Chicago department of water management Archives — Page 2 of 7

July 6, 2017

Housecleaning at Water Department spurs request for police protection

Two African-American former employees of the city’s Water Department are so afraid of what could happen if they testify against a co-worker, they are seeking police protection.

David Reed and Christopher Harris said they complained about the racist and violent culture at the Water Department for more than a decade, but their complaints fell on deaf ears.

“We tried to get relief. We contacted management, talked to the city’s Inspector General’s office, and the EEOC, and nothing happened,” Harris told me.

“Now the same individual that they allowed to intimidate us and harass us, they have subpoenaed us to testify against,” Reed said.

Anthony Nguyen was fired in May. The men are being asked to appear on Friday and again on Aug. 10 before an arbitrator in a hearing in which Nguyen is trying to get his job back.

The forensic scientists claimed they were harassed, threatened and intimidated by Nguyen and others and described a work environment where they were taunted with insults and racist cartoons even after they left the department.

A spokesman for Inspector General Joe Ferguson would not comment on this case.
Reed and Harris are now reluctant to testify, citing safety and health concerns.

“They apparently told him that we are responsible for him losing his job. We are afraid of this guy,” Reed said.

“We have expressed that concern to the corporation counsel. They say there is nothing they can do. The police can give us special attention for two weeks and that’s it. After that, we are on our own. The way the city operates, they get us to testify, and after two weeks and something happens, they’ll say: ‘Go away,'” Harris told me.

The men claim that even after they left the water department — Reed retired and Harris is on leave of absence — Nguyen sent them racist texts and emails and made threatening phone calls in the middle of the night.

Harris said he has an order of protection against Nguyen that is still in effect.

I was unable to reach Nguyen on Wednesday.

But a spokesman for the city’s law department said Nguyen’s firing is not related to the department’s shake-up over racist emails.

“The City of Chicago does not tolerate harassment of any kind. Department of Water Management officials enacted progressive disciplinary actions against Anthony Nguyen, which eventually resulted in his termination. He is appealing his firing, and we will strongly defend his separation from the City of Chicago,” said Bill McCaffrey, a spokesman for the city’s Law Department.

The “racist email scandal” has resulted in the firings of several high-level managers, including the former Department of Water Management Commissioner, Barrett Murphy, who has close ties to the mayor.

The Inspector General’s office stumbled on the offensive emails while investigating allegations that the son of a former alderman had used his email account to sell guns.

Last week, the department’s African-American employees filed a class-action lawsuit accusing the city of “unlawful policies, patterns and employment practices to create and proliferate a hostile and abusive work environment based on race that includes violence, intimidation, and retaliation . . .”

The behavior Reed and Harris said they endured while working for the water department appears to fit that pattern.

Harris said he got a call from the Inspector General’s office encouraging him to testify at the arbitration hearing.

“They basically said if we didn’t testify, Anthony Nguyen could get his job back and he should never have been hired and should never be reinstated,” Harris said.

Reed argues that the racist behavior is nothing new.

“We’ve been saying this ever since 2005. [Nguyen] was able to do all this without being reprimanded. I don’t trust any of them. They are offering us nothing. We can’t get our jobs back, any health benefits or protection. The city really doesn’t care,” he said.

It is unfortunate that these men had to wait so long for entrenched racism in the city’s water department to be addressed.

Hopefully, the city can give these men the assurances they need so no other employee has to go through what they did.

June 29, 2017

Lawsuit Follows Shake-Up At Chicago Water Department DOWM

(CBS) — Seven employees of Chicago’s Water Department filed a class-action lawsuit Thursday morning, claiming they were denied promotions, subjected to racial claims and sexually harassed because of their race.

CBS 2’s Sandra Torres has details.

“I feel less than the man that I am when I’m talked to disrespectfully,” says 57-year-old Derrick Edmond.

He refers to the treatment he’s received while working at the south water purification plant. He’s among the Water Department employees in the suit who say, in part, “black employees are humiliated, harassed, and threatened daily by co-workers.”

“In 2017, many black people at the Water Department still cannot go to work and make a living without being subject to a hostile work environment,” Edmond says.

Edmond has been working as an operating engineer at the plant for over 30 years.

In the lawsuit, he claims:

-supervisors denied him promotion opportunities because of his race.

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-they called him the “N” word and referred to him as “you people.”

-he was disciplined in retaliation for speaking out against his treatment in the department.

