Chicago Inspector General Shows Integrity
City worker fired for alleged shoplifting
INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE | Employee denies stealing
January 12, 2008
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com
Mayor Daley's corruption-fighting inspector general fired one of his own employees Friday, six days after the $77,784-a-year assistant chief investigator was arrested for allegedly shoplifting at a Chicago grocery.
Fourteen-year veteran investigator Tracy Buckley was charged Jan. 5 with misdemeanor theft after Whole Foods employees watched her walk out of a store at 6020 N. Cicero with $131.43 worth of unpaid items, officials said.
Before deciding Buckley's fate, Inspector General David Hoffman said he conducted interviews, read reports and viewed tape recordings made by Whole Foods security cameras.
They reportedly showed Buckley walking through several aisles of the store, past a bank of cashiers and into an elevator leading to an underground parking lot without paying for a shopping cart full of food. Stolen items allegedly included a $44.84 boneless lamb stew and pork chops worth $21.17.
Buckley could not be reached for comment. She allegedly told police she was going to her car to get a different charge card that she intended to use upon returning to the store to pay for the items.
Hoffman apparently didn't buy it -- and he didn't wait for the outcome of her criminal case.
"All city employees should be held to high standards of integrity, but these standards must be especially high for higher-ranking and prominent city officials. This higher standard definitely applies to employees of the inspector general's office," Hoffman said in a prepared statement.
"Since our office is the city office that investigates city employees and makes disciplinary recommendations to city departments, it is especially important that the employees of this office be held to a very high standard regarding their conduct."
Buckley is scheduled to appear in court Feb. 25.
Comments
Contractor found guilty of bribery
Man paid $12,000 to city inspector
By Angela Rozas | Tribune staff reporter
January 12, 2008
A federal jury convicted a contractor Friday of paying a $12,000 bribe to influence the actions of a city inspector.
Sorin Adrian Oros, the fourth defendant convicted as part of a corruption probe in the city Department of Buildings, will be sentenced April 4, Assistant U.S. Atty. Juliet Sorensen said.
Oros was arrested in December 2006 after paying David W. Johnson, a city inspector at the time, in exchange for obtaining zoning approvals for three building projects so that the number of condo units could be increased illegally, prosecutors said.
Johnson, who pleaded guilty to bribery in July, cooperated with authorities in their investigation and testified for the government at Oros' trial this week.
Evidence at trial showed that Oros asked Johnson for help finding someone who could enter the Department of Building's mainframe computer and change the number of condo units officially listed in a particular building, prosecutors said.
Oros later asked for Johnson's help getting zoning approvals for unit changes.
Seven people have been charged in federal court, and three more were charged in state court in a joint probe involving the U.S. attorney's office, the Postal Inspection Service and the Chicago Inspector General's Office.
"This conviction and all the cases that resulted from this investigation should send a very clear message that city employees who take bribes and developers who pay bribes face very serious consequences," Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman said. arozas@tribune.com
Posted by: Anonymous | January 12, 2008 9:16 AM
I am not at all surprised that a Senior Investigator in the office of the Inspector General was fired for shoplifting. The Inspector General's office is just like any other City of Chicago department. Integrity, competence, and ethics are not nearly as important as who you know. And we all know its not what you know, but who you know thats important in this city. Hoffman's office is well suited to catch people sleeping on the job, stealing paper clips or falsifying time sheets. Unfortunately, the systemic dysfunction of the Inspector General's office is a symptom of a politically corrupt city government that will not police itself. Its too bad no serious in-roads will be made in addressing the corruption the office is "charged" with investigating. King Daley and his court are getting fat and rich off the backbone of the King's subjects. The Daley Klan has carte blanche access to the best insider trading in the world. Trucks, sewers, real estate deals oh my. And a boneless lamb stew made the news?
Posted by: Gregory Pitts | January 12, 2008 2:17 PM
City worker fired over theft charge
Tribune staff report
January 13, 2008
A Chicago employee accused of shoplifting was fired from her job in a department that investigates misconduct by city workers, officials said Friday.
Tracy Buckley, 36, an assistant chief investigator for Inspector General David Hoffman, was charged with misdemeanor theft after trying to steal about $100 worth of merchandise Saturday from a Whole Foods Market at 6020 N. Cicero Ave., police said.
"Since our office is the city office that investigates city employees and makes disciplinary recommendations to city departments, it is especially important that the employees of this office be held to a very high standard regarding their conduct," Hoffman said in a statement.
Attempts to reach Buckley for comment were unsuccessful.
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