JOLIET, IL — City of Joliet deputy director of public utilities Tony Anczer, the Dyer, Indiana, resident who also promotes himself as a top-producing real estate agent for northwest Indiana and Will County's southwest suburbs, had his city of Joliet-issued free-fuel key suspended for several months as a result of misuse of Joliet's city fuel pumps, Joliet Patch has learned through a new series of Freedom of Information Act requests to Joliet City Hall.
On Sept. 30, Joliet Patch first broke the news about Anczer's excessive use of Joliet's fuel pumps in a story headlined, "120 Gallons Of Free Fuel Per Month In 2025: This Joliet City Official Has Commuted From Dyer, Indiana."
Patch reported at the time that Anczer's use of his free-fuel card was approximately three times more than his counterparts who held the same job titles as deputy director of public utilities, and his free fuel consumption was outpacing all of the city's upper management staff who are granted free city fuel as one of their employment benefits.
As for Anczer, he has commuted to downtown Joliet from his home in Dyer, Indiana, and in 2025, he pumped around 1,328 gallons of city of Joliet free fuel into his personal vehicle during the time period of January through November, an average of 120.7 gallons per month.
"No, fuel access is not unlimited, and caps do exist. According to the City of Joliet Compensation Ordinance Section 13, permitted employees are allotted an annual calendar year average of up to 20 gallons of gasoline per week," city of Joliet spokeswoman Sydney Thompson told Joliet Patch ahead of the Sept. 30 story.
Of particular note, the fuel report furnished to Joliet Patch back in September from the city of Joliet showed no fuel use by Anczer during the time period of Nov. 21, 2025, until July 15 of this year, which was when Anczer's fuel consumption resumed regular fill-ups again.
The gap in Anczer's free fuel use prompted Joliet Patch to file additional Freedom of Information Act requests to the city of Joliet earlier this month.
"In December 2025, the City of Joliet completed an audit of employee vehicle and fuel usage," the city of Joliet's FOIA response indicated. "The audit identified an overage of approximately 276.22 gallons associated with Tony Anczer's assigned gas key.
"The Human Resources department notified Mr. Anczer of the overage on December 12, 2025, and his gas key was revoked at that time. Mr. Anczer reimbursed the City for the overage in the amount of $748.98 on December 17, 2025. His fuel access was reinstated July 15, 2026, following the distribution of the City's updated employee manual."
Anczer Resumes His Frequent Fill-ups In July
As Joliet Patch previously reported, Anczer's free fuel key use resumed for the last half of July. He frequented Joliet's fuel pumps a half dozen times over the final two weeks of July, obtaining 89.4 gallons of Joliet-taxpayer gasoline for his personal vehicle that he has used to commute back and forth during the work week from Dyer, Indiana.
In August — Anczer's first full month of being authorized to use the city's fuel pumps in 2026 — he obtained a total of 10 fill-ups, totaling 126.4 gallons of gas.
Patch's last FOIA request seeking access for Anczer's free fuel use only covered the first half of September. During those first two weeks of September, Anczer used the city's fuel pumps four times, totaling 60.4 gallons of gas for himself.
In addition to the free supply of City of Joliet fuel for his personal vehicle, Anczer draws an annual salary of about $155,000, plus a $250 per month vehicle allowance stipend. As a resident of Dyer, Indiana, Anczer has had one of the longest commutes at Joliet City Hall, where he works in the utilities department and reports to director Allison Swisher, who has three deputy directors.
At the same time Anczer and other city managers and department heads are being afforded free gasoline from the city's fuel pumps, Joliet's taxpayers are allocating more funds to pay for this fringe benefit.
This past January, Joliet Public Works Director Greg Ruddy submitted a change order to the Joliet City Council seeking an extra $120,837 to help pay for the city's 2025 unleaded fuel purchases from the city's supplier, Al Warren Oil Company.
Back on Dec. 17, 2024, the mayor and council awarded the 2025 fuel contract to the Al Warren Oil Company in the total amount of $1,444,100. City manager Beth Beatty's memo indicated that Joliet purchases about 350,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline and 175,000 gallons of diesel annually.
In addition to working at Joliet's City Hall as deputy director of engineering, Anczer has a strong social media presence where he promotes himself as "a top-producing Northwest Indiana Realtor at eXp Realty, serving St. John, Indiana, and the region.
"Born and raised in the south Chicago suburbs and a 17-plus year resident of Northwest Indiana, I know the region well. As a real estate agent licensed in both Illinois and Indiana, I can help you with real estate agent services in both Northwest Indiana and Chicagoland," his real estate website proclaims.
Before joining Joliet in the summer of 2021, Anczer noted that he worked from October 2019 until July 2021 as public works director for the village of Schiller Park. He worked as assistant director of public works at the village of Flossmoor from May 2015 until September 2019.
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