By The Office Of Inspector General
The City of Chicago Office of Inspector General has released its fourth quarter report for 2018 to the City Council. The report summarizes the Office’s activity from October 1, 2018 through December 31, 2018. This quarter’s report contains summaries of concluded OIG investigations, inquiries, and other activities, including:
* An OIG investigation which established that a high-ranking CPD supervisor directed on-duty CPD officers to chauffeur the supervisor’s child from school to a district police station in a CPD vehicle on a weekly basis, for approximately one year, in addition to monitoring the supervisor’s child for recurring two to three-hour periods while on duty.
This violated CPD rules by improperly diverting resources away from the community and creating additional stress for officers, which ultimately had a detrimental impact on their morale.
The supervisor also disingenuously claimed that the use of CPD officers to transport and oversee the child was appropriate because the officers were unknowingly participating in a community policing study the supervisor was conducting involving children, for which the supervisor’s child was the “test case.”
OIG recommended that CPD discipline the supervisor, up to and including discharge. In response, CPD suspended the supervisor for seven days.
* An OIG investigation which established that a Department of Streets and Sanitation (DSS) laborer concealed his jailing on a felony conviction by using leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which the laborer falsely claimed was to care for an ill family member.
DSS agreed with OIG’s recommendations, discharging the laborer and referring them for placement on the ineligible for rehire list.
* An OIG investigation which established that a Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) official engaged in approved secondary employment with the same community health center over which the official held contract management authority.
Those responsible for ensuring compliance with secondary employment procedures were unaware of the appropriate criteria for the employment and for preventing conflicts of interest by CDPH staff.
OIG recommended that the Department of Law assist CDPH in creating a policy to ensure the approval process for outside employment identifies and addresses any potential conflicts of interest, as well as establishing a citywide policy, and that CDPH review all current outside employment, to ensure that no additional, active conflicts of interest exist.
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Comments welcome.
Posted on January 25, 2019