Mudron 4 Rejects Retired Joliet Fire Capt. To Fill Council Seat

JOLIET, IL — For four years, Todd Wooten served in combat as a U.S. Marine fighting in Beirut, Lebanon during the 1980s. He later joined the Joliet Fire Department and rose to the rank of captain. Since retiring, Wooten has served five years on Joliet's police and fire commission. At Tuesday night's Joliet City Council meeting, Pat Mudron and Sherri Reardon teamed up to reject Wooten's appointment to fill the vacancy created by Don Dickinson's recent resignation.

Mayor Bob O'Dekirk recommended Wooten to fill Dickinson's seat for these next five months. Wooten assured the Council he will not be running in the April 6 election for any of the three Council openings, but was willing to fill the role on a temporary basis to help the city.

Tuesday's vote ended in a 4-4 deadlock, which meant the mayor's selection failed.

Voting for Wooten were O'Dekirk, Larry Hug, Jan Quillman and Terry Morris. The remaining votes to reject Wooten came from Mudron, Reardon, Mike Turk and Bettye Gavin.

Prior to casting his vote, Mudron questioned Wooten about Mudron's impression that Wooten was not a supporter of Joliet Police Chief Al Roechner.

Likewise, Reardon questioned Wooten about Marty Shanahan, who she ousted as interim city manager in June 2019. Shanahan was later fired as corporation counsel by Steve Jones this past May.

Later in the meeting, Mudron got out of his seat and handed out a written legal opinion that he said he just got around 5:30 p.m. from a downtown Chicago law firm on Wacker Drive suggesting the mayor's process for filling the Dickinson seat was flawed.

Mudron said he found the Wacker Drive law firm on his own, and that he is paying for the firm's legal advice out of his own pocket.

O'Dekirk reminded Mudron that he is following the exact same process used by former Joliet mayors Art Schultz, Tom Giarrante and former city managers John Mezera and Tom Thanas. Joliet has had several mid-term vacancies in recent years including the one that resulted in Bettye Gavin's appointment to the City Council, the mayor reminded her and the others.

Still, Gavin voted to reject the appointment of Wooten.

Her vote left Joliet African-American community activist, Jerry Hervey, outraged.

Hervey addressed the Council after the vote, saying the Joliet City Council had a chance to make history Tuesday night. In addition to Gavin and Terry Morris, the appointment of Wooten would have given Joliet three Black elected officials.

Hervey assured Gavin she will be hounded in the days and weeks ahead for rejecting Wooten. "Bettye .... you have a lot of explaining to do in the Black community," Hervey said during the citizen comment section of the meeting.

"Before things are over, a lot of you will end up in federal prison," Hervey declared.

After the vote, Hug apologized to Wooten as well as the citizens of Joliet for "the games being played" by the Mudron 4.

Hug directed most of his criticisms toward Reardon and Mudron.

Hug reminded everyone that most of Joliet's infighting began as soon as Reardon got elected and she joined the Joliet Council in May 2019.

At Tuesday meeting, Reardon suggested Wooten may not be up to speed with all the issues in Joliet and it may be best to leave Dickinson's seat open until the April election.

Hug pointed out that Reardon was guilty of a double standard by suggesting that Wooten or any resident of Joliet could not get up to speed on important decisions in a short period of time.

However, just one month into taking office, Reardon voted to get rid of Marty Shanahan as Joliet's interim city manager, leaving the city without a city manager and no permanent city manager these past 18 months, Hug reminded her.

Some city of Joliet political observers have suggested to Joliet Patch that the Mudron 4 will block any recommendation from the mayor for fear there would be a house cleaning at the Joliet Police Department, starting from the top with the chief.

During a tough line of questioning from Mudron, Wooten acknowledged during Tuesday's meeting that he wrote an email several months ago expressing a lack of confidence in Roechner's leadership ability as chief.

However, at Tuesday's meeting, Wooten said it is not up to individual council members to make hiring and firing recommendations of city staff and department heads. That job is the responsibility of the city manager, in this case, Jim Hock.

Hug said the Mudron 4's rejection of Wooten was nothing but a political game and the citizens of Joliet aren't stupid and they can see what's going on.

"We have a tremendous African-American candidate. He's not Mother Teresa or Gandhi but they're both dead," Hug told everyone. "He has an impeccable background."

The vote made by Turk, Gavin, Mudron and Reardon was filled with flimsy excuses and nothing short of a tremendous embarrassment to Wooten, according to Hug.

"It's a game that's hurting the city... it's a game that is disgusting ... I don't think it will ever stop until the election in April, frankly. A game was played tonight, a game was played on Mr. Wooten," Hug remarked.

"This nonsense has got to stop and it's got to stop today," Hug said.

Joliet's Interim Corporation Counsel Sabrina Spano said that the law requires Joliet to fill the vacancy within 60 days of Dickinson's resignation.

Despite Tuesday night's defeat, O'Dekirk said he will bring forth the name of a second candidate to fill Dickinson's seat in time for the Joliet City Council's budget meeting next Monday.

"I will keep making these appointments through (the next) 60 days, until we get someone," O'Dekirk assured the Council.