Days away from mandatory retirement age, fire commissioner shown the door

After 6½ years of leadership stability under fire, there will be a changing of the guard at the helm of the Chicago Fire Department.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is saying goodbye to his second fire commissioner after trying and failing to find a legal path to keep Jose Santiago as a civilian fire commissioner, even after Santiago reaches mandatory retirement age, 63.

Sources said Santiago has already had his "goodbye conversation" with Emanuel after joining the mayor Tuesday for what could be their last official act together: the somber ceremony that retired the badge of former Chicago Fire Department diver Juan Bucio, who died during a Memorial Day rescue on the south branch of the Chicago River.

Emanuel has not yet settled on a replacement for the $202,728-a-year commissioner. City Hall sources flatly denied the job has been offered to at least one high-ranking official, who turned it down.

The selection is complicated by the fact that Santiago was one of the few high-ranking Hispanics in the mayor's cabinet and that a wave of retirements - tied in part to a pay differential - soon may leave the Chicago Fire Department without a single deputy commissioner.

"Our plan was to keep (Santiago) around. But you just can't do it," said a top mayoral aide, who asked to remain anonymous.

For the full story, click here.