Joliet's City Manager Finalists Won't Get Job

JOLIET, IL — As Joliet Patch predicted two weeks ago, Joliet's City Council has decided not to extend an employment offer to Mequon city administrator Will Jones or to Westerly, Rhode Island, town manager Mark Rooney to become Joliet's next permanent city manager.

The council met behind closed doors for about two-and-a-half hours Tuesday night to discuss the two remaining candidates. Two weeks ago, councilwoman Sherri Reardon made a recommendation to require the two remaining candidates to undergo a personality test. That effort also bought city elected officials more time to come up with an alternative plan in regard to finding a new city manager.

Joliet has been without a permanent city manager since October 2018 when the council agreed to pay David Hales $89,000 to break the terms of his three-year contract and leave Joliet.

Patch reported on Feb. 7 that members of the City Council's Pat Mudron 5 coalition are now interested in helping heal the deep divisions within the Will County Democratic Party by hiring long-term Will County Chief of Staff Nick Palmer as the next city manager.

Palmer is currently running in a contested race against State Senator Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant to become the next Will County Executive. However, Palmer is expected to lose his March 17 Democratic race, and that will leave him out of a job come November.

Members of the Mudron 5 are considering the idea of making Palmer, a Joliet native, the new city manager, even though Palmer did not apply for the job last year.

Joliet Mayor Bob O'Dekirk told Patch on Wednesday there was no consensus on the council at Tuesday night's meeting on hiring either of the two remaining job finalists, which leaves the city back at square one.

He said there were five votes on the council to reopen the city manager hiring process, but, the mayor clarified, the five members in agreement "were not all part of the Mudron 5."

The Mudron 5 consists of Mudron, Reardon, Bettye Gavin, Mike Turk and Don "Duck" Dickinson. The council's Fiscal 4 coalition includes the mayor, Jan Quillman, Terry Morris and Larry Hug.

O'Dekirk told Patch he expects a council committee consisting of himself, Turk and Jan Quillman will now have to meet next week to discuss what to do next.

One possibility, he said, is to go back and give a closer examination to some of the city manager candidates who were initially passed over and did not make the finalist list, which also included Castle Law attorney Jim Capparelli of Joliet.

Another possibility, O'Dekirk said, is to change the job qualifications and seek another round of applications for the post.

News that the council decided not to hire any of the previous job city manager finalists was first reported on Wednesday morning by WJOL's Scott Slocum in the Morning Show.