AG: Mudron 5 Open Meetings Law Complaint Under Review

JOLIET, IL — The Illinois Attorney General's Office informed Joliet Patch on Thursday that it is now reviewing a complaint filed against the Joliet City Council alleging that five of its members violated the state's Open Meetings Law. The Attorney General's Office also provided Patch with a communication it sent to Mayor Bob O'Dekirk on Thursday asking that he respond to the allegations accusing the city council of violating the law.

The name of the person lodging the complaint to the Office of Attorney General Kwame Raoul was redacted in the documents provided to Joliet Patch. However, Joliet resident Mary Beth Gannon spoke at Monday's special meeting and she told the council she was filing a complaint against the five elected city officials responsible for sending identical emails to Marty Shanahan on the same night, about 10 days earlier.

The five emails all came within hours of one another, all demanding that he put an item on the upcoming city council meeting agenda asking for a vote on Marty Shanahan's termination as interim city manager after eight months on the job.

Gannon also provided the Attorney General's Office with a subsequent article published by the Joliet Patch revealing that the five emails written by the Mudron Five were identical in nature. Those five council members who are part of the Mudron Five include:

1. Pat Mudron, who represents Joliet's Old Guard politicians and the Joliet Catholic High School faction of Joliet. Mudron is in the JCA Hall of Fame. He was a state champ wrestler in the 1960s.
2. Mike Turk, who has been on the council for 30 years, and will be up for re-election in 2021.
3. Newly elected Sheri Reardon, who replaced John Gerl, who chose not to seek a third term. Reardon beat Joe Mutz, who had been on the Joliet Park Board.
4. Don "Duck" Dickinson, an at-large councilman,who is up for re-election in 2021.
5. Bettye Gavin, director of the Forest Park Community Center, who was recently re-elected after beating contractor James Foster in a rematch race from four years ago.

At Monday's meeting, the Mudron Five gave no response when Gannon lambasted them for allegedly violating the Illinois Open Meetings Law. She warned them that they could face fines and a short stint in the Will County Jail.

"There is a request for review now on file. Just for your information, should the State agree, if you're found in violation of this, it's a thousand dollar fine and up to thirty days in jail,"Gannon informed the Mudron Five.

"Folks, we need transparency. No more shenanigans," Gannon said concluding her remarks.

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Below are the correspondence sent by Gannon to the Illinois Attorney General's Office. Additonally, there is the letter sent on Thursday by the AG's lawyers to Joliet Mayor Bob O'Dekirk informing him that he needs to respond to the allegations lodged against the Joliet City Council.

Joliet Patch contacted O'Dekirk on Thursday. He said he was aware of the communication sent to him by the Attorney General's Office and that he planned to visit with the city's legal department before responding.

In any event, week three of the Joliet City Council Wars resume next week.

There will be a pre-council meeting Monday starting at 5:30 p.m. and the regular meeting is on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.

The Mudron Five will continue to push the idea of bringing former Joliet city manager Jim Hock out of retirement. Hock, who returned to Michigan and is collecting his local government pension these days, was suggested as Mudron's preferred candidate to become Joliet's interim city manager for the next several months, perhaps through the end of 2019.

This week, Mudron acknowledged during the special meeting that he had called up Hock and talked to Hock about coming back to Joliet and filling the job, prior to the council meeting on the vote to oust Shanahan as interim city manager.