Daley Bids City Hall Chief-of-Staff Volpe Adieu

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Jan 8, 2010 3:00PM

We mentioned it briefly in last night's Extra, Extra, but we'll take a bit more time to look at what happened as Mayor Daley parted ways with City Hall Chief-of-Staff Paul Volpe. Volpe was named to the post just a little over a year ago, in December 2008, to replace Lori Healy who headed over to Chicago 2016. Now, Volpe, who is described as the architect behind the Parking Meter lease, is heading to the CTA to take over as budget director. Speaking on Volpe's shift yesterday, Daley denied it was a demotion over the fall-out from the Parking Meter lease which, as we all know, has been anything but smooth. In fact, Daley, calling Volpe, "an incredible public servant," put most of the blame on himself: “The meter transaction was a good financial transaction. ... It was the implementation after the transaction that got us into difficulty, I’ll be very frank, with the public. All of us bear [the blame]. I’ll take it myself. First and foremost me — not anybody else."

Volpe will be replaced in February by Office of Emergency Management and Communications head Raymond Orozco, Daley's 12th Chief-of-Staff in 20 years. The Sun-Times Fran Spielman has a little fun:

Asked why the revolving door keeps turning and tenure in the $177,216-a-year post keeps getting shorter, the mayor said, “It is a burn-out job. It’s a very burn-out job. It’s a 24-hours, almost seven-days-a-week. ... You don’t have the luxury to sit back and have press conferences only accepting two questions.”

And why would the 50-year-old Orozco want such a demanding job with one foot on a banana peel and the other one out the door?

“I work a job that’s 24/7 now,” Orozco said.

Spielman then plays the Godfather card, saying that should Daley seek re-election in 2011, Orzoco would be the Mayor's "wartime consigliere." Daley denied the move had anything to do with a gearing up for a re-election bid, which presumably will not include Rahm Emanuel. When asked about Rahm again yesterday, Daley - showing that trademark mix of humor and hubris - replied, "Everybody wants to be the mayor of the city of Chicago. It could be from the White House to the outhouse."

For those keeping track, Volpe's move to the CTA - albeit to a different position - was predicted a month ago by (drumroll) Michael Sneed.