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City Council IG Defends Doing His Job

By Chuck Sudo in News on Aug 8, 2013 2:40PM

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Chicago City Council Inspector General Faisal Khan.
Chicago Legislative Inspector General Faisal Khan sat down with DNAInfo City Hall correspondent Ted Cox Wednesday to explain how his office works and defend the investigations he’s spearheaded since taking office.

Khan, a former inspector general for the New York City Department of Investigation and assistant district attorney in Queens County, New York, has been criticized by aldermen for the way he’s conducted his investigations or, some might say, simply doing his job. Khan has completed 27 investigations of wrongdoing by City Council members since being named their watchdog, referred 91 complaints to various law enforcement agencies and cited five aldermen for misdeeds without naming them publicly.

The most surprising investigation involved 49th Ward Ald. Joe Moore, who is alleged to have given a staff member an $8,709 severance package after informing City Hall that campaign work was being conducted in his office. Moore denied the charges, accused Khan of conducting a witch hunt and displaying a “lack of professionalism,” has called for the legislative IG office to be abolished and investigations into wrongdoing by City Council members to be handled by Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson’s office.

Khan told Cox that Moore’s reactions exemplify a lack of understanding of how the legislative IG works.

"All we do is investigate and report," Khan said. "I can't create complaints. The law doesn't allow me to. We are a reactive agency."

He added his office is strict about confidentiality.

"These are processes that have been set up in place to make sure that everybody gets their due process," Khan said.

City Council voted in May 2010 to establish their own inspector general, since Ferguson may legally only pursue investigations pertaining to the Mayor’s office. But they waited until November 2011 to appoint Khan and worked to ensure his investigations would have little bite. Any investigation Khan undertakes against an alderman must receive approval from the Chicago Board of Ethics which, coincidentally, has never found evidence of wrongdoing by an alderman, despite 31 aldermen having been sent to prison since the 1970s. City Council also funded Khan’s office with a measly $60,000, which he spent in short order, and received approval (with Mayor Emanuel’s help) for another $200,000 in funding.