Aviation Department Management Brings Home the Bacon

By Kevin Robinson in News on Jul 9, 2010 2:20PM

Sigh. Another day, another Sun-Times report about how much money the city is wasting paying top management. This time it's the staggering six layers of management that it takes to run the city's Aviation Department. According to the Sun-Times, it takes 49 management positions in the department to operate the city bureaucracy over Midway and O'Hare, and nearly 60 percent of those positions take home salaries that top $100,000.

Lawrence Msall, President of the city's Civic Federation, questioned the need for six layers of top management and 17 assistant commissioners. "You have an assistant commissioner who reports to a deputy commissioner who reports to a managing deputy commissioner who reports to a chief operating officer who reports to a first deputy commissioner who reports to the commissioner," Msall told the Sun-Times. For her part, Aviation Commissioner Rosemarie Andolino (a long-time Daley favorite, with connections to the mayor's own 11th Ward) defended the levels of management and high pay. "Let's be clear: We are running one of the largest airport systems in the world. We actually have [fewer] employees than most of our competitors in the top four and some of our smaller airports," she told the paper. "For us to be competitive in this global environment, offer the best services and be best-in-class to reflect a city that is just that, we need to have the level of oversight, talent and ability to get the job done."