'How Much Money Is Joliet City Planner Going To Get From This Project?' Data Center Foe Asks Council

JOLIET, IL —During Monday night's Joliet City Council data center project meeting that lasted over seven and a half hours, audience member Jeff Becker brought up a topic that was not being addressed at that point. Becker reminded Joliet Mayor Terry D'Arcy and the City Council that the 795 acres of farmland being sold to Hillwood and Powerhouse for the future Joliet Technology Center data center is all owned by the family of Joliet's planning director, Jayne Bernhard.

Joliet Patch previously published a story, in late January, on the topic. The story was headlined, Joliet Data Center: City Planner's Family 'Poised To Make Mega Millions' Audience Member Claims.

"My brother is the one who did the FOIA request," Becker announced on Monday night. Jeff Becker explained that the city of Joliet produced slightly over 1,300 documents, but "1,300 were blacked out. He had to go to the Illinois Attorney General to file an appeal with the city of Joliet to even get any documents on this case.

"Why? So, my word for you is transparency, transparency, transparency. I went over all of the documents. The first thing in the file is a document from June 24, 2025. The first thing. It is Kimley-Horn's traffic study for the Bernhard Family Farm. So, we're in June 24th. This is like three or four months later they were bringing this to you. No. It was two years ago," Becker revealed. "... There is a year and a half of missing files for the Hillwood project.

"And then when I began to look into the documents, I started researching all the documents, and then September 25, 2025, the Hillwood attorney, Mr. (David) Silverman, sent an email to Todd Lenzie the attorney, Ray Heitner, who's on the city planning, and Jayne Bernhard, who's on city planning. So, I looked into the information on Jayne Bernhard. She's your city planner.

"So, then I went and looked. Could she have been working on this project? Is this where everyone here is getting your information from? Is it from the Joliet city planner's office? I'm assuming so, that staff ... would be giving you all the documents on how you should proceed. Which here is a quote that is coming from Ray Heitner, and he says about Jayne Bernhard, 'I incorporated a few additional talking points and edits with Jayne's help.'

"It ended up going to the press, the press then said was Jayne Bernhard working on this project?' and we were all told, no, she was not, she left it immediately.

"That's just completely false," Becker declared. "She was working on this project and you're getting all your information from the city planner. So, I looked into how is her family going to benefit from this? So, here's what we have. There were 14 parcels, 13 of them are owned, one by her grandfather, one by her grandparents, one by ... her aunts. There are three Bernhard Farms Incorporated, Brian and Carl Bernhard are on those properties, at least that's what we have in the corporate records. And then there's five Bernhard Family Trusts.

"So how much money is the city of Joliet city planner going to get from this project?" Becker asked. "And where are all the earlier documents?"

Last June, Joliet City Manager Beth Beatty announced that Bernhard was being promoted to a department head position at City Hall after Jim Torri, the previous planning director, had used up more than five months of unused vacation, prior to officially retiring.

"You need to do an investigation and find out how the Bernhard family, how did they know?" Becker asked during Monday night's data center meeting. "It's 14 parcels. How did they know that Hillwood needed a site? Did that come from the city planner? Did she go ahead and did she push that this project goes to her family? The Hillwood has said that they want to be transparent. How much money was your city planner, the Joliet city planner Jayne Bernhard, going to get for this project? $50 million? It's 795 acres. Is she going to get $50 million for her family? $100 million? Why would this not be immediately tabled and investigated?

"Where's the press? Where is the press saying, 'Wait a minute, oh my gosh, the Joliet city planner is sending this project to her own family.' How could that happen? I mean, I think that this is a scandal," Becker declared. "I think you need to table this, and you need to go back and figure out and do an investigation and find out what is going on in the city planning department. Thank you."