Turbulence in the top ranks of the Daley administration continued Wednesday as Department of Aviation Commissioner John Roberson confirmed that he is resigning.
Roberson said his decision to leave is not related to his role as a cooperating witness in a federal investigation into fraud in city hiring and promotions, and an aide to Mayor Richard Daley said his departure is voluntary.
Roberson, who had been on the fast track at City Hall with a succession of high-profile positions, becomes the 10th member of Daley’s Cabinet to resign or be fired since May.
“A couple of years ago, he was going to go into a private sector business, and I asked him to stay,” Daley said.
Now, Roberson said that he wants to pursue “a new dream and a new passion to run a company.” He said he will be a business leader who will “work with the city and the mayor to try to move the city forward and accomplish some great things.”
Roberson, 36, will become president of Target Group Inc., a minority-owned Chicago consulting company, on Dec. 1.
Roberson is one of several current and former senior city officials who have cooperated with federal investigators seeking information on rigged personnel practices in several city departments, including the old Department of Sewers, which Roberson once headed.
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Some at City Hall have viewed Roberson as something of a pariah for his cooperation, but Daley scoffed when a reporter asked if the commissioner had been “frozen out” by his administration.
“He wasn’t frozen out, frozen in,” the mayor said. “You can write those articles. He wasn’t.”
Roberson served as an assistant to Daley from 1997 to 1999 before beginning an ascent that took him to the Chicago Housing Authority and then back to City Hall.
There he was named, in succession, as head of the Sewers Department, Buildings Department, Department of Construction and Permits and the Aviation Department, where he has overseen operations of O’Hare International and Midway Airports.
“Now I have the opportunity to take all the things I have learned in government and apply them to a business,” Roberson said.
Target Group provides consulting services in both workforce diversity and business opportunities for companies owned by minorities and women. Since 1999, it has won at least three contracts from the city, including one from the Aviation Department before Roberson became commissioner.
Target Group also ran the minority contractor outreach program for the Soldier Field redevelopment project.
Roberson said that under city ethics rules former officials cannot be involved in any contracts over which they had management oversight. The pact with the Aviation Department expires on Monday, he said.
Joseph Williams, co-founder of the firm and its current president, said he will serve as chairman when Roberson joins the company.
“I need new leadership,” he said. “I need young leadership … John is a guy I have been watching for a long time.”
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