The head of the city’s troubled Fleet Management Department was removed from his job Friday and demoted to a junior position at O’Hare International Airport.
Rick Santella lost his $103,000-a-year job as commissioner of a department that handles repairs and maintenance of more than 5,000 city vehicles and was reassigned to a $75,000-a-year slot with the Department of Aviation as airport facilities manager.
The announcement came in a press release issued Friday afternoon, the traditional time for news that City Hall hopes will get little attention, tucked away in Saturday newspapers.
The release made no mention of the reason for the change, and administration officials could offer no on-the-record explanation.
But the Fleet Management Department is under investigation by the city inspector general and has been hit with one embarrassment after another in recent months.
Since last fall, the inspector general’s office has been seeking to determine whether Fleet has been the victim of double-billing by outside trucking firms it has hired to do city work, particularly Marina Cartage Co., a firm owned by a friend of Mayor Richard Daley’s.
Santella was reported to be out of town “on a family emergency” Friday and was unavailable for comment.
Attempts to reach his politically connected successor also were unsuccessful. He is Robert Degnan, the brother of Timothy Degnan, a former top Daley aide. The Degnans and Daley share 11th Ward roots, as does Michael Tadin, Marina’s owner.
