Herald-News Blasted By Joliet For Shoddy Journalism

JOLIET, IL - The Herald-News published a story this week implicating Joliet's newly hired city manager David Hales as being tied to a scandal in the city of Bloomington where Hales has been city manager since 2009. "Joliet's New City Manager Leaves Behind Brewing Financial Scandal," the print newspaper alerted its readers. But the headline, as well as the story produced by Herald-News reporter Bob Okon, were inaccurate and misleading, Joliet city officials contend. Okon's story was so out in left field that officials at Joliet City Hall issued a rare news release to blast The Herald-News to point out the flawed piece of reporting.

Earlier this week, five former operators of a multi-purpose sports arena in Bloomington, people who worked for a third-party company known as Central Illinois Arena Management, were indicted on a multitude of criminal charges in connection with an embezzlement scheme. Not one of the five people were employees for the city of Bloomington. Okon's follow-up story in The Herald-News implied that Hales is a shadowy figure who was hiding his knowledge of the criminal investigation from the city of Joliet during his interview process.

"Mr. Hales and his team deserve credit for uncovering the unlawful activity and taking the appropriate action," Joliet's news release explained. "We heard from officials in Bloomington who are stunned that a local newspaper would turn this around and try to impugn one of those responsible for stopping the theft that allegedly occurred." (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Hales, who has more than 25 experience as a city manager in Illinois and several other states, emerged as Joliet's top candidate, was offered the job and accepted the terms of a three-year contract. Joliet's city manager position became open after Jim Hock retired in May. Marty Shanahan, Joliet's city attorney, has served as interim city manager over the past several months.

In taking the Joliet newspaper to task, Joliet furnished a number of documents to reinforce the city's contention that Hales helped propel the criminal investigation, which was conducted by the Illinois State Police. One such document was a three-page September 2016 press release on City of Bloomington letterhead. It contained several paragraphs of comments from Hales saying: "As part of the management transition, City staff conducted extensive internal reviews and auditing. These reviews brought forward multiple areas of concern for City staff which we promptly reported to the Illinois State Police in an effort to determine whether any unlawful conduct had occurred."

In Thursday's press release, the city of Joliet explained that "Rather than look forward to the new management of Bloomington’s Coliseum by VenueWorks and put the past behind him and the City of Bloomington, Mr. Hales fully supported and cooperated with the investigation and allocated City resources to uncovering the wrongdoing.

"It was announced on September 17, 2017 that David Hales will be the next Joliet City Manager," the city of Joliet continued. "Mr. Hales heeded the advice of those in charge of the investigation and understandably did not discuss the pending investigation to the City of Joliet during the interview process."

On Thursday, Joliet Mayor Bob O'Dekirk, who is also a former police officer, spoke with Joliet Patch reiterating his disbelief with Okon's story in the Herald-News and headline. As a result of the misleading story, the mayor said, a number of newspaper subscribers who read the piece contacted him and other city council members, voicing concerns over the hiring of Hales.

"It turns out it isn't true," O'Dekirk said of Okon's story angle. "I've talked to elected officials in Bloomington about David Hales and some of the city staff over there. They're pretty dismayed that a Joliet newspaper is turning this all around, and they don't understand how he's being turned into a bad guy."

According to Joliet, Central Illinois Arena Management was brought in to manage the Coliseum in Bloomington in 2006. Hales came to Bloomington to take over as that city's manager in 2009. Anyway, Central Illinois Arena Management’s ten-year agreement to manage the Bloomington sports arena expired on March 31, 2016, and that contract ended under Hales' watch. VenueWorks took over in April 2016.

Then, this week, the five indictments of the former arena officials in Bloomington were revealed.

"We look forward to Mr. Hales becoming our City Manager," Joliet announced Thursday. "His integrity will be an asset ... It is anticipated Mr. Hales will begin his duties with the City of Joliet effective November 27, 2017."

For Related Patch Stories:

• Joliet's New City Manager Gets $30,000 More Than Predecessor
• New Joliet City Manager Could Be Bloomington's David Hales

Image of David Hales via City of Bloomington