“All of their stories are consistent from top to bottom,” attorney Vick Anderson says.

In May, Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired Water Department Commissioner Barrett Murphy after an investigation uncovered racist and sexist emails.

Attorneys say employees now want justice.

“This lawsuit falls on the heels of our mayor of our city having to acknowledge that the culture of the Water Department is indeed hostile and abusive,” William C. Martin says. “This is the next step in this admission process.”

Two plaintiffs are women and five are men; attorneys say at least 30 others have reached out to them with similar claims.

A spokesperson for Emanuel issued this prepared statement in response to the lawsuit:

“The City of Chicago has no tolerance for discrimination of employees in any form, and while we cannot comment on this lawsuit specifically, the City does not take any allegations of this nature lightly. The Mayor recently appointed a new commissioner and is committed to providing the support and resources necessary to implement changes and address issues at the Department of Water Management.”

Patrick McDonough, a City of Chicago Department of Water Management employee has complained of discrimination to two decades. Frank Coconate joins the lawsuit.

June 29, 2017

Chicago Water Management Employees File Discrimination Lawsuit By Charlie Wojciechowski

Chicago Clout’s Archie High tells all.
Derrick Edmond has been an employee in the Chicago Department of Water for over 30 years, but he’s now part of a federal lawsuit alleging racial discrimination against management of the agency.
Edmond, an employee at the Sawyer Water Purification Plant on the South Side, is one of eight employees filing suit against the agency.
“Personally, I feel like a little bit less than a man than I am when I have to be talked to disrespectfully, especially after 33 years and an impeccable work record,” Edmond said.
The lawsuit alleges a long-standing and wide-ranging pattern of racial discrimination inside Chicago’s Department of Water Management.
According to the suit, Edmond and others were assigned less desirable shifts and days off, given less desirable work assignments, denied promotions and transfers and were intimidated and harassed because of their race.
“They came to us and told us they had been living in a poisonous environment, literally living in the sewer,” attorney Victor Henderson told reporters.
The lawsuit comes on the heels of the resignation of former Chicago water commissioner Barrett Murphy, who left his office amid reporters of an inspector general’s investigation into racist and sexist emails by the department.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs in the case say that resignation was a good start, but more must be done to correct what they say has been decades of discrimination at the department.
“We have filed this lawsuit because in 2017, many black people at the water department still cannot go to work and make a living without being subjected to a hostile work environment,” Edmond said.
The plaintiffs in the case allege that the environment not only made it difficult to come into work on a daily basis, but also held them back in their careers with the department.
“All of their stories are consistent, from top to bottom,” Henderson said. “We are hoping the city responds favorably because they have already taken some action.”

June 29, 2017

Black workers denied promotions, called racial slurs at Chicago water department: lawsuit

African-American employees of the Chicago water department routinely were denied promotions, subjected to racial slurs and sexually harassed because of their race, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday that could further roil a department that’s become a racially charged problem for Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

The lawsuit, filed in federal district court, comes weeks after a leadership shakeup at the Department of Water Management as a months-long watchdog probe that ferreted out racist and sexist emails shared among department supervisors.
The suit was filed on behalf of seven current and former employees of the department, and it seeks class-action status, which if granted could expand its scope. The employees alleged they were denied promotions and transfers, given less-desirable work assignments, harassed and wrongly fired in some cases because of their race.
It further states that department workers routinely used racial slurs or racially charged phrases, including the n-word and “you people,” to refer to black employees, according to the lawsuit. “Black female employees are called bitches and whores on a regular basis,” the filing reads.

And when they filed complaints about a hostile work environment, they were “subjected to unfair, arbitrary and capricious discipline for speaking out,” the lawsuit alleges. Department officials “have done nothing to remedy the hostile work environment,” it adds.
The lawsuit asks for a judge to rule that department officials violated federal fair labor laws, bar further discriminatory contact, and provide lost wages and back pay to the allegedly harmed employees.
City officials did not have an immediate response to the lawsuit.

A day before it was filed, Emanuel and the City Council were singing the praises of newly appointed water department Commissioner Randy Conner, an African American man from the South Side who was promoted amid the shakeup and confirmed by aldermen Wednesday. Conner is named as a defendant in the lawsuit because of his new role, but there are no specific allegations in the 40-page filing that accuse him of any specific wrongdoing.

