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Watchdog Accuses City Workers of Theft for Political Work Done on City Time

By Ted Cox | December 3, 2014 4:56pm
 Legislative Inspector General Faisal Khan accused 24 aldermen of using employees to do political work on city time.
Legislative Inspector General Faisal Khan accused 24 aldermen of using employees to do political work on city time.
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DNAinfo/Ted Cox

CITY HALL — The City Council's designated watchdog accused 24 aldermen Wednesday of shoddy record keeping that leant itself to employees doing political work on city time.

Legislative Inspector General Faisal Khan released an investigative report Wednesday saying 24 aldermanic offices were "implicated," with 68 employees identified as "potentially engaging in prohibited political activity on city time."

"The conduct described in this report is criminal," Khan said in a news conference at City Hall. "It's theft of city time and theft of city services."

Emphasizing that "by law, I'm not allowed to" name names, Khan charged that 18 City Council employees engaged in political work while on the clock. According to his evidence, many of those violations involved employees visiting the Board of Election Commissioners for political filings while saying on their timesheets they were engaged in city work.

 Ald. Joe Moore calls the legislative inspector general "the Khan man."
Ald. Joe Moore calls the legislative inspector general "the Khan man."
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DNAinfo/Ted Cox

Khan said "inept records" kept by aldermen, when they were kept at all, suggested 45 other city employees did the same, but it couldn't be proved they were technically on city time.

According to Khan, only a few aldermen had their staffs keeping accurate timesheets. Otherwise, employees were often paid "based on the word of the alderman and the alderman only." This leant itself to corruption, he said.

"This whole system needs to be changed," Khan said, and pointed to how an employee who quit or was fired could be granted extra vacation time or severance simply by the alderman's say so.

Khan's charges were similar to those Khan leveled against Ald. Joe Moore (49th) last year, saying he made improper severance payments to a fired staffer, who charged that political work was done in his office. Yet Moore said Wednesday the new report didn't concern him, adding, "We keep accurate records in my office."

While referring to the legislative inspector general as "the Khan man," Moore said his office keeps "accurate information on everybody and the hours they worked."

Moore and Khan have clashed before, most recently over charges Moore used a coarse term in referring to one of Khan's employees.

Khan has sued the city, the mayor and the council charging they've failed to adequately fund his office. He made reference to that Wednesday by citing his office's $354,000 annual budget, while next year's city budget "calls for $500,000 to be spent on a decorative fountain."

Moore said Wednesday "it wouldn't be out of character" for Khan to grandstand in an attempt to keep his job, after Moore and other aldermen have suggested Inspector General Joseph Ferguson could assume Khan's duties of monitoring the City Council as well as the rest of city government.

Khan said the report was going to the Board of Ethics and that some findings had already been reported to law-enforcement agencies. He urged the council to adopt a uniform system for clocking employees in and out as used elsewhere in city government.

"It's about lack of oversight," he said. "They're been able to do this for a number of years.

"Oversight will have to be pushed upon them," Khan added.

Although Khan said the report focused on city election cycles in 2011 and 2012, he added that, as he was speaking Wednesday afternoon, it was likely some aldermanic employees working on city time were at that moment at the board of elections filing petition objections on behalf of aldermen before the deadline to challenge candidates for February's municipal election and keep them off the ballot.

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