If you did not work for Mayor Daily or Emanual's office or another governmental department in Chicago, you will find it hard to climb past basic management. This is extremely political, not what you know but who you know or who you worked for in the past. They work on projects that politicians want and not what consumers want.
Very few leaders were qualified for their positions (not bashing them personally, just professionally.. they were pretty nice people in general.) Our boss used to leave a digital tape recorder on top of her purse so she could record the discussions in the adjacent cubicles. (Yes I have photos). She was not qualified for her role, and knew the rest of the team outshined her. The projects are fine to work on, and the deliverable's are weak, as we only needed to justify our existence. There is no consumer or governmental pressure to actually reduce costs and no competitive forces for reducing the pricing. There is a lot of cost justification, and little to no discussion about cost savings or providing pricing benefits to the consumer.