Mudron 5 Votes Against Transparency On Closed Session Tapes

JOLIET, IL —On Tuesday night, Joliet City Councilwomen Bettye Gavin and Sherri Reardon joined forces to defeat Councilman Larry Hug's proposal to release the verbatim transcripts of several closed-door executive sessions surrounding Marty Shanahan's removal as interim city manager on June 18. Hug's transparency resolution lost 5-3 to the Mudron 5 even though Gavin and Reardon both announced their public support for Hug's idea at the special June 24 meeting.

At that special meeting, Hug made the following comments: "The only thing I'll say about the executive session is some of the claims of what people say they said publicly, in executive session do not match … I'm ready to make a motion on every one of these dates that we've all discussed, to release the raw tapes. Part of the sausage-making process. Are you going to find councilman Hug ever using a four-letter word he shouldn't use when he gets passionate? I don't think that would surprise too many of you in here. I'm a human being.

"But I'll stand behind everything I said. I don't call people snakes in the executive session. I don't take what I said in the executive session, come out in the public and mislead people," Hug said.

When Hug said during the June 24 meeting that he didn't think he should continue to discuss the topic of releasing the raw transcripts of the executive sessions until he had a majority of support from the council, Bettye Gavin blurted out, "I don't have a problem with mine being released."

About 30 minutes later during the June 24 meeting, during a philosophical exchange between Hug and Councilman Mike Turk, Reardon announced, "If there's anything I said, it can be released."

But when Hug's transparency resolution on the Marty Shanahan controversy came time for vote Aug. 20, City Clerk Christa Desiderio polled the council members:

Councilwoman Quillman: "Aye."

Councilwoman Reardon: "No."

Councilman Turk: "No."

Councilman Dickinson: "No."

Councilwoman Gavin: "No."

Councilman Hug: "Aye."

Councilman Morris: "Aye."

Councilman Mudron: "No."

"The motion is denied, three to five," Desiderio told everyone.

"I have a question," Mayor O'Dekirk announced after the vote. "And I haven't reviewed the tapes. Was this discussed previously out here or in executive session where several of the people who voted no tonight stuck their chest out and said they would be happy to release these minutes? Did this happen out here or was that another closed door session?"

Gavin responded by saying, "I can't remember; I remember saying it."

Hug followed up and commented, "I'm pretty sure it happened here. When I first made this ... a month and a half ago, I believe somebody up here said, two people up here said, 'Oh, I have no problem with it, I'll vote for it right now."

O'Dekirk then remarked to Hug, "Right. I thought so too. I wasn't sure if it was public or private. Thank you."

The Joliet City Council's Mudron 5 consists of:

1. Pat Mudron
2. Mike Turk
3. Don "Duck" Dickinson
4. Sherri Reardon
5. Bettye Gavin

The other council branch has been dubbed by constituents as "The Fiscal Four."

1. Mayor Bob O'Dekirk
2. Jan Quillman
3. Larry Hug
4. Terry Morris

During Tuesday's meeting, Gavin and Reardon did not offer any explanation on why they made a sudden flip-flop of their votes regarding the release of the executive session transcripts. Gavin had worked with Shanahan for the previous four years, but Reardon voted to get rid of Marty Shanahan just a few weeks after winning a seat on the council.

In any event, the following documents are from Hug's failed transparency resolution.