{"id":217422,"date":"2010-01-22T07:58:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-22T12:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c60fd53ef01287700a707970c"},"modified":"2010-01-23T18:29:06","modified_gmt":"2010-01-23T23:29:06","slug":"suspensions-urged-for-2-daley-aides-who-probed-harassment-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/217422","title":{"rendered":"Suspensions urged for 2 Daley aides who probed harassment case"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the print edition<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Suspensions urged for 2 Daley aides who probed harassment case<\/h2>\n

By Todd Lighty<\/p>\n

Tribune reporter<\/p>\n

Two of Mayor Richard Daley’s key aides, whose jobs are to make sure
\ncity workers obey rules and use good judgment, should be suspended for
\ntheir own poor judgment in handling a student intern’s sexual
\nharassment complaint, according to findings by the city’s watchdog.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nInspector General Joseph Ferguson, in a report to the mayor,
\nrecommended strong disciplinary action against the top officials in his
\nOffice of Compliance, a unit that Daley created in 2007 to promote a
\nculture of good conduct among city workers.<\/p>\n

Ferguson recommended that Daley suspend the office’s executive
\ndirector, Anthony Boswell, and Boswell’s first deputy, Mark Meaney, for
\nat least 30 days without pay, according to sources familiar with the
\nreport who spoke on condition of anonymity.\n<\/p>\n

Sources said Ferguson found that the two fumbled the handling of a
\nintern’s complaint that a boss at the city’s 911 center sexually
\nharassed her in 2008.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nThe report found that Boswell and Meaney repeatedly disregarded city
\npolicies and showed favoritism to the boss during the sexual harassment
\ninvestigation by trying to find him another city job, sources said.
\nFerguson, in his report, said the two men’s actions were particularly
\negregious because their duties involve reviewing the conduct of other
\ncity workers.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nBoswell declined to discuss the report Thursday, and Meaney did not respond to messages.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nThe case stems from a May 2008 complaint from the intern about her boss
\nat the Office of Emergency Management and Communications. The intern
\nclaimed the boss made inappropriate comments about her appearance and
\nremarked about how he someday would like to have a cheerleader as an
\nintern.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nThe city’s sexual harassment officer, who worked for Boswell and
\nMeaney, began looking into the intern’s complaint, but she ran into
\nresistance from the two, according to the report. The sexual harassment
\nofficer complained about Boswell and Meaney to the inspector general,
\nwho opened an investigation.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nThe inspector general found that Boswell and Meaney tried to get the
\nboss a new intern and also tried to move him to an unspecified city job
\naway from the 911 Center.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nFerguson found that the two men were instrumental in the intern’s
\ncomplaint being summarily dismissed by the Office of Compliance.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nBoswell made his own complaints to the inspector general, alleging that
\nthe mayor’s office inappropriately intervened in the matter and that
\nthe sexual harassment officer tried to use political influence in her
\njob, the report said. The inspector general found no merit to those
\nallegations.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nThe federal court has been monitoring the city’s hiring system because
\nof past corruption in handing out jobs and promotions. Boswell and his
\noffice are in line to take over monitoring of city hiring once court
\noversight ends. But Boswell’s office has been criticized by the
\ncourt-appointed monitor \u2014 most recently for allegedly not reporting
\nhiring violations and trying to cover it up.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nDaley has said he will ask the court to end oversight this year, and
\nsources said his administration is now considering taking away the
\nmonitoring functions that would go to Boswell’s office.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nFerguson, a former federal prosecutor, became the inspector general
\nlate last year after David Hoffman resigned to run for the U.S. Senate.
\nThe report is an early indication that \u2014 like Hoffman \u2014 Ferguson will
\nbe willing to investigate conduct by the mayor’s top aides.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\n Ferguson declined to comment. The mayor’s office also had no comment.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the print edition: Suspensions urged for 2 Daley aides who probed harassment case By Todd Lighty Tribune reporter Two of Mayor Richard Daley’s key aides, whose jobs are to make sure city workers obey rules and use good judgment, should be suspended for their own poor judgment in handling a student intern’s sexual harassment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3992,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-217422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3992"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}