Chicago aldermen OK watchdog amid complaints it will be 'toothless'

Chicago aldermen OK watchdog amid complaints it will be 'toothless'


By John Byrne
Tribune reporter

4:58 PM CST, November 16, 2011



The Chicago City Council today appointed an attorney from New York today to investigate accusations of wrongdoing by aldermen -- but not before several council members dismissed the watchdog as essentially toothless.

About an hour after all 50 aldermen voted in favor of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's 2012 budget, a relatively acrimonious debate broke out as they considered whether to name Faisal Khan as the city's first legislative inspector general.

Khan's appointment passed 41-7, and Emanuel endorsed the move.

"If, in the process, we find that the actual ordinance on which the IG will be functioning is inadequate to the responsibilities we need, this doesn't prevent us from looking back," he said after the vote.

But Ald. Michele Smith, 43rd, urged her colleagues to scrap the ordinance and start over. Smith -- a former federal prosecutor who was not on the council when the inspector general position was created in May 2010 -- argued Khan will face unreasonably high hurdles as he tries to police the council.

"It is time to take a fresh look at the inspector general ordinance," Smith said. "Our ordinance, while I believe and I am sure it reflected the best efforts of the time, does not represent best practices."

Under standards set by the City Council, Khan will only be able to initiate investigations after he gets the go-ahead from the obscure city Board of Ethics, a body that has not found a single instance of wrongdoing by an alderman in 24 years. More than 20 aldermen have gone to prison in that time.

And accusers would need to sign complaints against aldermen, opening them to retribution. Aldermen said Khan, 38, will work part-time for his $60,000 salary. And he will be reliant on the Board of Ethics staff to help him with investigations.


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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-chicago-aldermen-ok-watchdog-amid-complaints-it-will-be-toothless-20111116,0,5676650.story

Editor's note:  Are they joking! A watchdog in the most corrupt city in American in the most corrupt County. General Faisal, if he is honest, will be ousted the first time he brings a sanction.  Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com