Conner was appointed by Emanuel to replace Barrett Murphy, a friend of the mayor’s who resigned his post as the result of a city inspector general’s investigation that turned up the racist and sexist emails. William Bresnahan, who was managing deputy commissioner, and Paul Hansen, who was a district superintendent, also resigned.
The Tribune earlier this month first reported that Hansen sent to Murphy and Bresnahan emails in early 2014 that included anti-Islamic and racially insensitive language.
Hansen also sent an email that included sexist language as he made fun of a colleague in response to a lengthy message that colleague sent to Hansen about a frozen water main.
In addition, Thomas J. Durkin, the general foreman of plumbers, and John “Jack” Lee Jr., another district superintendent, later were replaced on administrative leave pending disciplinary decisions as a result of the probe.

hdardick@chicagotribune.com

June 20, 2017

The City of Chicago Department of Water Management improvements.

Two more white City of Chicago Department of Water Management employees were shown the door today. One was escorted out by new black Managing Deputy Commissioner William Cheaks. Mr. Cheaks is a no nonsense, take no bullshit, type of leader Rahm Emanuel should have put in place from the beginning. Mr. Cheaks was also with Mr. Hightower, another hard working, take no prisoners type of boss that has zero tolerance for employees that fail to wear their helmet and safety vest. The white boss had always hidden the promotion list from black employees for decades. Then the promotion list would show up for all to see when the bid was over. One must wonder where the Plumbers’ Local 130 Union is in all this? Maybe putting Mike Tierney on the union payroll has left working union members out in the cold. The only time the blacks got their fair share of the overtime is when the white guys could not do the job or the weather was too extreme. The Mt. Greenwood trash have more big money whites off Rahm’s payroll. I know for a fact blacks were cheated out of the Superintendent position for decades. Time to make things right and give blacks their fair due.

Another Chicago Department boss, the product of Plumbers’ Local 130 was shown the door also. A prior “injury” in 2014 to the leg did not stop Cheaks from putting up with his crap. An attempt to say he fell while smoking a cigarette on the dock did not stop his removal. Is this workers compensation fraud? Well when you get caught up with someone that emails you his wife is a “wig and tits”, and you do not report it, you are heading to look for another job. So, remember this simple story, when Chicago Clout is going after some stupid piece of shit, stay out of the way. Stay miles away from our targets.

Another worthless pile of crap is getting removed out of his fancy office.
Chicago taxpayers made a real fancy office, better than the Commissioner for one of the guys hooked up with a boss at the Jardine Plant. Not long ago, lover boy was visiting her at the Jardine Plant for romantic lunches. Phony business at the Jardine Plant turned into hot romantic times, and the taxpayers paid it all. I am glad new strong leadership at the water department will review all the crap Bresnahan did to unclouted injured workers.

Please fire Lucy Pope Cozi Anderson Now, fire her husband, Andy Anderson now. Please review all the clout promotions made in the last decade. Please review all the jobs the blacks and Hispanics got screwed out of for decades. You have more work to do and I will name names if you do not remove the scum that has destroyed the department. You do not see this nasty shit in other major water departments. Remember, we know all.

June 20, 2017

Two more managers targeted in Water Management email scandal

Chicago City Hall. | Rich Hein/Sun-Times
Fran Spielman
@fspielman | email
Two more high-level supervisors face disciplinary action in the continuing fall-out from the offensive emails that forced a shake-up in the city’s scandal-scarred Department of Water Management.

Thomas J. Durkin, a $106,599-a-year general foreman of plumbers, has been placed on administrative leave without pay while Water Management Commissioner Randy Conner decides whether to follow Inspector General Joe Ferguson’s recommendation that Durkin be fired. Conner who is African-American, has been given carte blanche in a department with an ugly history of corruption and intolerance.

Sources said Durkin was accused of “sending and receiving” the same kinds of racist, sexist, homophobic and Islamophobic emails that have already triggered the ouster of three other Water Management bosses.

John J. Lee Jr., the $128,088-a-year superintendent of the Water Management’s south district, has also been placed on administrative leave tied to the email scandal.

Ferguson’s investigation is ongoing and is almost certain to trigger more high-level firings, City Hall sources said.

Last month, a housecleaning in the Department of Water Management at the center of the Hired Truck and city hiring scandals swept out Commissioner Barrett Murphy, managing deputy William Bresnahan and district superintendent Paul Hansen.

