Mudron 5 Sent Identical Emails To Oust Marty Shanahan

JOLIET, IL - This week's sudden ouster of popular interim city manager Marty Shanahan by City Councilman Pat Mudron and his Mudron Five has ignited a second round of Joliet City Council wars that may last many months, perhaps until the city's April 2021 municipal elections.

During the nasty City Council wars that began in the 1990s, Joliet's elected officials were known for holding secret meetings in smoke-filled rooms at Al's Steakhouse and, at other times, in the back of Vela's Restaurant.

Nowadays, however, it's not always necessary to engage in political wheeling and dealing inside the back rooms of restaurants. Nowadays, elected officials all have cell phones and iPads. Back in the 1990s when the late Art Schultz was mayor, nobody on the Joliet City Council had cell phones.

On Thursday, Joliet Patch obtained all of the email communications that were sent to Marty Shanahan last week by members of the Mudron Five faction, asking that he place an item on the council's upcoming meeting agenda for June 18.

The move to get rid of Shanahan came about eight months after the same city council, with the exception of newly elected Sherri Reardon, all voiced strong support for appointing Shanahan, the city's corporation counsel, as their interim city manager.

He was chosen to help get through the embarrassment and humiliation that they endured as a result of their ill-fated decision in September 2017 to hire Bloomington's David Hales as Joliet's next permanent city manager. The Hales hire was a disaster, veteran councilwoman Jan Quillman reminded her colleagues at this Tuesday's meeting.

At any rate, Shanahan was deluged with five consecutive email communications from the Mudron Five coalition last Wednesday, June 12. Typically, the city council meeting agenda gets set on the Thursday before the meeting.

The first email began at 3:54 p.m. Then, four more arrived, at 6:38 p.m., 7:20 p.m., 8:11 p.m. and 10:43 p.m.

Here they are. Pay attention to their similarities in the wording.

EMAIL ONE

From: Councilman Pat Mudron, leader of Mudron Five, District 2

Sent when: Wednesday, June 12, 3:54 p.m.

Entire Message: "Marty please add to the agenda of June 18, 2019 a action item to vote on the termination of the interim City Manager Joliet Illinois." - Pat Mudron

EMAIL TWO

From: Councilman At-Large Don "Duck" Dickinson, described by Mayor Bob O'Dekirk as "one of the ringleaders" of the Mudron Five.

Sent when: Wednesday, June 12, 6:38 p.m.

Entire Message: "Marty, Please add to the agenda of June 18th, 2019 an action item to vote on the termination of the Interim Joliet City Manager." - Thank you, Councilman At Large Don "Duck" Dickinson

EMAIL THREE

From: Bettye Gavin, one of the new additions to the Mudron Five, District 4

Sent when: Wednesday, June 12, 7:20 p.m.

Entire message: "Marty, l would like to place on the June 18, 2019 Council Agenda an action item to vote on the Termination of the Joliet, IL Interim City Manager. - Bettye Gavin, Councilwoman 4th District

EMAIL FOUR

From: Council At-Large Mike Turk, elder statesman of Joliet City Council. Turk has been on the council since the late 1980s and he was around during the first Joliet City Council wars involving city manager John Mezera during the early 1990s.

Sent when: Wednesday, June 12, 8:11 p.m.

Entire Message: "Please add to the City Council agenda of June 18th 2019 an action item for the termination of the interim City Manager." - Thank you Michael Turk.

EMAIL FIVE

From: Sherri Reardon, newly elected council member who took office in May for District 3.

Sent when: Wednesday, June 12 at 10:43 p.m.

"Marty, l would like to place on the June 18, 2019 Council Agenda an action item to vote on the Termination of the Joliet, IL Interim City Manager." - Sincerely, Sherri Reardon Joliet City Councilwoman

During Tuesday's meeting, Mayor Bob O'Dekirk turned to Mudron and scolded him for being silent during the meetings that discussed the interim city manager's position. "Instead, you sent emails to Marty Shanahan telling him you want this placed on the agenda to fire him and then you spoke to the media. My personal opinion, I don't refer to my fellow councilmen as they. I refer to my fellow councilmen as we because if this city and this city council is going to be effective, we have to work together," O'Dekirk told Mudron.

Then, the mayor continued by reminding Mudron that the mayor ran unopposed and Mudron and the other incumbents who ran contested races in April all won by large margins.

"And there's no doubt in my mind that a big part of the reason that happened is because for the first four years I was mayor, we didn't deal with this nonsense. We rolled up our sleeves, got down to business and did the right things for the city and the people of Joliet," the mayor said, during a loud applause from the audience who had packed Tuesday night's council chambers.