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<p>Inspector General Deborah Witzburg announced Thursday she will not seek another term as Chicago’s top watchdog. </p><p>In a statement, Witzburg said she made the decision based on the City Council’s <a class="Link" href="https://ift.tt/nl72kaN&quot; target="_blank" >latest approval</a> of ethics reforms, which removed what she viewed as barriers to the inspector general’s office’s internal investigations.</p><p>“Independence is the hallmark and the lifeblood of effective oversight,” Witzburg said in a statement. “City Council has shown overwhelming, principled support for that independence, and as of [Wednesday], OIG is better positioned than at any time in recent memory to conduct oversight which pays down the deficit of legitimacy at which the City of Chicago operates.”</p><p>The new ordinance allows the inspector general’s office to limit the conditions in which a city lawyer may be present during investigative interviews, and it gives the inspector general’s office more access to certain records.</p><p>Witzburg was <a class="Link" href="https://ift.tt/WD80bA4&quot; target="_blank" >appointed inspector general in 2022</a>, beginning a four-year term after serving as the city’s deputy inspector general for public safety.</p><p>“I can be confident that, at the end of my term in April, I will leave OIG better and stronger than I found it,” Witzburg said in a statement. “…We will have a great deal to do and to say between now and April, and then I will happily pass a more effective, more independent OIG along to its next steward."</p>

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July 17, 2025 at 10:48PM