Chicago inspector general hopes for urgency to address OT mistakes

By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Chicago’s inspector general says she hopes there is urgency to correct mistakes after the city paid $26.5 million in overtime to potentially ineligible employees.

The Office of Inspector General found the overtime was paid to workers in 24 city departments, the elections board, city clerk’s office and city council from 2020 to 2024.

Mayor Brandon Johnson said the city’s finance department has already taken corrective action.

“Obviously it’s critical that we eliminate any of the redundancies or any of the repayment errors to ensure that every single tax dollar is accounted for,” Johnson said.

Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said her office first advised the city of the problems 13 years ago and said there has been a wide range in the quality of City Hall responses to her office’s oversight over the years.

Witzburg said the latest responses to her office’s Jan 21 advisory from the human resources and finance departments are thoughtful and constructive.

“The responses that the city sent in 2013 were also thoughtful and constructive, and here we are 13 years later. Is there a sense of urgency? I hope so. I think the city is in unprecedented budget times. I hope that that is kind of a catalyst to prompt action,” Witzburg told The Center Square.

Witzburg said her office did not find evidence of individual wrongdoing, and there is no suggestion that people were stealing overtime.

“I think this is a series of mistakes. The city is not in a place where we can afford an eight-figure mistake,” Witzburg said.

Twenty-six percent of the payments involved $6.9 million paid to 72 Chicago Fire Department workers, including three deputy district chiefs who received more than $590,000 each over the five-year period of analysis.

“Should some of these people have known to ask questions when money unexpectedly landed in their bank accounts? Probably yes,” Witzburg said.

Fifty-three Office of Emergency Management and Communications workers received more than $4.8 million in overtime payments they were potentially ineligible for.

Nearly $4.4 million in payments went to 69 individuals in the Department of Water Management and almost $2.7 million went to 184 Chicago Police Department employees.

OIG identified 18 individual employees, including nine from the fire department, who were each paid between $250,000 and $700,000 in overtime to which they may not have been entitled during the five-year period.

Witzburg said solutions to the issue would involve several city departments because the issues happened across multiple departments.

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