Chicago City Wire

The Chicago Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has released its quarterly report highlighting some alleged misconduct involving Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration but Chicago Republican Chairman Steve Boulton said the statistics are indicative of an agency that is understaffed and overwhelmed with cases to investigate.

“The OIG has a tough task in the city of Chicago because there's so much going on, and there is always been some reticence about supporting the OIG,” Boulton told Chicago City Wire. “The OIG does have a very good function. They've identified a lot of problematic areas in the city and could be more aggressive than they have been as far as some of the policies of the mayor, but they stay away from it.”

The following are highlights from the report:

Chicago Republican Chairman Steve Boulton | Provided

There were 309 employees, nine subcontractors or contractors, 11 elected officials and four appointed officials who were the subject of investigations.

“They're going for the low-hanging fruit and not the big fish,” Boulton said in an interview. “There may well be misconduct. I don’t doubt they are uncovering misconduct. I don't think that they're manufacturing anything. It's more a case of focus that they tend to shy away from the big boys. Although in their defense, some of the things they have done have been pretty good over the years.”

There are 161 pending matters that have not been resolved. Of those, 42 investigations have been opened for at least 12 months

“Twelve months is an adequate amount of time,” Boulton said. “The problem is that the office is not adequately staffed for the volume of cases and tips that are coming in. Given the volume of what goes on in Chicago, they are very understaffed. I'd like to see them bigger.”

The OIG concluded investigations regarding bid-rigging and contractor fallout, fraud, conflicts of interest failure to follow safety protocols, falsification of training records, harassing and threatening communications violence in the workplace and discourteous treatment

“In my mind they're not taking on big issues because they are relying on the federal government to do that and I'm not sure that's the proper way,” Boulton said. “I feel that there's only so much in federal resources and that only some things can be taken up when there's plenty more where that came from.” 

There are six pending federal criminal investigations. 

“It’s general practice that once the federal government opens up an investigation, they want all state agencies to steer clear," Boulton said. "That has been the continual excuse of the state's attorney as to why they don't do anything that might involve the federal government but there's only so many people working in the FBI and the federal courthouse here in Chicago and there are mountains of corruption in this town.”