Fostering public trust, engineering for long-term success, and leveraging interdisciplinary cooperation

I was confirmed as inspector general for the City of Chicago on April 27, 2022, and as we approach the fourth year of this term, I am deeply proud of the work being done by the extraordinarily talented and committed staff of the City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG).

I came into this job with three priorities for OIG:

• to prioritize work which fosters public trust in government and pays down the deficit of legitimacy at which the City of Chicago operates with its residents,

• to engineer OIG for long-term stability and success, and

• to leverage interdisciplinary cooperation across our practice areas to maximize our impact.

Over many decades, City government in Chicago has earned its reputation as broken and corrupt, and has given Chicagoans no reason to afford the benefit of any doubt to decisions made in dark corners of City Hall. We are holding people accountable when they abuse positions of public trust, and we are shining a light into those dark corners—working to pay down the City’s deficit of legitimacy. 

We are, meanwhile, working to protect OIG’s independence and ensure the long-term stability and viability of effective oversight in Chicago. We have proposed changes to the Municipal Code of Chicago to prevent interference with OIG’s work and safeguard its independence. The Better Government Association released a legal opinion in March, finding “no legal prohibitions” to the proposed changes.

In April, the ASSOCIATION OF INSPECTORS GENERAL adopted two position papers on inspector general independence, which echo and affirm threats identified and reforms proposed by OIG. Those proposed changes are pending before Chicago’s City Council, and I hope to see action taken on them soon.

We are also seeing tremendous impact from interdisciplinary collaboration across OIG’s practice areas. Our misconduct investigations are informed by our deep knowledge of the police disciplinary system. The work of our data analysts is amplifying the force of our audits and evaluations and generating investigative leads. Our analysts and investigators are working together to find those places in City government where misconduct is co-located with policy shortcomings. 

There is a great deal more work to do, and I am honored to continue to do it alongside my colleagues at OIG. Thank you for your interest in our work. 

Respectfully,

Deborah Witzburg

Inspector General, City of Chicago