Fri, Oct 28, 2005
Aviation Commissioner Resigns After Being Pegged As Corruption
Witness
The local media calls
it a revolving door -- the portal to the room where Chicago Mayor
Richard Daley's cabinet meets. For the fifteenth time in recent
months, a member of Hizzoner's inner circle has left the party.
This time, it was Aviation Commissioner John Roberson.
Both Daley and Roberson (right) say the decision to leave was
Roberson's and that it was voluntary.
But the Chicago Sun-Times reports the mayor's office installed
new managing deputy in Roberson's organization, calling that a
pretty clear indication that the mayor thought it was time for his
aviation director to go.
Roberson's name recently turned up on a list of cooperating
witnesses into suspected corruption within the Daley
administration. Was Roberson intimidated into leaving?
"He wasn't frozen out or frozen in," Daley said, quoted by the
Sun-Times.
"I don't know who it may
have been uncomfortable for," Roberson said after he was outed as a
cooperating witness in the feds' investigation. "It wasn't
uncomfortable for me. I came to work every day. You can't freeze
out the airport or the person who runs the airport. It's too
critical to our economy," he told the Sun-Times.
"He wants to go in the private sector," Daley (right) said.
"He's always wanted to go."
It was a huge change in Roberson's fortunes compared to just 19
months ago. Roberson was considered a fast-mover in Daley's inner
circle. At 36, he had already been the purchasing manager for the
Parks District, commissioner of Sewers, Buildings and Aviation, and
executive director of Construction and Permits. He became airports
commissioner in February, 2004.
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