CHICAGO -- Mayor Richard M. Daley named five new top aides Tuesday, including a new budget director to replace John Harris, who is leaving at the end of the month to serve on Gov. Rod Blagojevich's staff.

Harris, who has been the city's budget director since February 2004, was named as the state's new chief operating officer on Tuesday, according to a news release from the governor's office.

"It's a great move for him," Daley said. "Let's be realistic, this is a great opportunity for him. He's been a great public servant."

First Deputy Budget Director Paul Volpe will replace Harris, Daley said. Volpe has been first deputy of the Budget Office since February 2004 and has worked for the city since 1995, serving eight years at the Aviation Department's budget office.

The mayor also made four other new appointments, including Jose Cerda III, a former policy adviser to President Bill Clinton, as his policy chief, and San Antonio City Engineer Douglas Yerkes as his chief of infrastructure.

Yerkes will be responsible for coordinating the construction projects of the city's infrastructure agencies, the departments of Transportation, Streets and Sanitation and Water Management.

He replaces Kevin Gujral, who is leaving the mayor's office to return to the private sector after six years with the city, including five at the Public Buildings Commission, according to Daley. Gujral served as executive director of the PBC from 2002 until 2004, when he joined the mayor's office.

"Kevin did an excellent job of completing building projects on time and within the budget. I want to thank him for his great public service to the taxpayers of the city of Chicago," Daley said.

While an advisor to Clinton, Cerda specialized in anti-crime initiatives and helped to develop an $8 billion police hiring program and directives to prevent the import of assault weapons, according to a copy of his resume.

Cerda has been an independent policy advisor in Chicago and Washington, D.C., since 2004, and has also served as senior policy advisor to the Democratic Leadership Council in Washington, D.C., and to the Democratic Policy Committee of the U.S. Senate.

Those departments have been part of the focus of the federal probe of corruption within the city's hiring practices and the city's Hired Truck Program, but Daley insisted the investigation played no role in his decision to hire Yerkes or any of the other new appointments.

The Hired Truck Program is the city's program of hiring private trucking firms to haul construction material and debris to and from city construction sites.

Daley also named Samuel Assefa as his new deputy chief of staff for economic and physical development, and David Goodman as his director of technology.

Daley said Assefa will oversee coordination of the city's activities to attract new businesses to the city and enhance both public and private development.

Assefa has been a deputy commissioner for the city's Planning and Development Department for about a year, and previously worked in both the public and private sectors in architecture, urban design and community planning, according to Daley.

Daley has proposed handing over the city's hiring process to an independent Public Service Commission, a move several aldermen have said the mayor should abandon.

Daley's press secretary, Jacquelyn Heard, said there are no plans to halt that proposal.

Daley announced last month that the commission would be empowered to determine and execute their own standards and guidelines for hiring and promotions for nearly all non-policymaking city positions.

The mayor said the move was aimed at shielding city employees from accusations of trying to circumvent the Shakman decree, which bans political considerations in hiring and promotions.

Daley's announcement came three days after two city employees were charged in federal court with violating the decree by rigging the city's hiring process to give jobs to pre-selected candidates based on political affiliations. The two employees, Robert Sorich, a top aide at the Mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, and Patrick Slattery, director of staff services for the city's Streets and Sanitation Department, were fired after the charges against them were announced.

Several aldermen have said the mayor's proposal, in its current form, would not be approved by the City Council and some have suggested Daley abandon the idea entirely, but Heard said the mayor expected to meet some resistance from the aldermen.

"It was put out there so it could be vetted and discussed and, you know, people could add their ideas. We never really fully expected for it to be accepted wholeheartedly in its current form," Heard said.

City News Service contributed to this story.

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