Whistleblower Ordinance Provides Results

Dear Neighbor,

Back in 2004, I introduced a Whistleblower Ordinance that provided protection for City employees who report corruption.  The Daley Administration adopted most of its provisions and it was enacted into law. 

With all the reports of corruption and favoritism swirling around City Hall, I sometimes become discouraged and wonder whether any legislation can really root out official wrongdoing.  A recent news item in the Sun-Times, however, provided me a ray of hope.

The story reports that a high level deputy at Chicago's 911 Center, who was demoted after blowing the whistle on possible improprieties at the Center, got his job restored under the provisions of the Whistleblower Ordinance.   The acting director of the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications had stripped the whistleblower of his responsibilities soon after he gave investigators information about $2 million in suspect payments to a City contractor.  The director allegedly was one of the officials who authorized the payments to the contractor.

If it turns out the payments were improper,  the Whistleblower Ordinance gives the city the right to recover from the contractor up to three times the amount of the illegal payments. 

Without the protections of the Whistleblower Ordinance, the whistleblower may not have gotten his job back, and the taxpayers would have continued to be fleeced.  This story hopefully will send a clear message to other city employees that they too will be protected if they report incidents of misconduct.

Sincerely,

Joe Moore