Ex-N.Y. City inspector general to fill aldermanic watchdog post

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Updated: December 13, 2011 8:29AM

Eighteen months after creating their own inspector general to investigate aldermanic corruption, City Council warhorses have finally chosen their man: New York City’s former inspector general Faisal Khan.

Khan, 37, spent four years as a senior investigator for the Big Apple’s version of the Independent Police Review Authority and seven more as an assistant district attorney in Queens County. He served as New York City’s inspector general until September 2010.

The long wait between creating the legislative inspector general and choosing a candidate has fueled speculation that the new sleuth will do little to stop corruption that has sent 31 present and former aldermen to prison since the 1970s.

But Ald. Dick Mell (33rd), chairman of the City Council’s Rules Committee, insisted that nothing could be further from the truth.

Mell noted that 170 people applied for the job, 44 passed muster with the Department of Human Resources and 30 candidates were interviewed by a blue-ribbon selection committee that subsequently settled on Khan.

“You’ll be very surprised by him. He’ll be a very independent inspector general,” Mell said after introducing Khan’s appointment at Wednesday’s City Council meeting.

“Let me tell you. [Milton] Rakove’s got a book, Don’t Send Nobody Nobody Sent. This is nobody nobody sent. Believe me. Nobody knows this guy,” Mell said.

Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th) added, “If he wouldn’t be independent, he wouldn’t have been selected by the committee, which I suggest was comprised of totally independent and well-regarded and well-respected Chicagoans.”

Ald. Joe Moore (49th) pointed to the $60,000 salary and no staff authorized for the new inspector general in the 2012 budget to support his claim that Khan will “end up being window dressing.

“I don’t know the man. I will assume he’s a man of utmost integrity. But it doesn’t matter how much integrity and independence you have. If you don’t have the tools to do the job, then you are going to be ineffective. And it does not appear he’s been given the tools to do the job,” Moore said.

The watered-down inspector general ordinance was championed by Mell and Burke and grudgingly approved by the City Council in May 2010 by a vote of 28 to 17.

Instead of going along with then-Mayor Richard M. Daley’s plan to give the city’s Inspector General Joe Ferguson the power to investigate aldermen, the City Council created its own inspector general with subpoena power to investigate aldermen and their employees.

Aldermen insisted they were ready for reform, just not the kind that allows challengers to dish anonymous, phony dirt that smears the incumbent.

So they imposed a two-year statute of limitations and mandated sworn complaints and prior authorization from a Board of Ethics with a do-nothing track record. They also ordered the Board of Ethics to serve as judge and jury after the fact.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel campaigned on a promise to empower Ferguson to investigate aldermen, but he issued a one-line statement Wednesday that hinted strongly that he might not honor that promise and instead support the council’s proposal.

“I commend the City Council for taking this important step to institute oversight and reform,” the mayor said.