A new report from Joe Ferguson, the city’s now-departed inspector general, documents another round of misbehavior and worse by city employees. | Rich Hein/Sun-Times file
Inspector General Joe Ferguson’s 12-year run as Chicago’s top watchdog ended Friday. His final quarterly report, released Monday, includes details on a city employee who tried to sneak a firearm through an airport checkpoint.
A city employee without a valid FOID card or concealed carry permit who tried to pass through a security checkpoint at O’Hare Airport with a loaded, semi-automatic firearm.
A Chicago firefighter-EMT who used Facebook to spew racial hatred against minorities.
Inspector General Joe Ferguson’s extraordinary, 12-year run as Chicago’s top watchdog ended Friday. But his final quarterly report, released Monday, includes a range of wrongdoing, just like other reports issued during Ferguson’s three terms in office.
As always, the accused employees are not identified — the report notes only their positions and departments, summaries of the behavior, and the punishment recommended and meted out.
Still, the summaries raise eyebrows:
o A fleet services assistant for the city’s Department of Assets, Information and Services “carried a loaded semi-automatic firearm” into O’Hare and tried to pass through security with the weapon in a carry-on backpack before boarding a flight to New York City’s LaGuardia Airport. The employee was also carrying an “empty badge wallet and a pair of handcuffs” in the backpack.
Not only did the employee in question no possess a valid FOID or concealed carry license, but the investigation also revealed the employee “had previously applied for an FOID, but was denied due to prior criminal convictions,” the report states.
“Without a valid FOID card, the fleet services assistant could not lawfully acquire or possess firearms or firearms ammunition,” the report states.
“In order to circumvent the FOID card provisions, the fleet services assistant made separate purchases of the required parts to assemble a fully-functional firearm … .”
Associated Press file photo
A security checkpoint sign at O’Hare International Airport. A city employee was reprimanded after they tried to pass by security at that airport with a loaded semi-automatic weapon on a backpack that they intended to carry on a flight to New York. The employee also was carrying a pair of handcuffs, according to the final quarterly report from Inspector General Joe Ferguson, whose tenure in that office ended Friday.
Ferguson recommended the employee be fired and placed on the city’s do-not-hire list.
Instead, the employee received only a written reprimand — despite being arrested and pleading guilty to a felony. They were sentenced to two years’ probation on Sept. 21.
“We were not given permission to terminate because, according to the Law Department, under the Il. Human Rights Act, it is illegal to take an adverse employment action against an employee who has committed a crime off-duty unless the department can articulate a substantial relationship between the criminal offense and the employee’s job title,” the report states.
o A firefighter-EMT who made “multiple racist and offensive comments” in posts on their own Facebook page and on a Facebook post made by a “member of the public.”
Four years ago, a housecleaning triggered by racist, sexist and homophobic emails in the Department of Water Management flushed out then-Water Management Commissioner Barrett Murphy.
Ferguson uncovered those hate-filled emails while investigating allegations that now-former District Superintendent Paul Hansen had used his city email account to sell guns.
The Facebook posts by the firefighter-EMT — on their own Facebook page and in response to a post by a member of the public the firefighter-EMT did not know — were similarly hateful.
“The comments mocked the member of the public’s mother’s parenting skills, assumed that the member of the public and other commenters on the post were welfare recipients and suggested that one of the commenters ‘take their ass back over the border,'” the report states.
“The posts were particularly directed at Black people, presenting stereotypes equating them with criminality and welfare … . The firefighter-EMT also derided and insulted an Asian reporter by calling her a false name and writing in a mock imitation dialect. The firefighter-EMT seemingly issued praise for violence, advocating for shooting an individual in Kenosha and posting a cartoon depicting a driver hitting protesters with a car.”
The firefighter-EMT was further accused of drawing “attention to their employment multiple times” by mentioning they “had to go to work and that they had a ‘real job,'” the report states. The firefighter-EMT’s Facebook profile included a photo of the employee and their child dressed in “CFD paraphernalia.”
The firefighter-EMT was fired and placed on the do-not-hire list, but has filed a grievance.
o A truck driver for the city’s Department of Aviation who posted a photo to their Facebook account “holding a handgun with the message, ‘Proud Boys, KKK or any of you other hate-mongers. We ready. Bring that foolishness this way, if you want to.'”
The employee said the photo was “staged” in a public bathroom at a Menards store and uploaded while the driver was off-duty. But the photo was taken after the driver “was alleged to have referred to several of their colleagues” in a break room as “the Klan or KKK,” the report states.
After being made aware of the Facebook posts, several of the driver’s colleagues alerted bosses “of their fear” that the accused employee “might be seeking to harm them with a firearm,” the report states.
The motor truck driver was fired on Sept. 21, but has appealed. A hearing before the Human Resources board is pending.
Other allegations in the report:
o A now-fired aviation department operating engineer owned and operated a printing company that did business for the city, including printing work for “several aldermen.”
o A now-fired administrative assistant for the city’s Law Department filed a fraudulent unemployment insurance claim in an attempt to receive jobless benefits while gainfully employed.
o A contractor employee who has since been discharged pocketed a $100 bribe in exchange for “not towing the individual’s booted vehicle.”
