UPDATE 7 P.M. by Todd Lighty and Hal Dardick: Boswell explains his departure.
Mayor Richard Daley’s compliance officer abruptly resigned today after waging a rare battle in which he publicly challenged the mayor’s authority.
Anthony Boswell, an outsider Daley tapped in 2007 to lead the newly created Office of Compliance, informed the mayor he plans to leave city employment at the end of May.
“I uprooted my family from Dallas, Texas in order to accept a position with the City, with the implicit promise that the City was serious about having a best-in-class compliance program,” Boswell wrote in a one-page letter to Daley. “Given recent events, it has become difficult for me to remain excited about the work of the Office of Compliance.”
Boswell has been embroiled in controversy since Daley suspended him for 30 days earlier this year after the inspector general determined Boswell mishandled a sexual harassment complaint involving a 911 center boss. Boswell, who returned to work recently, sued Daley and the city’s inspector general in Cook County Circuit Court to clear his name.
He alleges Daley overstep his authority by suspending him. Boswell also accused the city’s top lawyer and the inspector general of engineering a “retaliatory power grab” because Boswell questioned what he thought was an improper hiring attempt in the office of the legal counsel.
Daley had moved to strip Boswell’s office of much of its authority and recently shifted responsibility for overseeing city hiring to Inspector General Joseph Ferguson.
Boswell’s lawyer, Jamie Wareham, said the civil lawsuit against Daley and Ferguson will still go forward. “They drove an honest man with a family out of town and without cause,” Wareham said.
Jodi Kawada, a mayoral spokeswoman, said the administration had no plans to eliminate the compliance office, adding it still has other responsibilities such as overseeing aspects of minority and women contacts with the city. “We’re not aware of a commissioner’s resignation meaning the end of a department,” Kawada said.
It is not uncommon for top mayoral aides to be eased out when they are caught up in controversy, but typically they go quietly.
Boswell declined to talk about his future plans but said the time was right to move on. “This was an attempt to do something new that’s never been done before in city government,” Boswell said in an interview. “ Obviously, I would have liked for it to have ended differently.”
Daley created the office in 2007 to ensure city government complies with legal and ethical guidelines and grew the department to include a budget of $3.5 million and 39 employees.
The inspector general and others at City Hall had opposed the new office, fearing Daley was trying to weaken the inspector general’s authority. Several aldermen, including Ald. Robert Fioretti, 2nd, believe it’s time to eliminate the compliance office. Fioretti said corporate-style compliance and ethics did not translate well to City Hall.
“This isn’t a normal corporation,” Fioretti said. “It’s an empire that has been built on patronage and political hiring. . . . The power always should have been in the inspector general’s office. ”
UPDATE 3:18 p.m. by Todd Lighty and Hal Dardick; originally posted at 2:52 p.m.
Mayor Richard Daley’s embattled compliance officer abruptly resigned today amid a power struggle that pitted two City Hall watchdogs against each other.
Anthony Boswell, executive director of the Office of Compliance, informed Daley that he plans to leave city employment at the end of May, said Boswell’s lawyer, Jamie Wareham. He said Boswell’s future plans were unclear.
“He’s leaving because of the stress and strain on his family and because of all of the unfairness,” Wareham
Boswell has been embroiled in controversy since Daley suspended him for 30 days earlier this year for allegedly mishandling a sexual harassment investigation. In his resignation letter, Boswell said it had "become difficult for me to remain excited about the work of the Office of Compliance."
Boswell, who returned to work recently, sued Daley and the city’s Inspector General in Cook County Circuit Court to clear his name. He alleges the Daley administration’s top lawyer and the city’s inspector general engineered a “retaliatory power grab” because Boswell questioned what he thought was an improper hiring attempt in the office of the legal counsel.
Wareham said the suit will still go forward. “He’s trying to ensure that unlawful suspensions don’t happen to future directors of compliance or, for that matter, future inspectors general,” Wareham said.
In the meantime, Daley has moved to strip Boswell’s office of much of its authority. He recently shifted the responsibility for overseeing city hiring from the compliance office to the inspector general.
Daley created the compliance office in 2007 to ensure city government complies with legal and ethical guidelines and grew the department to include a budget of $3.5 million and 39 employees. The City Council plans to hold hearings on the mayor’s proposal to realign the powers between compliance office and the inspector general, including giving the inspector general the authority to investigate aldermen.