Chicago City Wire

A former employee of the Chicago City Clerk's office has been accused of embezzling over $100,000 in cash payments made for city stickers. The alleged theft was discovered after a detailed analysis of City Clerk records related to sticker sales and a review of video footage from over-the-counter transactions, according to a quarterly report released by Inspector General Deborah Witzburg.

The report further explains that Witzburg's office cross-referenced the dates and times of transactions captured on video surveillance with the business transactions recorded by the City Clerk. This examination revealed discrepancies in cash payments associated with city sticker transactions conducted by the employee. According to the report, the employee breached several City of Chicago Personnel Rules, including Rule XVIII Section 1 Subsection 19, which pertains to theft or unauthorized possession or use of public property.

City Clerk Anna Valencia informed the Sun-Times that her office had reported the accused female employee to the inspector general before January 2020. The employee, whose identity was not disclosed in the report, resigned during the course of the investigation without providing a statement to investigators. After reviewing this individual's transactions between May 2014 and November 2021, Witzburg's office estimated that more than six figures' worth of cash transactions handled by this employee were unaccounted for.

Following these revelations, the former employee was added to the city's "Do Not Hire" list and information about her alleged misconduct was referred to law enforcement for potential criminal prosecution. The Office of Inspector General (OIG) released its Fourth Quarter 2023 Report on Friday, Jan. 12. In it, Witzburg stated that "nearly half of the cases in which OIG has successfully pursued findings of probable cause in investigations into violations of the City’s ethics rules in the last decade were in 2023 alone."