New Steve Jones Contract: $135.10 Per Hour If Council OKs

JOLIET, IL — Joliet's City Council is expected to vote whether to keep Steve Jones as interim city manager on a new month-to-month contract starting March 1. The council would spend $135.10 per hour, which is more than $281,000 annually, if the proposed contract gets approved.

Tuesday's meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.

The council continues to weigh its options for finding a new permanent city manager to replace David Hales, who reached a buyout with the council in October 2018 after less than a year with Joliet. Then, last June, the council's Mudron 5 coalition voted to remove interim city manager Marty Shanahan from the role after eight months on the job, sending him back to the legal department.

After conducting a search for a permanent city manager, the council is now left with two out of state finalists: Will Jones, the city administrator of Mequon, a Milwaukee suburb, and Mark Rooney, town manager of Westerly, Rhode Island. Rooney previously worked in Carpentersville and Wheeling, Ill. Will Jones previously worked for Highland Park and Glencoe.

Patch recently reported there has been talk of rejecting both Will Jones and Rooney and reopening the hiring process so Nick Palmer, Will County's chief of staff, would slide into the City Hall job.

Palmer, a native of Joliet's Sugar Creek area, is expected to lose his race against State Sen. Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant in the March 17 Democratic primary to become the new Will County Executive.

A resident of La Grange Park, Steve Jones signed a six-month contract Aug. 6 to serve as interim city manager until the end of February. Jones has expressed interest in retiring from Illinois municipal government so he could start collecting his pension, then returning back to the city of Joliet as an independent consultant, Patch has previously reported.

According to Tuesday's agenda, the council is being asked to approve a contract with Northbrook-based GovTempsUSA, LLC "for the placement of Steven Jones as an independent contractor with the city of Joliet as interim city manager until the hiring of a new full-time city manager," the document reads.

Under the proposal, Joliet would pay GovTempsUSA $135.10 per hour with a maximum of 40 hours per week.

"The hourly rate includes the GovTempsUSA payment to Steven Jones and the GovTempsUSA fees," as well as FICA taxes, professional liability insurance and other matters, the proposal reads.

The temporary promotion of Jones to interim city manager last August was highly controversial and sparked deep division on the Joliet City Council. The 5-4 appointment of Jones as interim city manager had support from the Mudron 5 coalition: Pat Mudron, Mike Turk, Sherri Reardon, Bettye Gavin and Don "Duck" Dickinson.

Those opposing the Jones contract were Mayor Bob O'Dekirk, Jan Quillman, Terry Morris and Larry Hug.

Jones came to Joliet in 2015 as deputy city manager/city economic development director.

Before that, Jones had been a manager or administrator in Lemont, La Grange Park, Oak Forest, Glen Ellyn and Oswego. Jones served as Oswego's village administrator from 2012 until 2015. Prior to Oswego, he was assistant village manager at the village of Carpentersville.

Related: Aug. 7 Patch Article: 'This Is Double-Dipping On Steriods,' Hug Declares