"Robinson is extremely well-represented in minority communities" where relations are the worst, Guglielmi said. "(Johnson) wanted an adviser, someone who can tell him how to make the department more transparent and try to develop relationships.”

Robinson's initial task has been to set up a series of community forums Johnson has attended, something she's been doing on her own time, Guglielmi added. And while her position is new, the department will shift the needed funds from an unfilled administrative slot rather than on-the-street police, he said.

Still, it's all green. At $150,000, Robinson effectively will be worth two rookie officers who could be on patrol.

And in case you'd like to know, Guglielmi has a staff of seven, including him. But Robinson will report to the superintendent, not Guglielmi's news affairs division.

Other new hires, as first reported by WMAQ-TV/Channel 5, include a new chief of staff at $175,000 a year, a general counsel at $160,000 and a director of professional standards at $186,000. Only the third of those is a new position, but given the department's need to improve training, it's a defensible job in my view.

As for Robinson: Presumably she got used to life under the hot lights in her previous gig. She'll certainly face some heat now.

Update, 2:30 p.m. — I was able to catch Robinson on her cellphone, and she told an interesting tale.

Robinson said she was out at brunch recently with two young friends, both community activists, and she looked up and saw Johnson, whom she'd never met, at the next table. "I didn't recognize him," Robinson said. "I told him to be careful, or he'd be profiled; he was wearing a hoodie."

The group talked and exchanged information, and Johnson later offered her a job, Robinson continued.

"I took the job because Eddie Johnson convinced me he's about radical change . . . improving relations” between the community and police. In her job as a journalist, "I didn't just do a story and walk away. I've been involved in every corner of the city. I am involved in community affairs just about every day."

Asked for an example, Robinson told me what was on her calendar yesterday. Included were a meeting with a group seeking park improvements, a sit-down with the mother of a slain teenager and a session with a theater group that wants to stage a play about changing race relations.

"This city can't continue to look like two cities," concluded Robinson, who lives in the South Loop. Sometimes people look at police and see the enemy, and police look at a young person and see a threat. "We need to change perceptions."