Streets and Sanitation commissioner replaced
Under fire for lavish snow removal spending, lax field supervision and allegations of continued personnel abuses, Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Michael Picardi was swept out today in a City Hall housecleaning.
Mayor Daley replaced Picardi with former Chicago Police officer-turned-Transportation Commissioner Tom Byrne, a Daley favorite summoned to City Hall in 2005 to clean up a Transportation Department hard hit by the Hired Truck and missing asphalt scandals.
(Keith Hale/Sun-Times)
Within weeks, Transportation Commissioner Miguel d’Escoto was bumped by Byrne.
Today, Picardi faced the same fate. But, he at least had a job when the music stopped in Daley’s latest game of musical chairs. Picardi returns to his old job as Fleet Management commissioner, replacing the recently retired Howard Henneman.
Picardi has been under fire since last fall, when Inspector General David Hoffman concluded Chicago was wasting $21 million-a-year on garbage collection crews “paid to do nothing” for 25 percent of their time on the clock.
Last winter, Daley turned up the heat — and dispatched Byrne to Snow Command — after the city spent $490,000 on snow removal during a relatively minor, first-of-the season snowstorm.
Picardi wore the jacket, even though a City Council rebellion subsequently forced Daley to reverse a cost-cutting policy that saw City Hall plow side-streets during normal working hours to reduce overtime and skip side-streets altogether after minor snowstorms.
Federal hiring monitor Noelle Brennan made matters even worse for Picardi when she complained of continued personnel abuses at Streets and San, where former commissioner Al Sanchez was convicted of rigging hiring and promotions to benefit the Daley-created Hispanic Democratic Organization.
Picardi was specifically accused of manipulating Streets and San layoffs by ignoring union rules that required 11 sanitation employees to be “bumped” to lower paying jobs after dozens of their co-workers were fired Dec. 31. Names of six of the 11 “overpaid” employees appeared on the notorious “clout list” made public during the 2006 trial that convicted former patronage chief Robert Sorich.
During a City Hall news conference called to announce the shake-up, Daley refused to discuss his impending decision to transfer key Streets and San functions to other departments.
He would only say extol the virtues of Tom Byrne.
“In every job he has had, Tom has proven that he is an experienced manager who is committed to operational efficiency and accountability — and that is what I expect him to provide in the new role,” he said.
Twenty years ago, Daley ran for mayor on a promise to bolster school security with a campaign commercial that showed him slamming a locker door shut. He forged a bond with Byrne, who was head of the school patrol unit at the time.
Today, Byrne noted that his strategies of holding weekly accountability meetings with supervisors in the field and using technology to track personnel and city services brought “the highest levels of accountability” to CDOT.
“At Streets and San, I plan to use [those] same kinds of management initiatives and technology. ... There are many fine men and women who work at Streets and Sanitation. And I plan to make the team there much stronger,” he said, somewhat ominously.
As for Picardi, he put the best possible face on the $16,956-a-year pay cut.
“Once again, I’m honored to be your choice to head the Department of Fleet Management. I welcome … the opportunity to return to this department,” he said.
Lou Phillips, business manager of Laborers Union Local 1001, could not be reached for comment.
In mid-April, Picardi infuriated the union by issuing a “request for quotations” to buy up to 200 “automated, side-loading refuse trucks” that could pave the way for scores of layoffs and service cuts.
The bid was abruptly cancelled one day after the Chicago Sun-Times disclosed the RFQ and the union raised the roof about it.