"O'Hare Airport execs ordered to do bathroom duty"

Wednesday, July 21, 2004

City aviation bigwigs really clean up at O'Hare 
BY FRAN SPIELMAN AND SHAMUS TOOMEY
The Chicago (IL) Sun-Times


No job should be too small for the city executives who run Chicago's
airports, the city's aviation boss declared Tuesday as he handed his top
deputies mops and gloves and told them to clean O'Hare Airport's toilets
for a day.

"We know people's impressions of our facilities and of our city are
partly driven by having a clean restroom," Aviation Commissioner John
Roberson said. "The only way you can really understand the importance of
keeping our restrooms clean is going out and getting your hands dirty.
Clean it yourself. Work a shift." 

Beginning this week, anyone with an assistant commissioner title or
above will spend an eight-hour shift mopping bathroom floors, emptying
trash cans, washing sinks and cleaning toilets. Many of the
approximately 20 executives on the hook, including Roberson, make more
than $100,000 a year.

And no, they can't work an overnight shift when traffic is low.

Mayor Daley made a stink about grungy O'Hare bathrooms last month while
announcing plans to privatize the jobs of the airport's 293 custodians.
So, before making the custodians walk the plank, the bosses will have to
swab the deck.

It's not the first roll-up-the-sleeves moment for Roberson, who took the
post earlier this year. When he was Daley's sewers commissioner, he
jumped into a sewer to better understand the job.

But he credits the airport cleaning idea to his top deputy, Pat Harney,
and to Illinois Tollway Executive Director Jack Hartman, who ordered 80
managers to work a shift in a toll booth last year.

Airport custodian Lue Cooks, a six-year veteran, watched Tuesday as an
assistant commissioner mopped a floor. Cooks even lent some advice --
clean the sinks first when the stalls are crowded.

"It's great. They're getting a sense of what we do in these washrooms,"
Cooks said. "It's not easy."

Another custodian wasn't sure what to make of his new colleagues. But he
insisted the bathrooms aren't so bad -- and that travelers even slip him
tips sometimes because they're impressed.

A men's room near the United Airlines baggage claim must not have been
on his rounds. 

"It stinks in there," grumbled a Chicago man returning from California.
"It's ridiculous. How many people come through this airport? And this is
the impression they have of Chicago?" 

But some travelers, including Erik Helland, 40, from Gurnee, embraced
the executive mop idea.

"I think in any job, it pays to know what's going on everywhere -- from
the ground up," he said.


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