Inspector General Deborah Witzburg announced Thursday she will not seek another term as Chicago’s top watchdog.
In a statement, Witzburg said she made the decision based on the City Council’s latest approval of ethics reforms, which removed what she viewed as barriers to the inspector general’s office’s internal investigations.
“Independence is the hallmark and the lifeblood of effective oversight,” Witzburg said in a statement. “City Council has shown overwhelming, principled support for that independence, and as of [Wednesday], OIG is better positioned than at any time in recent memory to conduct oversight which pays down the deficit of legitimacy at which the City of Chicago operates.”
The new ordinance allows the inspector general’s office to limit the conditions in which a city lawyer may be present during investigative interviews, and it gives the inspector general’s office more access to certain records.
Witzburg was appointed inspector general in 2022, beginning a four-year term after serving as the city’s deputy inspector general for public safety.
“I can be confident that, at the end of my term in April, I will leave OIG better and stronger than I found it,” Witzburg said in a statement. “…We will have a great deal to do and to say between now and April, and then I will happily pass a more effective, more independent OIG along to its next steward.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
