ChicagoClout

Now that is funny, Daley will toss him under the bus what the 11th Ward acts up again.

Daley picks chief for controversial office

November 21, 2007
BY STEVE PATTERSON Staff Reporter/spatterson@suntimes.com
Ignoring strenuous objections by multiple outsiders, Mayor Daley on Tuesday named a new head of his newly created Office of Compliance.

Anthony Boswell, who has spent the last 16 years working in private-sector compliance, was introduced to head an office critics say undermines the powers of the inspector general.

Daley insisted the Office of Compliance -- responsible for developing a code of conduct for employees, while also ensuring the city adheres to multiple state and federal regulations, including hiring -- "is completely different" from the inspector general, responsible for investigations into corruption.

"These are complex times for local government," Daley said. "We must comply with a constantly expanding list of federal, state and local requirements and with court actions."

Boswell, 43, will run an office that consolidates city compliance and internal audit functions.

Though Inspector General David Hoffman, among others, initially criticized the creation of the office, Boswell said he's "looking forward to working with" Hoffman, calling his office "an important part of a quality compliance program."

Boswell, whose appointment must be approved by the City Council, would serve a four-year term. Most recently with the Denver-based Institute for Corporate Ethics and Governance, he graduated from several East Coast schools and said he has relatives in the Chicago area.

Co-workers: He used the N-word, dressed up as a Ku Klux Klansman . . . How does this guy still have a job?

November 21, 2007
BY FRANK MAIN Staff Reporter/fmain@suntimes.com
Joseph Annunzio used the n-word and other racist and sexist slurs, but won't lose his supervisor's job with the city Department of Transportation, a review panel decided.

Annunzio, 42, nephew of the late Rep. Frank Annunzio (D-Ill.), can return to his $77,000-a-year job, the Human Resources Board decided last week, overruling the city inspector general and a hearing officer who called for his firing. The board upheld his unpaid suspension since May.

(Sun-Times files)
The board did find Annunzio made "racist, derogatory and disparaging remarks," but didn't fire him because the most "egregious" allegations weren't backed up by testimony from the target of the barbs.

The co-worker didn't testify about Annunzio allegedly calling him a "Mambo Gorilla" or about Annunzio allegedly putting a tablecloth on his head and acting like a Klansman in the co-worker's office.

Still, 11 co-workers testified Annunzio used profanity and racist slurs.

Two of those said they saw the tablecloth incident.

But none of those who testified said racist slurs were directed at them.

Three other co-workers testified they never heard such slurs.

His boss said he was a hard worker but "lacked people skills."

City Inspector General David Hoffman said the board's decision signals the city can't fire someone for racist and sexist remarks and conduct, even when multiple witnesses confirm them under oath.

"The city is entitled to insist that its workplace be free of racism and hate," he said, calling on the city to appeal.

"I worry this decision will seriously chill reporting of racism and sexism in city workplaces, especially when engaged in by supervisors or those perceived to have clout, since victims may not be able to rely on the city to take appropriate protective action."

Co-workers questioned the decision, too.

"If the inspector general and everyone found him guilty enough to fire, why would you want to bring him back?" co-worker Miguel Vargas said. "If it ain't clout, what is it?"

But Annunzio's lawyer, Tom Needham, said clout was not a factor. "He admitted swearing, but denied [the words were] racial slurs or ethnic slurs," he said. "The board did not think that kind of misconduct should cause someone to forfeit their career."

Annunzio claimed co-workers invented the allegations because he was cracking down on their work performance.

Board member Enrico Mirabelli said "all testimony was considered, evaluated and a decision was made based upon the totality of the evidence -- or a lack thereof."

Daley may "..hate Negroes...", but he sure loves his many Oreos......

Thanks for the Great Thanksgiving Laugh! I really needed one.

Boswell accepts postion of Executive Director of the Office of Compliance of the City of Chicago

Press Release


Denver, CO—November 19, 2007—The Institute for Corporate Ethics and Governance (ICEG) today announced that Anthony Boswell has been named by Mayor Richard Daley as Executive Director of Chicago's new Office of Compliance.

"Tony is a high-energy, goal-driven problem solver who has excellent communication, analytic and creative skills," Dr. Meaney said. "We are sadden to see him go, but he will no doubt make a key contribution to the citizens of the City of Chicago by building a world-class ethics and compliance program. It promises to be the first of its kind, a model for other municipalities nation-wide.”

"ICEG enjoyed a growing roster of national and international clients under Tony's leadership," Meaney added. "I'm very excited for Tony as he embarks on this new and exciting opportunity. Our loss is clearly Chicago's gain."

Boswell is the former senior vice president of ethics and compliance and US government relations for the global engineering and construction firm AMEC, where he led the effort to develop and integrate AMEC’s global ethics and compliance and sustainability programming.

He joined AMEC from Laidlaw, Inc., a multinational health care and transportation conglomerate, where he headed the ethics and compliance function for more than 100,000 employees.

