Streets & San Shakeup

Picardi out?

• The Daley administration is mapping plans for a break-up and shake-up of the Streets and Sanitation Department that could remove layers of field supervision, transfer key functions to other departments and sweep out embattled Commissioner Michael Picardi, City Hall sources said Monday.

  Last winter, Mayor Daley lowered the boom on Picardi -- and dispatched Transportation Commissioner Tom Byrne to Snow Command -- after the city spent $490,000 on snow removal during a relatively minor first-of-the season snowstorm.
  

  Picardi landed in the doghouse, even though a City Council rebellion subsequently forced Daley to reverse a cost-cutting policy that saw City Hall use less salt, plow side-streets during normal working hours to reduce overtime and skip side-streets altogether after minor snowstorms.

So Picardi does what every other S&S Commissioner has done since Bilandic blew an election over snow and Picardi gets fitted for the dunce cap. Then Byrne comes in and tells everyone everything is all right and pretty much screws up "Snow Command" for the rest of the winter, missing opportunity after opportunity to show the citizens the side streets will be plowed, which leads directly to the Chicago streets looking like 2003 Baghdad.

But don't worry - Picardi's headed back to his first love - Fleet. Wait until he gets a load of what they've done to it in the past two years.