A top aide to former Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis has been tapped to be Cook County’s new director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, an agency dogged by allegations it mismanaged millions in federal grant dollars.
“The scandals and mismanagement have distracted the department and our staff from the important task at hand and it’s time to refocus the department’s mission,” County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said in introducing Michael Masters at an afternoon press conference Thursday. “That’s the kind of change that we believe Michael will deliver.” He will be paid $160,000.
A Harvard-trained lawyer and captain in the U.S. Marines, Masters, 32, was Mayor Daley’s deputy chief of staff before the mayor dispatched him to become Weis’ right-hand man. As the police superintendent’s chief of staff, he was respected by those who worked closely with him, but viewed with skepticism by some rank-and-file Chicago officers who loathed his boss.
What was Masters Masters Masters degree in again? Oh yeah - he's a lawyer. And he was part of the hugely successful and charismatic Al Gore campaign. And now he's in charge of an agency currently under federal investigation for massive waste, fraud and that has produced nothing except a future federal inmate or two.