City Clerk
Chicago utilizes City stickers as a way to register a vehicle. Additionally, it is a way for Chicagoans not to get ticketed or fined for a long period of time. However, many find it devastating, as it is a tax that many residence want to avoid, but are not able to. The last thing that Chicagoans want to hear are that employees of the city clerk are doing things behind their back with the money. This money is supposed to go straight to the city, and to no other place. However, that unfortunately was not the case in this instance.
City Employee Caught Pocketing Money
The cash that was supposed to be going straight to the city as a form of taxes, was going into an employees pocket instead. To the surprise of many, this has happened before as well, yet not much action was being taken to prevent this from happening again. Many wonder how much this employee pocketed, and the amount will stun many. Allegedly, this employee pocketed six figures worth of cash payments on these city stickers. That is over $100,000 that this employee pocketed over a span of around seven years.
Why Did It Take So Long?
Allegedly, this was reported around 2020, before COVID, and just recently the city had taken action to go after the accused employee. It took almost four years to finally take action after it being reported, and that is something that needs to be changed, and addressed. City Clerk Anna Valencia had reported this incident as soon as her and her team had found that this was occurring, yet it took several years for it to be addressed, and fixed.
Will They Be Criminally Charged?
Allegedly, there have been charges that have been placed against this employee. This employee has also resigned, and will be facing these charges within the near future. Additionally, the city clerk is also investigating into many more actions of misconduct, which is around 200 cases of misconduct in just the past year. Therefore, it is clear that there have been many occasions where there has been some form of misconduct, but what has been done about it is very little. However, this can be the changing point for the city, as $100,000 is not a small amount of money. If the city can act, this can certainly be prevented in the future.
Can Technology Factor Into This?
Technology being an ever-evolving factor in the world we live in, it is expected to be used in practically everything. However, it is stated that most of the technology that revolves the City Clerk is outdated. Therefore, after this incident, they have taken more protective measures, using technology, to ensure this does not happen again. If it does, it can be caught earlier, and action can be taken to stop it. Therefore, it is clear that technology can certainly play a major role when it comes to making sure crimes of this nature do not occur.
The general public is incredibly devastated that something like this would occur. What is supposed to be a trust-worthy system, turns out to be a scheme being played by employees of the city clerk. It is safe to say that Chicagoans are certainly going to be extra careful when submitting to these taxes. Unfortunately, Chicagoans really have no choice when it comes to paying these stickers. They are mandatory in order to have a vehicle registered with the city. Therefore, whether or not this is going to happen again in the future, is truly a mystery.
Written by David Loran Jr
Sources:
Chicago Sun-Times: Six-figure skimming from city sticker sales, $200K in rogue debt collection fees highlight inspector general’s quarterly report
ABC7 News: Skimming from city sticker sales, rogue debt collection highlight inspector general Chicago report
Audacy: City employee skimmed $100,000 from vehicle sticker sales: watchdog
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of mason.flickr’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Janeen’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
