A still image from a video taken of the demolition of the Crawford Coal Plant smokestack, April 11, 2020.
Ald. Mike Rodriguez said without the full report it is impossible to determine whether city officials and company leaders have been properly held accountable for their actions that imperiled Little Village and the health of its residents. In addition, senior officials in the Chicago Department of Public Health predicted that the demolition would be a “disaster,” according to the report.
During the 2019 mayoral campaign, Lightfoot vowed to root out corruption at City Hall while increasing transparency. Her campaign’s commercials vowed she would “bring in the light.” The inspector general’s probe found Hilco at fault for failing to ensure that the implosion did not endanger the health of the public and faulted officials for not taking steps to ensure a plan to protect the surrounding neighborhood was in place and would be followed.
Rodriguez said the full report would shed light on why the city “settled for so little,” which he called particularly “egregious.”