The Chicago Department of Aviation has a new chief. Mayor Richard Daley named buildings commissioner Richard Rodriguez to the post today. Daley says seeing through the privatization of Midway Airport, and completing the next phase of O’Hare expansion will be Rodriguez’s top priorites.

DALEY: If you don’t complete phase two, it’s like buying a suit, and you only buy, you know, the coat and you don’t buy the pants, and so you have to complete it.

Rodriguez replaces former aviation commissioner Nuria Fernandez. According to the Chicago Tribune, Fernandez was pressured by the mayor to resign because of mounting problems at O’Hare - including failure to secure financing for a new runway there. Daley would neither confirm or deny that characterization at a City Hall press conference today.