Media Picks up on Doubts

That "Chief Resilience Officer" spot is raising eyebrows among the press:

• What the heck is a “chief resilience officer” anyway? And how in the world did Chicago ever get along without one?
  
  After announcing and filling the new job bankrolled by the Rockefeller Foundation, Mayor Rahm Emanuel struggled to explain just what it is that former Deputy Water Management Commissioner Aaron Koch would be doing in the newly created job.
  
  The only thing we know for sure is that somebody other than Chicago taxpayers is paying Koch’s salary.
  
  “When we used to make investments as a city — we’re making ’em in the water and sewer area or paving or playgrounds — we would see that playground” in an isolated fashion, Emanuel said.

Um....ok. Glad to see he's wasting someone else's money, but what was that crap that just exited Rahms mouth? It made no sense at all. And it gets better:

• “When we used to make investments as a city — we’re making ’em in the water and sewer area or paving or playgrounds — we would see that playground” in an isolated fashion, Emanuel said.
  
  “Now, thinking about how you make those investments . . . in a way that’s also an environmentally smart way to retain water and do it in a way where you’re not just creating runoff. [It’s] a way to see things in a more kind of integrated way,” he said. “Holistic would be another way to put it. From environmental to social policies to educational policies.”
  
  Resilience is defined as the ability to bounce back from major setbacks.
  
  That means the new chief resilience officer will focus on helping Chicago recover more quickly from “shocks like flooding or blizzards” and better planning development projects to minimize the environmental impact.
  
  “The foundation is supporting this individual to help us think . . . from a holistic, more of a global approach. Rather than addressing that issue, seeing it in the context of a set of other both opportunities and challenges,” the mayor said.
  
  If that sounds as clear as mud, Emanuel tried again to explain his marching orders to Aaron Koch.

Mud is an understatement. And we can only imagine that at some point, wheelbarrows full of taxpayer money are going to be wasted maintaining or expanding this "program."

But then Fran Spielman lets slip something that, while not surprising, ought to piss off taxpayers:

• He pointed to his newly created task force on homelessness. It brought together the 13 agencies that deal with the problem “so we have a more thoughtful, integrative approach” and “nobody’s falling through [cracks because of] the siloed wall approach.”

Thirteen agencies? For dealing with homelessness? Thirteen? How about you point that fancy "resilience officer" over at that direction and see if you can't "resilient" some of our tax money back, you twit.