Ethics Chair Matt Martin is pictured at a City Council meeting on Oct. 9, 2024. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

The City Council Committee on Ethics and Government Oversight on Monday will hold subject matter hearings on the inspector general office’s Audit and Program Review Section 2025 Annual Plan and on the proposed changes to the Chicago Board of Ethics rules and regulations.

The ethics committee is scheduled to meet at noon in council chambers.

First, the committee will hold a hearing on the 2025 plan for the Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) Audit and Program Review (APR) Section. 

APR is a division of the inspector’s office tasked with “independent, objective analysis and evaluation of municipal programs and operations, issuing public reports and making recommendations to strengthen and improve the delivery of public services,” according to the plan, which was published in March. 

“APR undertakes projects designed to help the City maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of programs and processes,” the plan further states. It does so by conducting performance audits of municipal programs but also sometimes publishes explainers, advisories and other information about programs. 

The annual plan identifies what APR will work on in the given calendar year but could change depending on the office’s priorities or external factors, such as a departmental program identified in the plan being scrutinized by the department and any inefficiencies or issues corrected prior to the planned audit. 

This year, APR will examine a number of policies and programs, including evaluation of progress on a 2019 executive order that mandated all city departments to “identify and remove deference to aldermanic prerogative from their decision-making practices;” evaluation of the city’s land asset inventory system; evaluation of the city’s business affairs department’s enforcement of tow truck licensing; an audit of city clerk record maintenance; a study on whether City Council and its committee adhere to quorum rules; an evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of the Chicago Department of Transportation’s pavement management program; and more.   

The ethics committee will also hold a hearing on proposed amendments to the Board of Ethics’ rules and regulations. Proposed changes include bringing the rules into compliance with recent changes to the city’s lobbying laws, updating pronoun usage, factoring in the elimination of the Office of the Legislative Inspector General, streamlining the process for written notices from the board to people and enabling the city’s Department of Law to settle matter in which the OIG has investigated and the board has assessed fines for governmental ethics ordinance violations. 

The board will approve the proposed rules for submission to the City Council at the board’s June 16 meeting. The rules would go into effect 45 days after submission to the council unless a majority of the council votes them down.