Politics

Watchdog: Chicago’s Workers’ Comp System Has Been Reformed, 5 Years After Ed Burke Control

City Hall is pictured in a file photo. (Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)

The system the city uses to compensate workers who are injured while on the job is operating as it should, more than five years after convicted former Ald. Ed Burke was forced to give up control after more than 30 years, according to a new audit from the city’s watchdog.

The first-of-its-kind audit by Inspector General Deborah Witzburg of the city’s workers compensation system found “major improvement” in the system that paid $73.5 million to resolve approximately 3,700 claims in 2022.

“As the program is ushered into a new era and the city works to clear a cloud of historical corruption, we welcome the opportunity to shine some light into that room,” Witzburg said.

The system is now administered by Rolling Meadows-based Gallagher Bassett, under a three-year contract awarded by the city’s Department of Finance in August 2019. That contract has been extended through the end of 2024.

For 30 years, Burke ran the city’s workers’ compensation program from his perch as the all-powerful chair of the City Council’s Finance Committee. During that time, the system that paid out tens of millions of dollars to injured city employees operated in a “windowless room—with no public transparency, no meaningful oversight, and no effective accountability,” Witzburg said.

It was not until July 2019 that the City Council gave the inspector general the authority to audit the operations of the City Council and its committees, making it impossible to assess how Burke was running the program until then.

Nearly immediately after being arrested on charged of attempted extortion in January 2019, Burke resigned as chair of the Finance Committee and the City Council unanimously voted to give control of the workers’ compensation program to the Department of Finance.

Burke was convicted in December 2023 of 13 charges of racketeering, extortion and bribery, and is set to report to prison next month to start serving a two-year prison sentence.

An audit ordered by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel and released on his last day in office found that, under Burke, the workers’ compensation fund had “significant control deficiencies and weaknesses” that could allow fraud, waste and abuse to flourish unchecked.

Officials in the city’s Department of Finance, known as the DOF, have “substantially implemented the corrective actions recommended by that audit,” according to the audit by the Office of the Inspector General, known as the OIG.

“Given the historical gaps in oversight of, and transparency into the program, OIG recommends that DOF improve annual reporting procedures to foster public confidence,” according to the audit.

The city’s workers compensation program now has a process designed to identify fraudulent crimes that “more consistent and repeatable,” according to the audit, which recommends that the city’s Finance Department work to standardize their policies and procedures while ensuring that the program operates in a transparent manner.

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]

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