Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel on Thursday said the city's Deputy Inspector General will oversee human resources beginning next month.
Soo Choi joined the city's ranks in 2006 and served as an assistant inspector general until last year, according to her online biography.
As chief of the Department of Human Resources, she'll make $151,572 per year.
Her "experience monitoring and policing the city’s hiring practices makes her an ideal candidate to lead the Department of Human Resources," Emanuel said in a statement. "During the campaign, I pledged to overhaul the city's hiring processes. Taxpayers deserve a city government that hires the best qualified candidates, not the best connected."
The appointment was welcomed by Michael Shakman, who sued the city in 1969 alleging that political patronage, rather than expertise, was instrumental in getting government work.
"It’s a good sign. She’s a reformer. She seems to be a straight-shooter and a person who understands the importance of taking politics out of city government," said Shakman, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
