Sabrina Spano Won't Become Joliet City Manager After All

JOLIET, IL— The Joliet City Council was notified Wednesday afternoon that the leading candidate to take over as interim city manager when Steve Jones leaves Aug. 7 no longer wants the job. Sabrina Spano, the city's interim corporation counsel, sent an email communication to all the council members notifying them that she no longer wanted to serve as interim city manager.

Mayor Bob O'Dekirk told Joliet Patch that Spano did not believe she would have the full support of the council to be effective as the city's interim manager. As a result, she will remain in the city's legal department. She joined Joliet in 2018 when she was hired in the newly created position of assistant corporation counsel.

Last week, Joliet Patch reported that Spano had garnered the most support of the six people who were being considered by the Joliet City Council.

The others receiving support from some council members were Jim Roolf, an executive at Joliet's First Midwest Bank and Mike Hansen, a prominent Joliet real estate attorney.

Roolf is the senior vice president and corporate relations officer of First Midwest Bank. Roolf has served on the boards of directors for Silver Cross Hospital, Will Counter Center for Economic Development, Joliet Catholic Academy and American Red Cross Illinois River Valley Chapter.

According to his law firm bio, Hansen was a partner with the Joliet law firm of Herschbach, Tracy, Johnson, Bertani & Wilson from 1976 to 1994. Hansen helped found the Empress Casino and he served as vice president and chief legal officer for Empress from 1994 until December 1999.

Hansen is one of the main attorneys who appears before the Joliet City Council when new development projects are proposed.

Last year, Roolf was a leading mover and shaker in the community who helped convince the Joliet City Council's Pat Mudron 5 Coalition to approve a $6.5 million bond measure to help fund the downtown Joliet Public Library's renovation.

The proposed library renovations have gained little community support amongst Joliet residents, however, Roolf has been a leading voice for the project and the council majority voted in favor of the multi-million dollar bonds as Roolf suggested.

Besides Hansen, Roolf and Spano, the other three people considered for interim city manager were: inspector general Chris Regis, private practice attorney Jim Capparelli and lawyer Moira Dunn, a former prosecutor for Will County State's Attorney Jim Glasgow.