Mayor Johnson chooses former federal prosecutor as Chicago's new IG

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s choice to be Chicago’s new inspector general is a former federal prosecutor who helped Commonwealth Edison dig out of the federal corruption scandal that culminated in the conviction of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.

David Glockner would replace now-retired Inspector General Deborah Witzburg, who decided not to seek a re-appointment she was unlikely to get after clashing with Johnson and his inner circle over a host of ethics issues in the mayor's office. Johnson's choice still needs the backing of the City Council's Ethics Committee and the full Council.

Former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who was Glockner's boss for 11 years, called him the “perfect choice” to serve as the city’s chief watchdog.

“Dave is smart, level-headed with good judgment, and he doesn’t have a political bone in his body. He tells you what you need to hear — not what you want to hear. He doesn’t create drama where there isn’t, and he doesn’t walk away from problems because they’re tough,” Fitzgerald told the Sun-Times.

Asked whether he expects Glockner to clash with Johnson, Fitzgerald said, “David is not going to go in looking for a fight. But he’s not going to shrink from doing his job. He’s just going to do it straight, and how people handle it is up to them.”

Civic Federation President Joe Ferguson, who spent 12 years as Chicago’s inspector general, said he “worked with and looked up to” Glockner during their days together in the U.S. attorney’s office.

An outspoken Johnson critic, Ferguson had high praise for what he called the mayor’s “superb” and “extraordinary choice.” He called Glockner “as respected a lawyer, public servant and person as exists in the legal community today.”

Glockner spent more than 24 years at the U.S. attorney’s office, including an 11-year stint as chief of the criminal division under Fitzgerald. Glockner handled public corruption, fraud, violent crime and cybersecurity crimes.

At ComEd, Glockner was “one of the select few brought in to assess operations and put in place not only a gold standard for ethical compliance, but ensure that it ripened into a culture” at the utility, Ferguson said. “He has been in numerous crucibles in which measured analysis and a level head and dispassion are required in order to navigate highly political and politicized environments, through which he steered steady as a rock.”

In a statement released Monday, Johnson characterized Glockner as a “seasoned public servant with the experience, independence and integrity” needed to “strengthen accountability across our operations."

In the release, Glockner said he looks forward to working “constructively” with Johnson.

Jim Vondruska / Sun-Times

Witzburg said the same thing after Johnson’s 2023 election, but the relationship soured quickly — as it almost always does between a Chicago mayor and his or her internal watchdog.

Witzburg clashed with the Johnson administration on a host of issues — from the mayor’s decision to deny her investigators access to the City Hall gift room to the Law Department’s demand to water down ethics reforms and sit in on her interviews with city employees.

Johnson also rejected Witzburg’s demand that he fire senior mayoral adviser Jason Lee for refusing to cooperate with her investigation of an alleged quid pro quo threat that Lee made to 34th Ward Ald. Bill Conway in 2023.

Witzburg told the Sun-Times on her way out that Johnson had shown himself to be “reflexively hostile to oversight” and had not lived up to his campaign promise to govern as a reformer.

Ferguson ran into the same problem — first with now-former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, then with Emanuel’s successor Lori Lightfoot, a friend with whom Ferguson worked in the U.S. attorney’s office.

At one point, Ferguson warned that Chicago faced a “risk of increased waste, fraud and misconduct” by city employees and contractors because Emanuel had refused to give the inspector general unrestricted access to city documents and the power to enforce his own subpoenas. Their legal battle over access to documents went to the Illinois Supreme Court.

On Monday, Ferguson quoted former New York City Mayor Ed Koch as saying that, “IGs are a pain in the ass, but that's their job."

"Bad things will happen and first reactions will be, `This effects me — my legacy, my political standing.' And it takes a mature executive to say, `This is inevitable in human institutions wherever there is power and money,'" Ferguson said.

Glockner was one of three finalists recommended by a four-member search committee that included: retired Deputy Corporation Counsel Jeff Levine; University of Chicago Law Professor Sharon Fairley, former chief administrator of the now-defunct Independent Police Review Authority; Better Government Association Vice President Bryan Zarou and Emma Tai, former executive director of United Working Families.