Mayor names new transportation commissioner
Mayor Brandon Johnson has appointed a permanent head for the Chicago Department of Transportation, four months after the last commissioner departed.
Tom Carney, a longtime CDOT employee who had been acting commissioner in recent months, is set to take on the role full time, Johnson announced Friday. He takes over from Gia Biagi, an appointee of former Mayor Lori Lightfoot who resigned in August after nearly four years at the helm of the department.
Carney’s appointment fills one more of Johnson’s major cabinet positions. In November, he filled the vacant Department of Public Health commissioner position with Dr. Olusimbo “Simbo” Ige. Johnson earlier tapped Ciere Boatright to be full-time commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development.
But another of the major cabinet positions, leader of the Department of Housing, remains unfilled.
Carney will be responsible for overseeing more than 4,000 miles of streets; streetlights, bridges and intersections; more than 400 miles of bike lanes and trails; and the partnerships that operate the Divvy bikeshare system and the city’s e-scooters.
He takes on the role as advocates have in recent years voiced increasing concerns about pedestrian and cyclist safety. He will also be tasked with overseeing efforts to implement measures approved under Lightfoot, such as a pilot program that would use cameras to ticket vehicle owners who park in bike or bus lanes, crosswalks, bus stops and no-parking zones.
Carney has been the acting commissioner since Biagi stepped down.
Before that, he worked in several roles at CDOT,
including as first deputy commissioner, managing deputy commissioner for operations and deputy commissioner in the in-house construction division, and was acting comissioner in 2019 before Biagi was appointed. He also worked on the recent NASCAR Chicago Street Race as chairman of the city’s NASCAR infrastructure committee.
Also Friday, Johnson appointed Alfonzo “Randy” Conner Jr. as the new commissioner of the Department of Water Management, returning to the role after working as the department leader from July 2017 through December 2020. Conner also worked at CDOT and the Department of Streets and Sanitation.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel tapped Conner to take over the water department following a leadership shakeup over the department’s handling of racist and sexist emails. Conner also managed the department during a period of increased scrutiny over the presence of lead in city pipes, which persisted during his time in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration. He departed in late 2020 and was replaced by Andrea Cheng.
Sandra Blakemore, current commissioner for the Department of Assets, Information and Services, will take over as leader of the Department of Human Resources, which oversees city hiring, payroll, labor and employee relations. Blakemore was previously a director at ConAgra Foods, and took over at AIS in 2022. Her exit creates another vacancy for Johnson to fill.
The appointments will head to City Council for approval.