Sources said Murphy — whose wife, Lynn Lockwood, is a close friend of Emanuel’s wife, Amy Rule — offered his resignation after being held responsible for the chain of offensive emails sent by an underling whom the commissioner failed to discipline; Murphy was among those receiving the emails.
The Chicago Sun-Times was the first to report that Ferguson uncovered the derogatory emails circulating in the Department of Water Management while investigating allegations that Hansen had used his city email account to sell guns.

Murphy’s ouster was a stunner, even in a city department with a history of corruption that’s notorious for its ugly, hate-filled culture.

That’s because it came at the risk of losing two close friends.

Lockwood once chaired a political fundraising committee for the mayor. She’s an Emanuel appointee to the Chicago Public Library board who helped organize the 2012 NATO Summit for the mayor and had a one-year, $160,000 consulting contract with the tourism agency known as Choose Chicago.

The offensive emails were released on June 2, the same day that the Emanuel administration moved to insulate itself from discrimination claims and lawsuits tied to the email scandal with additional training and an outside review of city policies.

In March 2014, Hansen sent an anti-Muslim chain email to Murphy and Bresnahan. The email — with the subject line “Muslims My Ass…” — decried a perceived lack of Muslim influence in American culture, concluding with a reminder that Muslims carried out the Sept. 11, 2011 and 2013 Boston Marathon terror attacks.

“Have you heard a Muslim orchestra? Have you seen a Muslim band march in a parade? Have you witnessed a Muslim charity?” the email read.

The email went on to rhetorically ask: “Where were Muslims during the Civil Rights era of this country? Not present. There are no pictures or media accounts of Muslims walking side by side with Martin Luther King, Jr. or helping to advance the cause of Civil Rights.”

(The email does not note that Malcolm X, a leading voice in the civil rights era, was Muslim.)

Another one of those emails was sent in January 2014. It was a chain email Hansen sent to Murphy, and it included a series of caricature-like images of President Barack Obama holding signs, with some reading “Thank you for your support citizens peasants comerades! [sic]” “Don’t call your Senators, I and my trusty czars will handle everything!” and “If you’re a soldier, a Christian, or a hunter, you’re probably a TERRORIST!”

Like most chain emails, the messages encouraged recipients to forward them on to others.

May 26, 2017

Laura Washington Two jobs. And more B.S. from the Sun-Times.

That’s all it took to spur six black aldermen to convene a news conference last week, in praise of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

OPINION

On Wednesday, the members of the Chicago City Council stepped up to the microphones to “thank” Emanuel for appointing African Americans to lead two major city agencies.

The aldermen — Michelle Harris (8th), Derrick Curtis (18th), Michael Scott (24th), Walter Burnett (27th), Carrie Austin (34th) — “are among Emanuel’s staunchest City Council supporters,” the Sun-Times’ Fran Spielman reported.

They praised the mayor for moving quickly to replace Water Department Commissioner Barrett Murphy, who resigned in the wake of allegations of racist, sexist and homophobic emails that circulated in the department.

Emanuel replaced Murphy with Randy Conner, an African-American, and appointed Samantha Fields to replace departing budget director Alexandra Holt.

“We’re here to say `thank you’ — to say that it’s a job well done, but it is not a job finished,” Scott was quoted as saying. “We want to continue moving African-Americans up the ranks through this city.”
Not just two jobs. Two big-shot jobs. These appointees are highly-paid, highly-employable bureaucrats in service of the mayor.

Speaking of jobs, Illinois now enjoys the dubious distinction of having the highest black unemployment rate in the nation, according to a new report from the Illinois Policy Institute.

In 2016, African Americans suffered a 12.7 percent jobless rate, compared with Latinos at 6.7 percent and 5 percent for white residents.

Only 51 percent of black adults in Illinois had some type of employment, shows the Institute’s analysis of data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Most probably live in black Chicago, in the same West Side and South Side neighborhoods those aldermen serve.

I wonder if the aldermen asked their constituents how they felt about that study? And what do they think about the tsunami of troubles for black Chicago? African Americans are on the receiving end of seemingly chronic police misconduct and abuse cases, vividly personified by the heinous police shooting of Laquan McDonald.

Black Chicago suffers most from violent, murderous street crime, expressway shootings and carjackings. Our children are hostage to a public school system that is flirting with bankruptcy.

Yet, apparently, black Chicago has come such a long way that some aldermen are already endorsing Emanuel for reelection.

