Chicago aldermen want to make it harder for themselves to be investigated

Chicago's Grant Park

For the past 40 years a Chicago alderman has been sentenced to prison every 18 months or so. The latest to join Club Fed is Sandi Jackson of the 7th Ward; Jesse Junior's wife checked in for an extended stay last week. 

So it shouldn't be a surprise that the public servants of the Chicago City Council want to make it difficult to be investigated.

From a Chicago Tribune editorial:

Chicago City Council members are about to make life easier for themselves. They're running their inspector general — the person assigned to investigate them and their staffs — out of town.

The contract of Legislative Inspector General Faisal Khan, who has warred with the aldermen since he was hired in 2011, expires in November. There's no chance the aldermen will renew it. But they're also making no moves to replace Khan.

The most logical step would be to expand the powers of the city's inspector general, Joe Ferguson, to allow his office to investigate complaints into aldermen and their staffs. But the aldermen are in no rush to do that either.

The aldermen created the LIG job and hired Khan, but set him up for failure. He can't launch an investigation into aldermanic or council staff corruption on his own. He has to wait for a complaint. He can't investigate anonymous complaints. He needs permission from the city's Board of Ethics to pursue an investigation. He has to inform the subject that he or she is under investigation.