By Chicago Times Magazine –
November 4, 2025
The City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG) released an advisory on Tuesday finding that City officials interfered with unannounced inspections of City premises and that the Mayor’s Office declined recommended steps to ensure lawful OIG access.
The advisory states that on two separate occasions over the past year OIG investigators were denied entry while attempting unannounced inspections, despite the Municipal Code of Chicago requiring that each department’s “premises, equipment, personnel, books, records, and papers shall be made available as soon as practicable to the inspector general.”
OIG agents attempted an unannounced inspection related to gifts held by the Mayor’s Office following an earlier OIG advisory on gifts accepted on behalf of the City. City records show the space depicted and opened to the public as the Mayor’s “Gift Room” was not constructed until February 2025 — after OIG’s initial attempt to inspect where gifts were being stored. The Mayor’s Office later posted a 21‑second video of the room and announced rules describing how gifts accepted “on behalf of the City” would be handled and that the room would be open to press and public visits.
Because OIG was denied access during its original unannounced inspection, investigators say they could not independently confirm where and how City property — including cufflinks, designer handbags, and men’s shoes cited in the advisory — had been stored prior to the construction of the publicly displayed Gift Room.
A separate incident in July 2025 involved an attempt to inspect a City office where OIG had reason to believe items were being kept in violation of City policy. According to the advisory, an attorney from the City’s Department of Law instructed a City employee in that office not to admit OIG during the initial visit. Weeks later, OIG returned with DOL present and confirmed the presence of the items, underscoring OIG’s assertion that an unannounced inspection at the earlier moment would have captured more complete, contemporaneous evidence.
The OIG advisory recommended that the Mayor’s Office take concrete steps to ensure OIG’s access to City premises as required by law, including issuing guidance to City departments clarifying the inspector general’s statutory authority to conduct unannounced inspections.
Inspector General Deborah Witzburg emphasized the role of surprise inspections in oversight, saying, “Unannounced inspections are an important tool in oversight work, allowing for unmanipulated assessment of practices, behaviors, and conditions.”
According to the advisory, the Mayor’s Office declined to adopt OIG’s recommendations. The Mayor’s Office response cited a provision of OIG’s rules that governs investigative interviews — a provision the OIG says is unrelated to premises inspections — and referenced “evolving interpretations of the City’s Governmental Ethics Ordinance.” The advisory states the Mayor’s Office “apparently declined” to take the steps OIG proposed.
Witzburg framed the refusals in broader terms of public trust, saying the City must avoid selective openness. “Time and time again, we have observed that the City of Chicago operates at a deficit of legitimacy with its residents. For generations, government in this City has given people every reason to mistrust things that happen behind closed doors in City Hall,” she said. “The Mayor’s Office has taken the position here that it must open those doors to oversight only when it suits them to do so, and that position does little to chip away at mistrust or to pay down the deficit of legitimacy.”
The advisory raises legal and operational questions about the enforceability of OIG access rights under the Municipal Code and about how City departments should respond to unannounced oversight. OIG officials argue that denying unannounced access can impede investigations by allowing evidence to be relocated or conditions to be altered before inspectors can document them.
The OIG advisory calls on the Mayor’s Office to issue clear, department‑wide guidance affirming inspectors’ rights to access City premises and to instruct department staff on complying with lawful OIG inspections. The advisory does not outline enforcement steps should the Mayor’s Office continue to decline those actions.
The Mayor’s Office declined to implement the recommendations in its formal response to OIG, and did not indicate plans to change current practices in the advisory’s description of the response.
Feature image: Mayor’s Gift Gold Room – Chicago Times Magazine Artist
