WHO’S IN CHARGE?

Mayor Mike Houston’s administration is having trouble keeping stories straight lately, particularly when it comes to the police department. With the mayor AWOL last week, we asked who was in charge of the police department. “The deputy chiefs are managing their divisions as usual,” mayoral spokesman Nathan Mihelich wrote in an email. “Any out of the ordinary managerial questions are to be brought to the mayor.” Where is the mayor? At an Illinois Municipal League meeting in Danville, Mihelich answered. Just two days earlier, Mihelich had told the State Journal-Register that the mayor was on a weeklong canoe trip, so we asked when the mayor returned from the water. On Wednesday evening, as scheduled, Mihelich answered. When we asked deputy police chief Cliff Buscher who was running the department last Thursday, he responded “I think the answer he (Mihelich) gave you, I’m going to stick with that.” But that wasn’t true, according to the mayor himself, who fi nally surfaced Monday morning for an interview with WMAY radio personality Jim Leach. “Actually Chief Buscher is,” the mayor answered when Leach asked who was running the department. Where is Al Haig when you need him?