Joliet's Healing Process, Steve Jones Takes Helm At City Hall

JOLIET, IL - Now that the Pat Mudron Five ousted interim city manager Marty Shanahan during Tuesday night's contentious Joliet City Council meeting, there's no telling who will be Joliet's permanent city manager later this year.

For the time being, long-time Illinois local government official Steve Jones will be at the helm. Jones, the city's economic development director, learned during Tuesday night's meeting that he is obligated, since he also carries the title of assistant city manager, to fulfill the duties of city manager, given the current situation.

Jones informed the council he is willing to help them out as long as the council doesn't anticipate him serving in the interim capacity for the next seven or eight months.

As for Shanahan, he returns to the city's legal department, where he began with the city of Joliet in 2015 as corporation counsel.

On Wednesday, Patch interviewed Jones about his reaction to serving as Joliet's latest interim city manager.

Jones came to work with Joliet in 2015. Before that, he was village administrator of Oswego for three years. Prior to that, Jones served as a city manager or village administrator in the following communities: Lemont, La Grange Park, Glen Ellyn and Oak Forest.

He has more than 35 years experience in local government management.

"I have no intention of laying low," Jones assured Joliet Patch. "I think stepping up is a better description than laying low."

Meanwhile, City Councilman Mudron told his colleagues at Tuesday's night meeting that he has been working behind the scenes to line up former Joliet City Manager Jim Hock to come out of retirement to hopefully serve as interim city manager for Joliet.

Hock retired from Joliet during the spring of 2017.

During his three-plus years with Joliet, Hock got mixed reviews. Some people thought he did a decent overall job, but others in the community have told Patch that his departure was no great loss for Joliet.

But, even Hock's detractors agree that Hock was a much better city manager than his eventual replacement, David Hales.

Mudron and the rest of the city council offered Hales the job, a three-year contract and a $215,000-a-year starting salary after a nationwide candidate search yielded more than 80 applicants.

Hales came to Joliet from downstate Bloomington, where his contract was not being renewed after nearly nine years on the job and he had been in the running for several jobs across the Midwest in hopes of getting out of Bloomington before his contract expired.

After starting in Joliet in late November 2017, Hales lasted less than a year on the job. The city council negotiated a severance to get rid of him last October, a move that cost the taxpayers of Joliet an extra $89,000, which was five months of severance pay.

This coming Monday at 5:30 p.m., there will be a special council meeting, arranged by Mudron and the Mudron Five, to discuss hiring Hock as the interim city manager for Joliet.

If the council moves forward with plans to appoint Hock to the job, Jones indicated he would do his best to work closely with Hock, his former boss.

Jones said he would strive "to bring him up to speed quickly and identify the most pressing short-term and long-term issues facing the city."

Jones said he doesn't believe the council's decision to remove Shanahan, name Jones as interim city manager and pursue Hock as their preferred short-term replacement, will cause any major disruptions or problems for the city of Joliet.

"We're a strong organization and basically this is an event, in my opinion, that will not have any impact ... upon the city's ability to deliver public services to the residents and keep moving the community forward with projects and developments. We're all interchangeable and I think the management team is strong," Jones said.

Jones said that given that he has more than 35 years of experience in local government, he is not in a position in his professional career to pursue being Joliet's permanent city manager.

He said that his career is winding down and that if the current job opening came up 10 years ago, things would be different.

"We need somebody to be here five to seven years," Jones told Patch on Wednesday.

However, he said he is willing to serve as interim city manager to help the city council get through the healing process.

As long as the role isn't more than 30 to 45 days, he said, the city's ongoing efforts on the economic development should not suffer.

Derek Conley has now been with the city for a full year after the city agreed to create an additional position at City Hall for an economic development specialist.

"Derek is an incredible talent, he'll do what he needs to do; we're going to make it work," Jones insisted.

Jones also told Patch he has no plans to leave Joliet in the next year or so.

Directing the economic development office, Jones has led the efforts to turn the long abandoned Old Joliet Prison into a world-wide tourist attraction. He has been involved in several projects and business expansions at CenterPointe, the Louis Joliet Mall area, the city's east side and most notably the downtown Joliet revitalization efforts.

"I'm having fun. It's a great town. I feel like I'm achieving things so why would I leave that?" Jones asked. "It's positive stuff."

And if Jim Hock returns to City Hallafter a more than two-year absence, that's fine with Jones. Prior starting with Joliet in 2013, Hock had worked as the assistant city manager for two towns in Michigan, Sterling Heights and Oak Park.

"He hired me," Jones noted. "I think these are interesting times, and I think we are up for the challenge."