A new report from Chicago's Office of the Inspector General sheds light on what's in the mayor's office's 'gift room,' and criticized recordkeeping.
It’s not uncommon for the mayor of Chicago to be presented with a t-shirt or a trinket when he visits a school or a neighborhood event.
The OIG’s office first sent a covert employee to the mayor’s office to ask to see the room. The report says they were turned away and told to file a freedom of information request, or FOIA. That too, Witzburg said was denied because it was not answered in a timely manner. “It is perhaps more important than ever that Chicagoans can trust their City government, and for decades we have given people no reason at all to trust what goes on in the dark," Witzburg said."These gifts are, by definition, City property; if they are squirreled away and hidden from view, people are only left to assume the worst about how they are being handled. If we do not govern responsibly on the small things, we cannot ask people to trust the government on the big ones.
“It’s a mischaracterization. This book has been in place for multiple administrations and those want to access those logs can access them,” he said.
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