Ethics Committee Chair Matt Martin (47) is pictured at a City Council meeting in June 2024. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

The City Council Committee on Ethics and Government Oversight on Tuesday will meet to hear the city’s inspector general present the office’s report for the fourth quarter of 2024 and discuss an advisory the office released last month regarding Department of Water Management (DWM) work that failed to comply with Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) regulations and a lack of public transparency about the issue.

The ethics committee will meet at 10 a.m. in Room 201A at City Hall. 

The Chicago Office of the Inspector General (OIG) will present the office’s report on its operations for the fourth quarter of 2024, which spanned Oct. 1, 2024 to Dec. 31, 2024. The report was released in January.

The fourth quarter report included 10 investigations that resulted in sustained allegations against city employees. In seven of those investigations, Inspector General Deborah Witzburg wrote, the office recommended employees be fired or deemed ineligible for rehire by the city.  

Still, the various city departments and agencies that oversee those employees may decide whether to follow the OIG’s recommendation for discipline or termination. In some cases, employees receive lesser punishments, like suspensions, training and oral or written reprimands. 

Some of the sustained administrative investigations include a finance department employee improperly awarding themselves $6,500 worth of unearned compensatory time; Chicago Fire Department employees helping cover up an incident of a supervisor falling asleep at the wheel; a police communications operator with the Office of Emergency Management and Communications violating the city’s residency rule and fraudulently obtaining a Paycheck Protection Program loan; a Department of Streets and Sanitation ward superintendent trying to sell an illegal machine gun to undercover law enforcement on city time; and a Public Building Commissioner attempting to get employees to engage with a business in which the commissioner had a financial interest.  

Additionally, the OIG Public Safety Section in the fourth quarter completed a follow-up report on the Chicago Police Department’s compliance with its post-firearm discharge policy and examined 250 closed disciplinary cases, selecting 19 for in-depth review and finding material deficiencies in two Bureau of Internal Affairs and four Civilian Office of Police Accountability investigations. 

The committee will also hold a subject matter hearing on a Feb. 19 advisory sent by Witzburg’s office on DWM water main and sewer work that failed to meet IEPA standards and an alleged lack of public outreach and transparency as the department seeks to correct the mistakes.

DWM discovered noncompliance with IEPA separation standards, meaning the minimum horizontal and vertical distances between underground water mains and sewer lines, in 2019.  

“DWM has subsequently cooperated with the IEPA to develop a remediation plan, reported noncompliant locations, and continues to correct noncompliance when it discovers it during the course of its regular work,” the OIG wrote in its advisory, adding that the contractors that initially botched the work were asked by the city to remediate it at their own expense — resulting in an ongoing legal fight.

While the OIG expressed less concern about contamination to the water supply as a result of the noncompliant installations alone, it expressed concern about how fast and effective DWM notifications are when there have been depressurization in city water mains in the last few years that have necessitated boil orders, writing “it takes time to disseminate information and there is no guarantee that every impacted resident will learn of a boil order.” 

“OIG recommended that DWM increase and improve the information available to the public and members of City Council about this issue, including by providing updates on the City’s progress toward compliance with IEPA water-sewer separation standards and on steps that DWM is taking to avoid this issue recurring,” the OIG wrote. “Additionally, OIG recommended that DWM coordinate with relevant City departments to provide accessible, proactive public education on how City residents should respond in the event of a water main depressurization.”

The OIG noted that the whole situation has additional “practical impacts” on Chicago residents, such as prolonged street excavations that amplify noise and dust and disrupt parking and pedestrian access, as well as financial costs to the city that could be borne by taxpayers. 

DWM assured the OIG of the overall safety of the water supply and of its systems in place to monitor for contamination. 

But in regards to calls for increased transparency, informational updates and public education, DWM told the OIG that information about the noncompliant infrastructure isn’t confidential and could be requested by any member of the public. DWM also rejected the calls for more proactive education, saying “such elevated public communications may dilute the desired impact of City communications when there is a confirmed risk and action by residents is actually needed, for example during boil orders.”