Joliet Mayor Releases Transition Report

Joliet Mayor Bob O’Dekirk today released the report compiled by the transition team that began work immediately after he was sworn in as Joliet’s new mayor on May 4.

“It’s no secret that I believe we need to change the direction and culture at Joliet City Hall, but my beliefs were forged by my life experience, background and history in Joliet government. I need to make sure that we have a municipal government that takes advantage of the combined experience and wisdom of the entire city, and that meant asking leaders and citizens to get in a room and start talking about what they thought we needed to change as well,” said O’Dekirk. “After two months of research, study, meetings and discussion, they have come up with about 40 pages of suggestions on how to improve our city government, our city economy and our city in general. I will be taking the time to read the report very carefully along with our City Council Members and City Manager and then we will jointly determine how to incorporate the best ideas of the transition team into our municipal government operations.”

The transition team consisted of eight committees established to review and critique government operations in the areas of finance, government administration, economic development, public safety, public infrastructure, intergovernmental affairs, legal services and community relations.

“I would like to thank each of the Chairman of the committees for taking a leadership role in organizing and leading the meetings and I would also like to thank the committee members for taking the time from their busy schedules to help our community. I think we all realize that this is just the beginning of a larger four year effort,” said O’Dekirk. “It is my understanding that not everyone agreed on every subject and I think that is great. There was substantial debate on each and every issue the committees examined. I probably won’t agree with everything in the report myself, but we have an experienced and committed City Council and City Manager who will examine the work of our transition team and making the policy and operational changes that they think are best.”

Copies of the report may be downloaded here.