Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration has promised Chicago's new police oversight agency will improve on the widely distrusted Independent Police Review Authority, but many employees from the outgoing agency could be hired on at the new one, the executive putting together the new version told aldermen Tuesday.

Staffing has been an open question since Emanuel announced the city would create the Civilian Office of Police Accountability in a bid to bolster a police disciplinary system that has been sluggish and prone to clearing police officers. The new agency will have more funding and a broader mandate to investigate alleged misconduct, but it remains unclear how many of the new agency's employees could come from IPRA, which the Chicago Tribune has found often conducted cursory investigations, disregarded evidence of police misconduct and recommended light punishment for officers.

With police oversight under a microscope, Sharon Fairley, chief administrator of IPRA who also will lead the new agency as it starts up, testified at a City Council budget hearing Tuesday. Fairley said city officials are hammering out the hiring process but that IPRA staffers would be welcome to seek jobs at the new agency. The qualifications for investigators will be more demanding than they have been at IPRA, but most current staff members should qualify, she said.

Questions about the new agency's staffing stem in part from the fact that IPRA was created in 2007 under then-Mayor Richard M. Daley to replace the often-ineffective Office of Professional Standards. Many of that agency's staffers went on to jobs at IPRA, contributing to the belief among many who dealt with the police misconduct agencies that little changed besides the name.

Fairley told aldermen that improvements in the new agency will come through cultural and policy change, as well as stronger funding. “First and foremost is to create a culture where quality and timeliness are valued,” she said.

The new agency's budget was a point of controversy as the City Council considered creating it, and aldermen are considering a request from Emanuel to spend significantly more on police officer oversight. The plan calls for an agency with 141 full-time staffers, nearly double the 75 employees IPRA had at the end of September, though it has experienced attrition in recent months as the mayor announced the agency would be replaced.

COPA is expected to exist for only part of 2017, but Fairley said she believes funding will be about $16 million to $17 million in the early years. IPRA's current budget is about $8.4 million.

Emanuel appointed Fairley to run IPRA late last year as the mayor tried to contain the fallout from the release of video of white Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting African-American teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times. Van Dyke was charged with murder hours before the footage was made public.

The shooting sparked an ongoing federal investigation aimed at determining whether Chicago police have systematically violated residents' civil rights. Emanuel has proposed changes aimed at getting ahead of reforms the federal authorities could seek to enforce.

Fairley, a former federal prosecutor, inherited an agency that has rarely disciplined police; recent Tribune investigations have shown that IPRA has generally called for light punishments and cleared police even when evidence indicated misconduct.

Earlier this month, following battles over budgeting and independence from City Hall, alderman voted overwhelmingly to create COPA. Fairley will lead the agency as Emanuel is still working out how to hire a new chief administrator.

Aldermen questioned Fairley on topics ranging from the incoming agency's commitment to fairness to its ability to avoid the backlog of cases that has dogged IPRA, and Fairley detailed the agency's proposed staffing of 75 investigators, who would work with supervisors and administrative staff.

dhinkel@chicagotribune.com