The Chicago Office of the Inspector General is asking the public to chime in on which city operations it should dig into in the new year. It’s a turning-point year for the office, as current IG Deborah Witzburg plans to leave her post in April and as scrutiny of Mayor Brandon Johnson and the City Council amps up even further ahead of the 2027 municipal elections.
The OIG publishes draft auditing plans each fall and asks for public input. The final annual plan helps guide the office over the course of the year. This year’s draft annual plan includes 60 potential projects “designed to help the City maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of programs and processes” for the public to comment on at igchicago.org/survey.
They range from how the city manages its cash and street sweeping schedule to whether the city’s blue cart recycling program has improved and how water officials handle stormwater.
But the plan also includes several potentially politically thorny areas for audit.
Among this year’s potential list is a follow-up to efforts to curb aldermanic prerogative — or say-so — in housing decisions by examining how aldermen run their local zoning advisory councils. The office could also look into whether city departments changed operations to address the city’s “deference to” aldermen when making zoning decisions, which “raised serious concerns” with federal authorities about the city’s compliance with civil rights laws.
The mayor’s lobbying operations are also on the project list. There is “little information about the day-to-day operations” of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, whose employees work to push the mayor’s agenda forward with local, state and federal officials, the draft plan noted. The project would dig into its function and authority.
A similar project would look into the more than 100 boards and commissions the mayor appoints members to. “Limited transparency creates concerns around conflicts of interest,” the draft said. “This project would provide transparency into the functions … qualify their use of taxpayer dollars and city resources, and evaluate their compliance with relevant regulations.”
The OIG could also look into whether the Chicago Fire Department has enough ambulances and emergency medical personnel to meet the city’s needs.
A separate public safety section within the OIG audits the city’s Police Department. There are 30 potential projects on its 2026 outlook, ranging from CPD’s handling of hit-and-run crashes and sexual assault investigations to officer wellness and substance abuse.
For the last two budgets, city officials said they would work to tackle how much it costs taxpayers when Chicago hosts special events, such as street closures, barricades, garbage cans, parking signs, electrical services or police protection. Even though it is required in the municipal code, officials have not fully calculated and tracked that cost, let alone gotten reimbursed for city expenses. For 10 events included in a July 2025 check-in from the city’s budget office, for example, officials said they only recovered $3.8 million of the $14.8 million they spent to help host events.
Other possible audits involve building or development: the city’s failure to maintain a comprehensive inventory of the land it owns, how and when the Department of Buildings demolishes dangerous buildings and how the Department of Environment enforces new rules about how much energy large buildings report using.
The OIG could look into problems renovating city buildings to become compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Until 2021, the Mayor’s Office of People with Disabilities had a long-standing contract with an outside vendor to develop a plan to fix issues, but abruptly cut it, leaving “important questions” about the value of that contract and whether the city has major liability risks, according to the draft annual plan.
Also on the list: whether the city’s Department of Family and Support Services offers accessible transportation for people with disabilities who are being moved to shelters, whether shelter requests are tracked, and whether the contractor who gives rides responds on time.
The city’s official chief risk officer position has also been vacant “for several years,” raising questions about how the city would address future emergencies akin to the COVID-19 pandemic or the influx of new arrivals.
The surveys are open through Dec. 31.