Two men with longtime ties to City Hall were appointed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Friday to head the top transportation agencies in the state, further consolidating Mayor Richard Daley’s political base in Springfield.
Timothy Martin, chief operating officer of Chicago Public Schools since 1997, was named secretary of the Illinois Department of Transportation. Martin previously served as chief highway engineer in the Chicago Department of Transportation and has held other high-ranking city jobs.
The governor appointed Jack Hartman, who has managed major construction projects at the Chicago Transit Authority for more than five years, to take over the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority. Hartman was a deputy city aviation commissioner from 1992 through 1996.
Blagojevich also named four other directors to state agencies.
Michael Fenger, an official with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 364 in Rockford, becomes director of the Department of Labor. Michael Rumman, a former president of Peoples Energy Services, was named director of Central Management Services. Brenda Russell, a vice president of CSX Transportation, was appointed director of the Department of Employment Security. The governor reappointed Renee Cipriano as director of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
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Martin, 46, assumes responsibility over the state transportation program as a plateful of ambitious projects–most notably the $6.6 billion expansion of O’Hare International Airport–are being planned amid questions about how they will be financed.
Martin said his priorities include “making sure IDOT is professional, responsible to the people and operates as cost-effectively as absolutely possible.”
Martin worked on the Lake Shore Drive reconfiguration that created space for the Museum Campus and the reconstruction of State Street during his tenure as chief highway engineer at the city Department of Transportation from 1992 to 1997, when he joined the Chicago schools.
He was chief transportation engineer in the Chicago Department of Public Works from 1985 through 1987 and worked in the Department of Planning and Development.
People who have worked with Martin in the school system describe him as a Daley loyalist, policy enforcer and problem-solver.
Hartman, 44, faces difficult challenges turning around the toll authority, which is widely viewed as brimming with patronage jobs, wasteful practices and corruption. Efforts were shot down last year to raise tolls to fund a $5.5 billion road-rebuilding program, and Blagojevich is awaiting the results of an audit due in the spring before deciding whether to try reforming the agency or to fold it into IDOT.
Hartman has managed the continuing rebuilding of the Douglas branch of the CTA’s Blue Line and overseen the engineering and planning for the reconstruction of the Brown Line, set to begin late this year. While a deputy aviation commissioner, he managed the terminal reconstruction project at Midway Airport.
Although reserving an opinion on a toll increase, Hartman said he thinks the toll authority can stand for a top-to-bottom review as well as an expansion of the I-PASS system.