After Mayor Johnson’s warning that he was ready to send people packing, Aviation Commissioner Jamie Rhee and Civilian Office of Police Accountability chief Andrea Kersten retired. Jose Tirado, director of the city’s Office of Emergency Management & Communications, is leaving to take a job with the Cook County state’s attorney.

By  Fran Spielman

 Updated Feb 13, 2025, 4:00pm CST

Three days after warning of a City Hall housecleaning fueled by disloyalty, Mayor Brandon Johnson broke out the broom.

It happened quicker than many expected. In rapid-fire succession, the mayor’s office announced that Aviation Commissioner Jamie Rhee and Civilian Office of Police Accountability chief Andrea Kersten, both holdovers from previous administrations, were “retiring.” Also leaving is another holdover, Jose Tirado, director of the Office of Emergency Management & Communications, who has a job lined up.

The Sun-Times reported earlier this week that Rhee was among those whose days could be numbered as Johnson seeks to act on his claim that he should have “cleaned house faster” when he took office and now plans to correct that mistake by sending people packing.

“If you ain’t with us, you just gotta go,” the mayor said.

On April 15, Rhee will end her seven-year reign over O’Hare and Midway Airports in the middle of the massive O’Hare overhaul.

“Throughout her decades-long career, Commissioner Rhee embodied the best of public service, and she has left an indelible mark on our airports and our city,” Johnson was quoted as saying in a news release that made no mention of his decision to begin forcing people out.

“Her work has improved the travel experience for hundreds of millions of visitors that will be felt for generations to come. Her unwavering commitment to diverse businesses of all types and sizes has opened countless doors for Chicagoans who have been shut out for far too long,” he said.

The release quoted Rhee as saying she was “eternally grateful for the opportunities that have been afforded to me” and “extremely proud of the work that’s been accomplished to move our City and our airports forward.”

A ‘terrible mistake’ to lose Rhee

Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th), chair of the Aviation Committee, called Rhee’s departure a “terrible mistake.”

“This is a crucial time. This is not the time with the many things we have going wrong in this city that this administration can afford to lose the strong leadership and expertise that Jamie Rhee has given to our city for the past 32 years,” O’Shea said.

Calling Rhee, “one of the most respected leaders in the airline industry across the country,” O’Shea said, “This will be a terrible loss to our two international airports and to our city.”

Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd), one of Rhee’s City Hall champions, scoffed at Johnson’s claim that Rhee was retiring from a job she loved in the middle of the O’Hare modernization project and said he had no doubt that she was forced out.

“This is a mistake on so many levels, ,” Hopkins said.

“While we’re in the middle of continued negotiations with the major airlines over their commitment to fund O’Hare modernization, there is no one more equipped to bridge that gap between where the two sides are than Jamie Rhee. She has respect in the aviation industry. She has confidence in city government going back to her work in procurement, which is important given some of the major contracts that are up for bid right now,” he said.

Hopkins said he understands that mayors “need loyalty” from their department heads and agency chiefs — but, he added, a mayor also needs to place a “high premium on competence and experience.” Rhee delivered on both fronts, he said.

The front-runner to replace Rhee is Johnson’s chief operating officer, John Roberson, who served as aviation commissioner during several roles he played during the administration of former Mayor Richard M. Daley.

COPA’s Kersten had been under fire

Kersten’s exit was not unexpected. She has been under fire for months amid allegations of presiding over investigations with an anti-police bias.

Sixteen current or former employees of Chicago’s independent police disciplinary agency have called on a civilian-led panel to consider taking the first step toward removing the agency’s chief — just days after two purported whistleblowers were fired amid a brewing controversy centered on allegations of anti-police bias.

O’Shea, whose Far Southwest Side ward is home to scores of Chicago police officers, cheered Kersten’s departure.

“It’s important that the next leader of COPA be objective and get to the truth and explore the facts when these unfortunate incidents happen,” O’Shea said. “She was anything but objective, and she treated police officers poorly,” O’Shea said.

In a statement, Kersten said she was “incredibly proud of the transformative work that has been accomplished during my tenure. COPA has established itself as a truly independent and transparent voice in Chicago’s broader community safety system, which is imperative in building trust in police accountability.”

She also touted COPA’s “near total compliance” with the federal court consent decree governing reform efforts in Chicago policing, as well as her agency’s role as a “national leader in civilian oversight with respect to our transparency and community engagement efforts.”

After the police shooting of Dexter Reed March 21, 2024, during a traffic stop in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, Kersten raised questions about whether the officers involved lied about why they had stopped Reed before killing him in an exchange of gunfire. In a letter to Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling, Kersten raised “grave concerns about the officers’ ability to assess what is a necessary, reasonable, and proportional use of deadly force.”

Tirado takes job with state’s attorney

Sources said Tirado has “wanted out” for some time and has accepted a position in the office of newly elected Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke.

In a statement, he thanked “Mayor Johnson and his administration, the staff at OEMC, the Chicago Police Department and the Chicago Fire Department for their commitment to our residents and the opportunity to serve alongside them during this summer’s Democratic Convention, among many other events and missions.”

He also praised operators at the OEMC dispatch center, calling them “the first line of response to every public safety incident called into the city of Chicago. The importance of the work that they do cannot be highlighted enough.”

O’Neill Burke issued a statement Friday evening saying Tirado accepted the job last month but had asked for “appropriate time to transition responsibilities from OEMC.

The statement called him “exactly the kind of accomplished and highly dedicated public servant we are recruiting to help rebuild the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.”

The news release announcing Rhee’s departure cites a series of accomplishments:

• Reconfiguring the airfield at O’Hare — from an intersecting system of runways to a parallel configuration that reduced “system impacted delays” by 66%.
• Modernizing Terminal 5 at O’Hare by adding 350,000 square feet, 10 new gates and a new parking facility.
• Securing approval for $90 million in “discretional federal funding” for improvements at O’Hare’s Terminal 3 and $20 million more for Terminal 5.
• Expanding the new security checkpoint at Midway to serve 5,000 passengers per hour, double the previous capacity.
• Completing the Midway Modernization Project, which included a $75 million concession overhaul that achieved “one of the highest” participation levels in the nation for disadvantaged businesses.

Also leaving: chief strategy officer

Late Thursday afternoon, the mayor’s office announced yet another departure — that of Joe Calvello, brought in just last March to help help guide Johnson through the shark-infested waters of Chicago politics.

Calvello joined the Johnson communications team after helping to elect U.S. Sen. John Fetterman in Pennsylvania. During that campaign, Calvello had to navigate several crises, including a stroke Fetterman suffered days before the Democratic primary.

At the time he arrived in Chicago, the thinking apparently was that Calvello might help the most progressive mayor in Chicago history make the difficult shift from campaigning to governing — and changing his communication style to match.

Johnson’s warning

The changing of the guard at O’Hare and Midway comes just three days after Johnson’s ominous warning about high-level changes he planned as part of what amounts to a midterm course correction. Read more At The Chicago Sun-times.