Chicago mayor CFO's resignation ignites calls for probe amid key budget talks

Chicago Alderman is calling for an investigation into the city's financial statements after the city CFO abruptly resigned from her job. Political reporter Brandon Pope breaks down the reaction at City Hall. A furious back and forth at City Hall in the heat of a budget stalemate. Clearly it's unprecedented and I've never heard of anything like this happening in this city or any other. Former Wall Street executive Ashley Gabrish says staying on as chief financial officer would compromise her integrity and professional obligations, implying she was asked to stretch the truth in a critical budget season. It all centers around that $75 million pension payment City Council approved from the parking meter deal. The mayor's office saying she violated the law by directing the city treasurer to authorize it before the ordinance took effect and that she was largely absent during critical periods of the city budget process. They also say she acted without legal authority. They have referred her to the office of the inspector general for investigation. Gabrish clapping back, accusing the mayor's office of attacking those who attempt to hold them accountable. I think the mayor's statement was clearly an act of retaliation against a whistleblower. Now, Alderman Bill Conway is calling for an independent investigation, saying this could be a shocking act against taxpayers and criminal fraud. We have a budget that we need to get done by the end of December. We need to be able to trust the financial information that we have. We need to figure out. What the CFO was asked to do that was so unethical that she felt the need to take this step, which I'm sure she didn't take lightly. Not to mention, we have a debt offering scheduled for January here, and this could have significant implications for that. So it's all hands on deck, certainly for city council and city government, and hopefully for The inspector general as well. The city council budget accountability caucus calls it a five alarm fire for Chicago's fiscal health and the civic federation warns it could put city finances in jeopardy including our ability to borrow from investors. There's going to be some bad actors and things are going to go wrong and that's where leadership comes into play. I'm willing to acknowledge the mistakes. And tone from the top and standards from the top to say we're going to do this the right way. What we're seeing right now is more, I'd like to say a comedy of errors, except it's becoming tragicomic. And we don't have bandwidth for the sort of dysfunction that we're seeing right now. And there is nothing in our city's history, our city's modern history, that compares to this. Caprice is the third person to leave the CFO job this year. Meanwhile, Michael Belsky, the city comptroller, will be the acting CFO as the city's finance committee calls for hearings. I'm Brandon Pope for Fox Chicago.