Richard Rodriguez has soared through city government. Now he must keep the Chicago Transit Authority from plummeting.

Mayor Richard M. Daley yesterday chose Rodriguez, the Chicago's aviation commissioner, to head the CTA.

Rodriguez, 38, has held his current post for little more than 10 months. He spent a similar time as Chicago's buildings commissioner. The seven-member CTA board must now vote on Daley's pick.

The pace of Rodriguez's promotions, and the scale of his prospective new job, firmly ensconces him among the top ranks of the city's rising public figures. But as head of the CTA, he is likely to face the most troublesome challenges of his career, including a projected $155 million revenue shortfall this year.

"During these tough times, when balancing a budget is tough for any state or city, he needs to look for new ways to reduce spending and implement creative, out-of-the-box management improvements that protect riders," Daley says. "That's a tall challenge."

The call for reductions will be a shift for Rodriguez, who oversaw some big spending at the aviation department, commissioning a 7,500-foot runway, an air-traffic-control tower and a 3,000-foot runway extension at O'Hare International Airport. Daley appointed his partner in that effort, O'Hare expansion chief Rosemarie Andolino, to replace him.

At the aviation department, he also helped secure a $2.5 billion bid for the 99-year private concession and lease of Midway International Airport.

During his time as aviation commissioner, the city's two airports ranked among the worst in the country for on-time performance.

And the O'Hare expansion has been blasted by suburban officials upset over the city's efforts to claim land for the airport.

As executive director of the department of construction and permits, Rodriguez helped reduce the time for issuing permits by nearly 40 percent, even as the number of applications reviewed climbed by 10 percent.

Later, as commissioner of the buildings department, he helped save the city nearly $2 million in part by integrating the buildings department with the department of construction and permits, according to a press release from the mayor's office.

Rodriguez's appointment came three days after executives from the Chicago area's major transit agencies told state legislators about their budget problems. In addition to this year's massive shortfall, the CTA also faces an estimated 2008 deficit of up to $87 million.

In 2008, the Legislature bailed it out of what officials called a "doomsday" budget crisis that otherwise would have ended in deep service cuts and fare increases. Lobbying for money, a ritual at the CTA, will be one of Rodriguez's core responsibilities, Daley says.

Rodriguez began his career in 1997, working for the attorney general and later governor's office in Guam. In 1999, he became a field attorney for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Washington.

He also served as managing deputy director of real estate and planning at Chicago's aviation department and manager of operations of the Chicago Housing Authority.

He earned bachelor's degrees from Loyola University Chicago and a law degree from Chicago-Kent College of Law.