The City of Chicago has announced creation of a new post — that of chief emergency officer — and Mayor Richard M. Daley has named Chicago Fire Commissioner Cortez Trotter to fill it. In his new position, Trotter will be responsible for long-range planning and coordinating the activities of the city’s police and fire departments, as well as Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications. Trotter also will be working with county, suburban, state and federal officials on emergency preparedness.

Daley has nominated Asst. Deputy Fire Commissioner Raymond E. Orozco Jr. to succeed Trotter as fire commissioner. That appointment must be confirmed by the Chicago City Council.

Daley cited lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina as motivation for the change. "You need one focus on long-term planning [for] emergencies,” Daley told media at a press conference.

“Chicago’s police department, fire department and Office of Emergency Management and Communications are among the best in the nation — and they work extremely well together,” Daley said. “But I believe we could do an even better job of preparing for emergencies if we had a single person in the mayor’s office to oversee and coordinate the emergency activities of those three departments.”

According to Daley, “There is nobody better qualified for the job of chief emergency officer than Trotter, who headed the fire department for the last two years and the Office of Emergency Management and Communications for the previous three years.”

No stranger to fire operations is Daley’s choice to replace Trotter. Orozco is a 26-year veteran of the Chicago Fire Department and in recent years coordinated operations at the LaSalle Bank Fire on Dec. 6, 2004; the Ford City Shopping Center natural gas explosion on Jan. 12, 2005; and the Metra train derailment on Chicago’s South Side on Sept. 17, 2005. His father, Raymond E. Orozco Sr., was Chicago fire commissioner from 1989 to 1996.