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No matter who wins the mayoral sweepstakes, one thing is fairly certain: Jody Weis' days as Chicago's $310,000-a-year police superintendent are numbered.

It's not just his unprecedented salary that sticks out like a sore thumb. It's the rock-bottom morale among a rank-and-file reeling from a manpower shortage and a superintendent who they believe does not have their back.

Before Mayor Daley announced his retirement, Weis offered to take a pay cut if that's what it took to convince the mayor to renew his three-year contract when it expires next spring.

Now that Daley won't be around to renew it, Weis appears to see the handwriting on the wall.

"I knew I had a finite amount of time. That time will end the 1st of March. I will continue doing my job as long as he's happy with me. [But], I was like a contract employee. So, I didn't expect this to go any longer," Weis said Wednesday.

Ald. Tom Allen (38th), a possible mayoral contender whose Northwest Side ward is home to scores of police officers, advised Weis to dust off his resume.

"He was a non-starter from the beginning. That guy was a round peg in a square hole. Never should have hired Jody Weis. He's an FBI guy. I'd take a Chicago Police officer any day over an FBI agent," Allen said.

"They don't respect him and they know he won't back ‘em up. It was a bad choice. And we never should pay a guy $310,000 while people are taking pay cuts and we don't have money for recycling."

As a career FBI agent and the first outsider in nearly 50 years to serve as Chicago Police superintendent, Weis was viewed with suspicion from day one.

From a morale standpoint, it has been downhill ever since.

Weis' decision to wear a uniform even though he has never been a street cop offended the rank and file. So did his decision to yank gang investigators out of police districts, order an unprecedented housecleaning that swept out 21 of 25 district commanders and dip down into the ranks of district commanders to replace the first deputy and other top brass.

He talked about getting overweight cops in shape before broaching the subjects at the bargaining table, then rankled the police union by asking officers to give up their DNA at crime scenes and using GPS to track squad cars.

But the most damaging move of all was Weis' knee-jerk reaction to Officer William Cozzi, who was captured on a hospital surveillance camera beating a man shackled to a wheelchair.

After the video was posted on the Chicago Sun-Times Web site, Weis called the officer's actions "deplorable" and vowed to "review the facts of the case before taking further action." He wound up contacting federal authorities, who obtained a civil rights indictment against Cozzi on the day before he was supposed to return to duty.

The rank-and-file never forgave him.

"It drastically impacted morale," Fraternal Order of Police President Mark Donahue said at the time. "If he could do this to one individual based on the limited knowledge that he had, what do the rest of us have to look forward to- "