They were fired or otherwise disciplined. The inquiry was not handled by the inspector general, who normally conducts such investigations, but by city lawyers determined to find facts while shielding the administration from legal peril as much as possible.ĭriven partly by the mayor's personal desire to find those responsible, but prompted as well by the political need to find somebody to hold up to the media and an inconvenienced public, the inquisition quickly produced results:Įight men were singled out for ignoring for weeks a leak that eventually flooded the 62-mile tunnel system beneath the city's downtown beginning April 13, 1992.

But the mayor's various statements that his government was not responsible for what became known as the Great Chicago Flood, even though he angrily blamed a string of city workers for what happened, made the city vunerable to civil damages.īack then, even as Daley harangued the media for asking if the city was responsible for the flood, the mayor already had unleashed an inquisition into the actions of members of his own government.

Great lakes dredge and dock lawsuit