Ethics Reform in City Government
On July 14, the Chicago City Council approved an ordinance expanding the powers of the Office of the Inspector General. Read the explanation from the Chicago Tribune.
LWV Chicago believes deeply in the need for a strong and independent Inspector General, empowered to investigate alleged wrongdoing and conduct audits to improve city systems. Read our statement on the ordinance, released prior to the vote, below.
Official statement by the League of Women Voters of Chicago regarding the proposed amendments to the ordinance for the Office of the Inspector General, Item SO2025-0015583.
The League of Women Voters of Chicago is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization committed to empowering voters and defending democracy. For over a century, we have worked to ensure that Chicago’s government serves its people with integrity, transparency, and accountability.
Chicago’s reputation as a byword for corruption is not a distant memory—it is a shadow we continue to work to leave behind. That transformation has not come easily. It is the result of decades of relentless effort by courageous public servants and civil society organizations determined to make honest government the norm, not the exception.
The Office of the Inspector General has been one of the most important institutional reforms to come out of that long struggle. It is one of the most essential mechanisms we have to ensure our government remains accountable to the public it serves.
The League of Women Voters of Chicago supports assuring that the Inspector General has the tools, access, and authority required to fulfill its mandate. We believe deeply in the need for a strong and independent Inspector General, empowered to investigate alleged wrongdoing and conduct audits to improve city systems.
While we do not take a formal position on the full text of the ordinance, we can say this: the League strongly supports the goal of expanding the IG’s power to hold government accountable, and we affirm the urgency of ensuring the IG can act with thoroughness, independence, and speed.
More work remains to be done to make Chicago’s government wholly clean and beyond reproach. The Inspector General will be a vital partner in that effort—but only if this body grants the powers necessary to do so and, in granting additional powers, includes safeguards on how the powers can be exercised so they cannot be abused in the future.
The League has stood for decades alongside those fighting for better government in this city.
We urge the Chicago City Council to do the same today.
