compliments to her and her team for their work and their integrity, with Dunning alderman Nick Sposato remembering what happened when he tried to give her a gift after she succeeded former IG Joe Ferguson.
"It was a $10 gift, and she would not accept it from me," said Sposato (38th Ward), who said it was a framed copy of an article from the Chicago Sun-Times announcing her appointment.
But Sposato's fellow Northwest side alderman Jim Gardiner (45th Ward), who has been the target of an IG investigation, pointed out what he described as past errors of her office.
"The people of my ward deserve an apology," he told her. "And if you want to talk about that, I'd love to hear it."
She responded by saying her office is not perfect, but that she's proud of the work that's been done: "I will not be intimidated out of doing my job."
At the end of the hearing, West side alderman Jason Ervin, the chair of the Budget and Government Operations committee and an ally of Mayor Brandon Johnson, suggested that the next IG should be focused on saving money in the budget rather than rooting out waste, fraud and abuse.
"Going after one individual - it's like sometimes we're tripping over hundred-dollar bills to pick up nickels," said Ervin (28th Ward), whose wife is City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin.
Witzburg countered that decades of corruption have left the city with a deficit of legitimacy among its residents.
"If we undermine and erode the ability to hold bad actors accountable in this government, we will continue to operate at a deficit of legitimacy long after we have found a billion dollars in this budget," she said.
Witzburg's term ends in April. A search committee will nominate her replacement.