The man hasn’t even said he will seek a third term.

At the press conference, Austin said Emanuel should get credit where credit is due. “When he does something negative, nobody is short on printing that. But when he does something positive, everything is silent,” she was quoted as saying. “So we felt that we should be the ones to speak out when he has done something forward-thinking.”

Can’t we do better than two big-shot jobs?

How about enacting more effective policies and legislation that will address the vast needs of their neighborhoods? Now?

Instead of issuing meaningless endorsements, how about getting in the mayor’s face? How about pounding the podium, every day, in outrage at the poverty, violence and hopelessness so many of their constituents live with, every day? And demanding resources from Springfield and Washington?

How about remembering who you work for?

May 16, 2017

(AP) Chicago Water Commissioner Resigns Amid Probe Into Emails

CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago’s water department commission has resigned in the wake of reports he was under investigation into alleged racist and sexist email messages.

A spokesman for Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Friday cited the probe by the city’s inspector general for the departure of Barrett Murphy.

Adam Collins says Emanuel “acted quickly and decisively” in asking for Murphy’s resignation after learning of the probe into the water department’s culture.

A mid-level Water Department manager, Paul Hansen, has also resigned. Agency spokesman Gary Litherland says he did not know the reason for Hansen’s departure.

Randy Connor, who had been at the Chicago Department of Transportation, will replace Murphy, who rose to the $170,000 a year post last year.

May 16, 2017

Chicago water commissioner resigns amid IG probe into racist, sexist emails

Chicago’s water commissioner has resigned amid what City Hall sources say is an inspector general investigation into racist and sexist email messages sent at the agency.

Out is Barrett Murphy, who made $170,000 a year leading the Department of Water Management after taking the job in April 2016. He’s a city government veteran who is married to Lynn Lockwood. She’s the former chairman and treasurer of one of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s political funds, as well as a friend of Chicago first lady Amy Rule.

The Emanuel administration on Friday afternoon cited the watchdog probe in explaining Murphy’s abrupt departure.

“We were made aware of an IG investigation into the culture at the water department,” Emanuel spokesman Adam Collins said. “The mayor acted quickly and decisively, asking for the commissioner’s resignation and appointing a new commissioner to lead the department forward and change the department’s culture.”

One of the City Hall sources said the investigation has been going on for eight months. Collins said the mayor recently was made aware of the probe. A spokeswoman for Inspector General Joseph Ferguson declined to comment.

Two other Water Department managers resigned this week. William Bresnahan, the agency’s managing deputy commissioner, resigned, Collins said. And Paul Hansen, a district superintendent of water distribution and the son of former 44th Ward Ald. Bernie Hansen, resigned Thursday, said water spokesman Gary Litherland.

Attempts to reach Murphy, Bresnahan and Hansen were unsuccessful Friday.

One veteran Water Department employee, Patrick McDonough, said Friday that he repeatedly has complained to the inspector general’s office about the department’s workplace culture and about top bosses covering up for politically connected workers, including Hansen.

In April 2010, Hansen was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol in northwest Illinois, according to public records from Jo Daviess County. He later pleaded guilty to reckless driving. City payroll records show that he was promoted to his current position in December 2010, which is after the case was resolved.

Murphy succeeded longtime Water Commissioner Tom Powers last year. Before that, Murphy was a deputy in the Department of Water Management. He had worked for Mayor Richard M. Daley in the Aviation Department and as the city’s project manager to prepare for possible Y2K computer problems, a predicted calamity that never came to pass.

Replacing Murphy at the water agency is Randy Connor, who had been at the Chicago Department of Transportation.

The Emanuel administration released the news of Murphy’s resignation mid-afternoon
Friday, a time politicians typically try to bury bad news as the public’s attention turns toward the weekend. It also came a couple hours after they announced other, less troublesome personnel moves at City Hall.

The mayor reappointed Ferguson to a third term as inspector general, and announced that Budget Director Alexandra Holt was planning to leave to pursue other endeavors after six years on the job.

Four years ago, when Ferguson was closing out his first term, it wasn’t clear that he would be reappointed. Ferguson had been critical of many mayoral initiatives. After Emanuel did reappoint him, Ferguson eventually decided to stay longer, and the relationship between mayor and watchdog became less frosty.

On Friday, Emanuel suggested they have come to something of an understanding.