Boswell holds a masters degree in education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

The Institute for Corporate Ethics and Governance helps its domestic clients implement corporate ethics and compliance programs with a focus on ethical culture, and its international clients implement global sustainability programming. The Institute also offers both online and face-to-face training in a variety of topics including SOX, code of conduct, antitrust, ethical leadership, corporate social responsibility, FCPA, conflicts of interests and gifts, e-compliance, environmental awareness, EU competition law, business and human rights, health and safety, HIPAA, insider trading, sustainable development, sexual harassment, human subjects research, PhRMA code of conduct, and records management.

The Inspector General is dead in Chicago. We have been lied to again by the New and improved Chicago City Council. I am sick of the Lousy "Phony Gree" Chicago Mob Government.

I must be livin the high life

Top ethics aide sues Daley over suspension
Share | Posted by Todd Lighty and Hal Dardick at 12:05 p.m.; last updated at 4:43 p.m.

Mayor Richard Daley was sued today by his top ethics officer who claims that the mayor wrongly suspended him.

Anthony Boswell, executive director of the mayor’s Office of Compliance, earlier this month was suspended for 30 days without pay after an inspector general’s investigation found that he had allegedly mishandled a student intern’s sexual harassment complaint. Daley said at the time he was following the inspector general’s recommendation by disciplining Boswell. You can read that story by clicking here.
Boswell also sued Inspector General Joseph Ferguson, claiming Ferguson had “blatantly exceeded” his authority in investigating Boswell, who heads an independent office.

You can read the lawsuit filed in Cook County Chancery Court by clicking here: Download Boswellsuit

At a downtown news conference, Boswell said he filed the suit because he wants to regain his job and his reputation. Boswell did not criticize Daley.

“I have a great deal of respect for the mayor and believe he has responded to a bad recommendation,” said Boswell, who appeared with attorney Jamie Wareham.

“I moved my family here approximately two years ago from Dallas to serve a four-year term. I was intrigued by what the mayor wanted to accomplish, namely to establish a corporate-style office of compliance for the city of Chicago. The city Chicago is currently still the only city in the world that has an office of compliance," Boswell said. “All you have in the end is your reputation, and this is very important to me.”

Asked if the fight could get nasty because of what Boswell had learned during his time in Chicago, Boswell replied, “Possibly.”

The Daley administration said it just received the suit and had no immediate comment. Ferguson also had no immediate comment.

Boswell alleges that Ferguson’s investigation was politically motivated and formed the basis for his suspension. The suit alleges that senior aides to Daley — notably the mayor’s top lawyer Mara Georges — used the inspector general’s report as a pre-text to retaliate against Boswell.

“Georges has targeted and threatened the Office of Compliance because staffers in that office have uncovered numerous violations of the hiring plan, including an effort to promote the under-qualified daughter of a political crony,” according to a statement accompanying Boswell’s lawsuit.

The suit claims that Boswell’s office exposed and stopped Georges’ attempt to get around court-ordered hiring rules and promote her predecessor’s daughter to “an elevated position” in the Law Department. Boswell alleges that Georges and her department continue to violate hiring rules.

Georges issued a statement late this afternoon.

“Mr. Boswell’s allegations that I engaged in a campaign of retaliation against him, anyone on his staff or the Office of Compliance are completely false. I always tried to work cooperatively with Mr. Boswell, the monitor and the IG to improve the hiring processes in all City departments to ensure that the City would be found to be in substantial compliance with the Shakman decree,” Georges' statement read.

Jenny Hoyle, a spokeswoman for the Law Department, said that then-Inspector General David Hoffman investigated the matter involving Kathleen Crowe Barakat, the daughter of Daley’s former corporation counsel Brian Crowe. Hoffman “did not concur with Boswell’s allegations,” Hoyle said.

Hoyle released the inspector general's report on the Crowe case. You can read it by clicking here: Download Croweinvestigation.

Crowe Barakat, who left the Law Department last year, said today that she was qualified for the promotion and no one had done anything improper, noting that was the conclusion reached by the inspector general. “In short, it’s ridiculous,” she said. “It’s sour grapes here and Boswell is trying to lash out at anyone he can.”

As for the reason cited for his suspension, Boswell said he decided against taking action for the sexual harassment complaint against the employee cited in Ferguson's report after relying on the opinion of an experienced investigator. She laughed at the allegations, Boswell said.

City Hall is operating under a decades-long consent decree aimed at keeping politics out of most personnel decisions. A federal judge appointed a monitor in 2005 to oversee hiring after federal authorities accused Daley's patronage chief and others of circumventing that decree by rigging hiring to reward the mayor's political allies with jobs, promotions and overtime.

Daley has said he plans to ask the court this year to end oversight, arguing that the city is in "substantial compliance," a legal threshold for ending court involvement.

Daley has moved to strip Boswell's office of any responsibility for hiring and giving it to the inspector general as part of an effort to end court oversight.

Asked today if he thinks there are serious, ongoing problems with city hiring, Boswell said, “I think there are certain departments in the city that think they are above the processes that have been established.”