Joliet's City Manager Reveals Plans For Future

JOLIET, IL — During Friday afternoon's exclusive interview, Joliet City Manager Jim Capparelli told Joliet Patch he has offered to stay at City Hall under new Mayor Terry D'Arcy for another six months, to give D'Arcy enough time to conduct a national job candidate search to find a new city manager for the third-largest city in Illinois.

The Joliet City Council's next regular meeting is Tuesday night, and Capparelli said he is hopeful he gains some clarity regarding his future employment status from that meeting.

In the meantime, the clock is ticking and Capparelli's days with Joliet are drawing to an end.

Capparelli's employment contract, that pays him around $200,000 annually in base salary, runs out on July 12, Capparelli explained.

Before joining Joliet in January 2021, Capparelli worked as a private practice lawyer in Joliet at the Castle Law Office on West Jefferson Street. He has several awards for his time in the U.S. Army where he's a retired colonel.

During the past two-plus years, Capparelli worked closely with two-term Mayor Bob O'Dekirk, but O'Dekirk suffered a huge defeat in the April 4 election to D'Arcy. In addition, Joliet's City Council added two more allies for D'Arcy in Councilwoman Suzi Ibarra and Councilman Cesar Cardenas.

During Friday's interview, Capparelli said the City Council has not accepted or rejected his employment proposal.

"It's up to the City Council," Capparelli told Patch. "I've offered to stay another six months until they do a thorough nationwide search."

As far as his salary goes, Capparelli remarked, "it's negotiable."

Patch asked Capparelli if he intends to return to being a private practice lawyer here in Joliet if the Council opts to end his employment contract come July 12.

"I don't even know," Capparelli said. "It's just premature to speculate."

Capparelli became Joliet's first permanent city manager since 2017 when Joliet hired David Hales, the city manager in downstate Bloomington.

Hales did not last a year on the job, as the Joliet City Council paid Hales about $90,000 to go away.

From 2018 until 2021, the city manager position remained a revolving door.

Joliet tapped corporation counsel Marty Shanahan for the interim role and then in 2019, the City Council voted to remove Shanahan as city manager. He was later fired and ultimately given a $200,000 settlement to resolve his wrongful termination lawsuit against Joliet and Steve Jones.

Jones served as interim city manager after Shanahan was ousted, and when Jones left Joliet in August 2020, Joliet brought former city manager Jim Hock out of retirement from Michigan. Hock served as interim city manager from August 2020 until January 2021 when Capparelli took over the position on a permanent basis.

One of Capparelli's first decisions was naming Lt. Dawn Malec as his new police chief. Nine months later, Capparelli got rid of her.

In early 2022, Capparelli hired Bill Evans as his new permanent chief of police, the first time Joliet hired an out-of-town police chief since the 1990s.

"I have brought stability to the police department," Capparelli told Joliet Patch on Friday.

As for Evans, "I think he's done a great job. If it's performance based, I don't have any complaints with his style," Capparelli said.

At City Hall, Capparelli also got rid of Joliet's six-year information technology director, David Braner. Capparelli demoted the city's finance director, Jim Ghedotte, and replaced Ghedotte with Kevin Sing, the former Manhattan village administrator.

This year, Capparelli has silenced one of his City Hall department heads, Cesar Suarez, who came to Joliet one year ago from Peoria, replacing Derek Conley as economic development director. Nowadays, Suarez is prohibited to giving interviews with the news media, a move that stifles Joliet's efforts to promote new businesses and development projects in the works.

As far as Joliet's eventual successor for city manager, Capparelli said there are pluses and minuses if D'Arcy and the Council go outside Joliet to hire someone.

"A person from Joliet already knows many of the players," Capparelli explained. "Someone from outside Joliet brings new ideas and new ways that haven't been thought of."

Capparelli said he's proud that under his leadership, Joliet approved a 100-year contract with the city of Chicago to build a pipeline to bring Lake Michigan to the citizens of Joliet.

"That's fresh, clean drinking water, which is something we currently take for granted," Capparelli said.

Capparelli said he's pleased how the multi-year Cullinan Properties construction project, now being called Rock Run Collection, along I-55 and I-80 is well underway, and that will be anchored by the new Joliet Hollywood Casino.

The North Pointe construction development near Elwood is another tremendous project for Joliet, according to Capparelli.

"It provides for Joliet a future revenue stream, taxes and employment," Capparelli remarked.

Here's what Capparelli had to say about D'Arcy:

"I think the new mayor has a lot of energy and is certainly open to new ideas and projects. He's done a great job at looking at all the projects going on in Joliet. He's asking great questions."

Related Joliet Patch coverage of Jim Capparelli:

Joliet's 3 New Challenge Coins Will Boost City Pride: Capparelli

Calling Ex-Chief 'Dumb, Unmotivated Lump' Isn't Defamation: Judge

Joliet Demotes Finance Director Ghedotte, Kevin Sing Promoted

Was Joliet Department Head's Firing Warranted?

Retired Army Colonel Joliet's Next City Manager?