“He plays an important role for the city in constantly making changes and asking some core questions, and Joe knows there are places where we strongly agree, and there will be places where I have a different perspective,” Emanuel told the Tribune after an event to honor 25 City Colleges graduates from the Chicago Star Scholar program who received $5,000 scholarships from CME Group to continue their education at four-year institutions.

“(Ferguson) has to have his perspective, and I have to have a slightly wider lens to look at,” Emanuel added.

The mayor said he would “beyond miss” Holt, who has been his only budget director. Holt helped the mayor push a series of tax, fee and fine increases that helped narrow the city’s annual budget gaps while providing a way to pay for revamping the city’s aging water system and significantly increase contributions to the city’s financially ailing employee pension funds.

Emanuel said Holt served a “very long time” in a tough job and “can leave with her head high that the city is healthier and stronger financially, and she brought a sense of professionalism that I will miss.”

Holt, who said she planned to take some time off after 20 years of working at City Hall, had a slightly different take.

“It’s time for somebody who can come in with some fresh ideas and take the next step,” Holt said. “I just wanted to give someone else the joy of doing the job.”

Holt will be succeed by Samantha Fields, the current commissioner of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection.

May 16, 2017

Allegations of Racism, Sexism and Gun Dealing in City Water Department

Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a major shake-up in some key departments late Friday. The city’s water commissioner resigned, and on Monday more details emerged about alleged gun dealing, racist and sexist behavior by a politically connected subordinate.

Also, the city’s budget director has decided to leave, which has some aldermen concerned about how the city will solve the CPS funding crisis.

The resignations and firings came as a surprise late Friday, specifically the resignation of the city’s Water Commissioner Barrett Murphy and two high-ranking subordinates, William Bresnahan and Paul Hansen.

More information has been revealed to Chicago Tonight about a troubling culture at the city’s Department of Water Management. Sources say Hansen, son of former 44th Ward Ald. Bernie Hansen, was allegedly using city email to sell some of his guns and hunting equipment to Water Department employees.

Sources in the Water Department have called Hansen a clouted hire who rose to the ranks of district superintendent without having a plumber’s license. He, Bresnahan and Murphy are also said to have been involved in circulating racist and sexist emails around the department, described to Chicago Tonight as having hate-filled and demeaning language.

There is an investigation into these allegations by the inspector general; on Monday, Emanuel said he and the water commissioner had agreed to part ways.

“We were made aware from an IG report on one particular employee, but in that process it exposed a culture in the Water Department that in my view does not represent what the city’s values are,” Emanuel said. “Barrett agreed there should be a reset button hit as it relates to the culture.”

The mayor appointed Randy Conner, who comes from Streets and Sanitation, as the new Water Department commissioner.

The City Council Black Caucus on Monday said they were deeply disturbed by the alleged culture at the department.

“The pervasive culture of racism at the Water Department has been an open secret for years,” said Black Caucus Chairman Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th Ward). “We hope that this moment can serve as a wake-up call for all those in the department and in other departments where this behavior is still tolerated or even encouraged.”

And another alderman says it raises concerns about protecting clouted workers at all costs.

“Every citizen should be appalled by it, especially that they were allowed to keep working there,” said Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd Ward). “We need to make sure that the human resources department is actually doing their job and rooting this activity out and firing people.”

BUDGET DIRECTOR RESIGNS

Friday’s resignation of Budget Director Alex Holt is also causing consternation. We spoke with a few aldermen concerned about the timing, especially as the mayor’s office considers a possible emergency bridge loan from the city to keep Chicago Public Schools open.

Holt had been on the job since Emanuel first took office in 2011 and had waded through several budget crises and helped come up with reforms to stave off the city’s municipal pension bomb, although many of those reforms still have yet to be approved by Springfield. Holt is replaced by the director of business and consumer affairs, Samantha Fields.

Waguespack wondered whether she was up to such a gargantuan job.

“My biggest concern is that we’re going into this issue of CPS funding and we don’t have someone at the helm that understands government finances, these are going to be very tough decisions coming up and we need very good information moving forward,” Waguespack said.

The mayor on Friday also announced the reappointment of Inspector General Joe Ferguson to another four-year term – which means the new Police Inspector General Laura Kunard will now start her job in the coming weeks.

She had been holding out until she knew that Ferguson, the guy that picked her, had job security of his own.

Follow Paris Schutz on Twitter: @paschutz