Fostering transparency to build trust in government

The mission of the independent and nonpartisan City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG) is to promote economy, effectiveness, efficiency, and integrity by identifying corruption, waste, and mismanagement in City government. OIG is a watchdog for the taxpayers of the City and has jurisdiction to conduct inquiries into most aspects of City government.?

OIG advances its mission through three key strategies: administrative and criminal investigations; program and policy analysis focused on effectiveness, efficiency, and equity; and transparency initiatives.?Our transparency work is driven by the notion that transparency is foundational to trust in government, and animated by the principle that information about the government belongs to the governed.?

Chicago’s history of corruption, cronyism, and misgovernance has left the City to operate at a deficit of legitimacy with its residents. For decades, City government has given people every reason to assume the worst when governing happens behind closed doors and in dark corners of City Hall.

This view is reflected in our recent Advisory Concerning Gifts Accepted on Behalf of the City, where we encouraged the Mayor’s office to take every opportunity to pay down that deficit. When gifts are changing hands—perhaps literally—in a windowless room in City Hall, there is no opportunity for oversight and public scrutiny of the propriety of such gifts, the identities or intentions of the gift-givers, or what it means for gifts like whiskey, jewelry, handbags, and size 14 men’s shoes to be accepted ‘on behalf of the City.’

OIG’s transparency mandate also comes to life in OIG’s Information Portal, where more than 40 public-facing data dashboards allow users to visualize and analyze clear and reliable information about City government.

A new initiative is our Dashboard Insights, which provides step-by-step guides for users to dive deeper into making City data meaningfully usable. The Dashboard Insights launches with a tutorial on OIG’s Socioeconomic and City Data Comparison dashboard. This dashboard allows users to compare U.S. Census data and City data from various sources by ward, community area, and police district showing, for example, how poverty levels compare to education levels. The comparisons and data are presented to show correlations, not causation, and are intended to prompt conversation.

Building trust with Chicagoans has never been more crucial, and I am a firm believer that we can do so by governing in the light of day. With important challenges and tremendous ?work ahead, OIG remains steadfast in its mission to bring accountability and transparency to City government.

Respectfully,

Deborah Witzburg

Inspector General, City of Chicago