Mayor Brandon Johnson and his predecessor Lori Lightfoot had been accused Thursday of impeding the work of Chicago’s inspector normal — by withholding paperwork, selectively imposing subpoenas and demanding to have the Regulation Division sit in on interviews that “threat embarrassment” to the mayor.
The investigative roadblocks outlined by Inspector Normal Deborah Witzburg embrace selecting and selecting which subpoenas to adjust to and withholding or unreasonably delaying the discharge of delicate paperwork, resembling emails and textual content messages.
In a memo to the Metropolis Council launched Thursday, Witzburg cited “at the very least ten investigations” since her appointment in April 2022 when the Regulation Division “demanded to attend” investigative interviews. The “overwhelming majority” of these investigations concerned “conduct of senior members of the Mayor’s workplace or high-ranking mayoral appointees.”
The inspector normal stated she refused to permit metropolis attorneys to sit down in on the interviews, fearing it may intimidate witnesses. As a substitute, the interviews had been canceled, “blocking essential avenues of investigation,” she stated.
Witzburg’s memo doesn’t identify names or pinpoint particular investigations, however it broadly describes 4 now-completed investigations through which the Regulation Division put up roadblocks to her interviews.
The primary investigation makes use of authorized language indicating it may very well be associated to Bally’s $1.7 billion proposal to construct a on line casino and leisure advanced in River West.
Witzburg’s workplace got down to decide “whether or not the Host Group Settlement was tainted by any improper influences,” whether or not town adopted “relevant legal guidelines, laws and finest practices” and whether or not “metropolis officers directed the awardee” to enter right into a “profitable lease with a 3rd social gathering based mostly on improper influences.”
The Regulation Division allegedly interfered with that investigation by demanding to be current at interviews of “a number of high-ranking” staff of the mayor’s workplace, “a number of present and former metropolis division heads” and a Council worker.
The second investigation was geared toward figuring out whether or not a “now-former elected official” misused metropolis property and solicited marketing campaign contributions from metropolis staff.
In one more case, the Regulation Division ran interference when the inspector normal tried to interview an administrative assistant within the mayor’s workplace as a part of its investigation into allegations {that a} “Cupboard-level Mayor’s Workplace worker” misused metropolis time and sources.
The fourth case of interview interference impeded an investigation geared toward figuring out whether or not “a mayor or one other metropolis worker improperly directed elimination of a person from a Metropolis Council assembly.”
Witzburg additionally cited 4 extra critical ongoing investigations impeded by interview interference.
They contain allegations of “potential bribery, an allegation of retaliation” by withholding metropolis providers and “a number of cases of alleged retaliation in opposition to people who made protected stories” to the inspector normal’s workplace.
The Regulation Division’s demand to sit down in on interviews — even after whistleblowers had “recognized fears of retaliation for protected reporting” — is “egregiously obstructive,” Witzburg wrote.
“The sample we’re seeing is that, once we are conducting investigations which threat embarrassment to Metropolis Corridor, the Regulation Division calls for to be current at these interviews. That’s not a smart strategy to conduct investigations,” Witzburg informed the Solar-Instances.
“We’re actually not gonna topic complainants, whistleblowers and witnesses to having the mayor’s legal professionals evident at them throughout the desk. I’m involved about intimidation. I’m involved a few chilling impact on individuals making complaints. We can not anticipate candor when the mayor’s legal professionals are sitting within the room,” she stated.
Regulation Division spokesperson Kristen Cabanban launched an announcement that basically denies the inspector normal’s investigations had been improperly impeded: “For the previous three a long time, earlier Metropolis inspector generals have correctly accepted that the authorized rights of Metropolis staff and the authorized pursuits of the Metropolis rightfully justify our practices. There may be each authorized precedent via case regulation in addition to procedural jurisprudence that dictates how we should conduct ourselves.”
Lightfoot’s spokesperson Joanna Klonsky couldn’t be reached.
Ald. Matt Martin (forty seventh), chair of the Council’s Ethics Committee, stated he’s “very involved” concerning the investigative impediments that Witzburg outlined and plans to take away them by strengthening town’s ethics ordinance within the methods she advisable.
Among the many particular adjustments she advisable:
• Make clear that metropolis staff and officers have a “obligation to cooperate” with the inspector normal that “supersedes any assertion of privilege by or on behalf of town.”
• Forestall the Regulation Division from “unilaterally substituting its judgment relating to which metropolis data could also be topic to oversight and accountability.”
• Strengthen metropolis code to guard the inspector normal’s skill to “implement its lawfully issued subpoenas with out selective interference or delay” by town’s Regulation Division.
“Chicagoans have very persistently despatched a message to elected officers that we … must shine a highlight on that alleged misconduct — not conceal it,” Martin stated. “Whether or not you’re speaking concerning the raid on Anjanette Younger’s residence or the Hilco investigation, when one thing goes mistaken, it shouldn’t matter how a lot you make. It shouldn’t matter what your title is. We have to transfer ahead with these investigations in a fast and fulsome method.”
Higher Authorities Affiliation President David Greising tied the alleged interference Witzburg cited to this week’s federal corruption conviction of former Illinois Home Speaker Michael Madigan.
“That is tantamount to, whereas the feds had been investigating Madigan, having a lawyer who’s linked to Madigan sit in on investigative interviews,” Greising stated. “This construction has a chilling impact on the independence of the inspector normal’s workplace.”
