The Chicago Board of Ethics fined former Inspector General Joe Ferguson $5,000 for sharing a confidential report that blasted the city’s handling of a botched implosion that left Little Village coated in dust, city records show.
But despite the hefty fine, which the board issued last month and announced Friday, Ferguson is making no apologies for shedding light on the failed April 2020 demolition of the old Crawford coal-fired power plant’s massive smokestack.
“I have no regrets,” he wrote in a statement Monday. “This community, long subject to environmental injustice, deserved access to the truth.”
The report pinned the failure of the implosion that enveloped Little Village in dust and debris on the city for not following established regulations and a “multi-agency breakdown.” The sharp criticism authored by Ferguson was first sent to then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot in September 2021, but faced public scrutiny only in February 2023, just two weeks before Lightfoot lost in a mayoral primary election.
Lightfoot’s administration refused calls to release the report for over a year, weathering community demands, a City Council resolution and even pushback from Ferguson himself.
The Board of Ethics determined Ferguson shared the confidential report with two media outlets after he had stepped down from the office, according to records. Ferguson obtained the report from the Office of the Inspector General after he had left office, the board wrote.
The Crawford coal-fired power plant on April 12, 2020, where a large smokestack was imploded the day before that coated the neighborhood in a cloud of dust. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
Ferguson, now head of the Civic Federation, paid the fine instead of challenging the board’s ruling, records show.
“City government has an obligation to protect its people from this kind of harm and it failed miserably in doing so,” he said. “So, if given the choice, I would do it again as City officials must be held to the highest standards of transparency and accountability in serving its most vulnerable of citizens.”
A year later, the report continued to spark outcry from Little Village community organizers when Mayor Brandon Johnson appointed Marlene Hopkins, found negligent in the document for her role in the botched implosion, to lead the Department of Buildings.
The city fined the company behind the implosion, Northbrook-based Hilco Redevelopment Partners, and its contractors $68,000 and ceased all implosions for six months after the incident. A federal judge last year approved a $12.25 million deal to settle a class-action lawsuit against Hilco.