Copyright NBC 5 Chicago
Chicago's Office of the Inspector General is raising new concerns about transparency. In a report published Tuesday, Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said her office was twice denied access to spaces at City Hall by Mayor Brandon Johnson's office and the Department of Law, including the mayor's now- famous "gift room." In January, Witzburg said her staffers showed up unannounced to inspect the contents of the gift room. That request was initially denied, but after the incident attracted publicity, Witzburg said the room was made available month later. "The gift room that was eventually displayed on YouTube and made available for press tours hadn't even been built yet when we had been there in January," Witzburg said. The room, located on the lower levels of City Hall, contains everything from high-end purses to expensive cuff links. It also contains sports memorabilia, T-shirts and hats. In a new advisory on unannounced visits, Witzburg said her office obtained security video of workers moving into the space on Feb. 11. "I don't know where those gifts were or where those items were being stored or whether they were being used in January; we are never going to know now," Witzburg said. The revelation, she said, could be evidence of a bigger problem as city government shows a "pattern of reflexive hostility toward oversight and transparency." In response, the mayor's office said its current practice of maintaining an online log, a physical room and quarterly videos is more transparent than other administrations in years past. In a statement, Brandon Johnson's office said it "acted promptly to modernize long-standing practices by establishing a larger, dedicated space for public access." Since the launch, the office said only two residents signed up to view the room and neither showed up on the viewing day. "While reporters are clearly excited about the inventory in the room," a spokesperson said, "the public is not." Witzburg said that's not the point. "When something like this happens, the question to ask is 'does this series of events give us more reason or less reason to trust what happens in City Hall,'" she said. Witzburg said there was a second incident involving an unannounced visit searching for unspecified contraband in another City Hall office. That incident is still under investigation. "OIG is entitled to conduct investigative steps. And we are not obligated to ask for the mayor's office or the law department's permission to do so," she said. Citing current events nationally and in Chicago, Witzburg said, "I think it is more important than ever that we can run a government that we can ask people to trust." She has previously announced her plans to step down as Inspector General at the end of her first term in April of next year.
