Mudron 5 Now Wants Jim Hock To Get Lost

JOLIET, IL — When Pat Mudron and the Joliet City Council's Mudron 5 ousted Marty Shanahan as Joliet's city manager in June, they were carrying out the wishes of Joliet Police Sgt. Patrick Cardwell and the Joliet Police Supervisors Association. Mudron intended to bring former Joliet city manager Jim Hock out of retirement to give Hock a second opportunity of running Joliet.

However, other city council members insisted that Hock did a so-so job as the city's manager in 2014, 2015 and 2016. It was also pointed out that Hock did nothing during his time as city manager to stop Sgt. Patrick Cardwell and others on the police force from violating the terms of their union contracts with the city. When Hock ran Joliet, for instance, he chose not to enforce the terms of Joliet's Police Supervisors Association contract concerning the amount of hours city police officers were allowed to accrue for unused vacation as well as comp time.

On Tuesday, Aug. 6, the Joliet City Council will vote on a resolution rescinding its conditional job offer to James Hock as interim city manager.

Back on July 2, the Mudron 5 adopted a resolution to make a conditional job offer to Hock and the resolution was seconded and had the support from all the members of the Mudron 5: Mudron, Don "Duck" Dickinson, Mike Turk, Sherri Reardon and Bettye Gavin.

"Subsequently, being unable to come to agreeable terms, the mayor and city council now wish to rescind the conditional job offer to James for interim city manager for council consideration," city documents show.

In the alternative, there is a separate resolution on the city council agenda calling for a vote to approve an employment agreement for Steve Jones. Jones has been the city's assistant city manager and economic development director and Jones has reluctantly been filling in as city manager since the Joliet Police Supervisors Association asked the Mudron 5 to get rid of Shanahan in June.

The Aug. 6 city council agenda indicates that "a decision was made (at the last regular council meeting) to enter into discussions with Steve Jones for an employment agreement."

The proposed agreement will be reviewed in closed session at the Monday, August 5, pre-council meeting that begins at City Hall at 5:30 p.m.