Angry Jan Quillman Gives Political Speech Of Her Career

JOLIET, IL — At Tuesday night's Joliet City Council meeting, Jan Quillman opened by delivering a speech. And she was angry. She had had enough concerning the months-old accusations lodged by Joliet Police Sgt. Lindsay Heavener that she had committed an ethics violation regarding her conduct Sept. 14 at the Fiesta en La Calle in downtown Joliet.

Early last month, interim city manager Steve Jones convinced the council's Pat Mudron 5 coalition to hire outside legal counsel, Ancel Glink, to investigate Mayor Bob O'Dekirk and Quillman regarding Heavener's ethics complaint.

In a six-minute speech, Quillman let everyone know on Tuesday night that the firm hired at the recommendation of Jones has served as Sgt. Heavener's lawyer in the past.

With limited edits, here's the speech Quillman gave at the meeting:

"On Saturday, September 14, I attended Fiesta en La Calle along with Councilman Turk, Councilman Dickinson and three others that were present and my husband. We were approached by the mayor, we were standing there talking, mayor came in the presence of all three of us ... he believed that a Joliet Police sergeant had been drinking on duty at the function.

"We looked at each other, we talked about it for a minute amongst ourselves and then my husband and I proceeded to go home. In early November, city manager Steve Jones publicly stated that I was under investigation for an ethics violation stemming from some unstated action of mine at the fest and that he needed to hire a private law firm, Ancel Glink PC, to investigate the ethics violation because he had stated that he did not think our legal department could handle it, or could our inspector general.

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"Until today, I had never been told what ethics violation I did. Never presented with any formal complaint against me and was never provided with whatever evidence was supposedly there and considered to go into this investigation. The only fact that I do know through my own attorney is that Mr. Jones chose the law firm to represent the sergeant in the civil rights violation litigation as recently as the summer of June 2019. This is a conflict. In other words, Ancel Glink has represented Sgt. Heavener in the past, so how can they investigate us or the city when we've already paid them to defend Mr. Heavener? That's a conflict to me.

"Why of all the thousands of law firms to choose from did Mr. Jones decide to hire the one firm that represents this sergeant and who has a clear conflict in accepting that assignment? Leaves me wondering, why? Why was this done? At taxpayers expense ... anyway, Mr. Jones did make sure that my name was associated with an ethics violation investigation in The Herald-News, online publications, Facebook, no less than six times in the newspaper. While I simply stood next to other council members while the mayor told us of his belief.

"The Herald-News also included a photo of me twice under headlines dealing with this probe with one of the articles stating, 'Why Quillman is the subject of an ethics complaint has not been made public,' Herald-News November 10th.

"Nonetheless, Mr. Jones definitely made certain that the whole town somehow knew that I was involved. I was barred from receiving documents and representing my voters in relation to the matter. If you recall, I had to step down from the dais while this council voted put in Ancel Glink to investigate me and I found out later that I never had to leave the dais. I'm an elected official and I represent the people of this city. No one can remove me from talking from this dais, so I will never step down again in humiliation, which was I'm sure a ploy.

"So, to let me hang out there ... against an accusation that was even said to me, by Mr. Jones, 'I don't even know why you were dragged into this?' And councilwoman, Mrs. Reardon, even said to me, 'You're just a victim in this.'"

Next, Quillman explained that she and her private attorney visited City Hall on Tuesday, Dec. 17, to demand the complaint and the report be given to them.

"Because I was not going to wait another four months. Ancel Glink was supposed to be here two weeks ago to exonerate me. The lady was sick, so when I heard nothing yesterday, because it was supposed to be done today, nothing happened, so that's when I called the attorney again after I had to hire one and demand that these issues be given to me so that I know what is going on. I'm not going to spend four months waiting and have this dragged out and my name dragged for the newspaper again ...

"So, having finally reviewed the report, and here they are, twelve pages, twelve pages ... by our police department. My name is mentioned only three times. Ridiculous! So now I know how wrong this entirely baseless investigation (is), it's a defamation of my character. People that know me have called like 'What is going on at that council?' And I said, 'I don't know, you're going to have to ask them. You're going to have to ask the city manager because I don't know. I did nothing.'

"But for four months this was allowed to drag on, and it was going to be allowed to drag on until the New Year, until I put my foot down today and I've had enough.

"I've had enough," Quillman raised her voice. "The report of the chief of police himself summarized the investigation ... makes absolutely no mention of my name whatsoever. The report of deputy chief Marc Reid to the chief, again, makes no mention of my name. None of the reports contain any evidence of an ethics violation on my part. I hope this shines a new light on this investigation. I also hope that this finally, finally, puts this horrific investigation to an end. My family and I and my friends have suffered enough with this unsubstantiated allegation and that's all I have to say, but I'm done. Thank you."

In regard to Joliet Police Sgt. Lindsey Heavener, Joliet Patch has previously reported that Heavener was calling city council members earlier this summer urging them to get rid of Marty Shanahan as interim city manager after eight months in the job.

In the end, Pat Mudron, Sherri Reardon, Mike Turk, Don "Duck" Dickinson and Bettye Gavin, voted to remove Shanahan as interim city manager. In August, the Mudron 5 awarded Steve Jones a contract and pay raise to serve as interim city manager for the next six months.

Joliet's WJOL news radio station reports it will have Quillman on Thursday morning's show.