O'Dekirk Pleased With Joliet City Council Elections: Dorris Loses

JOLIET, IL — In Tuesday's non-partisan Joliet City Council elections for three open seats, four-term incumbent Jan Quillman captured the most votes in the crowded 12-candidate race, according to unofficial totals. Coming in second was Joe Clement. For the third at-large seat, 25-year-old Cesar Guerrero was beating long-time Joliet business owner Bob Wunderlich by a total of five votes in Will County, but Wunderlich pulled ahead of Guerrero by a margin of 60 votes in Kendall County, the unofficial vote totals show.

However, the race between Wunderlich and Guerrero remained too close to call after with the unofficial totals, officials told Patch. There are still a number of absentee ballots, perhaps around 200, waiting to be counted in the Joliet City Council races, officials told Joliet Patch.

As of 9:37 p.m. with all 72 city of Joliet precincts from Will County reporting and all 7 precincts from Kendall County reported, the unofficial voting totals from the Will County Clerk's Office were as follows:

• Jan Quillman: 3,465 votes
• Joe Clement: 3,225 votes
• Robert Wunderlich: 2,982 votes
• Cesar Guerrero: 2,927 votes
• Hudson Hollister: 2,490 votes
• Warren Dorris: 2,414 votes
• Glenda Wright-McCullum: 1,922 votes
• Jeremy Brzycki: 1,216 votes
• Roger Powell: 1,079 votes
• Nicole Lurry: 1,071 votes
• Isiah "Ike" Williams Jr. 1,042 votes
• James Lanham: 586 votes

On Tuesday night, Mayor Bob O'Dekirk told Joliet Patch he was pleased with the outcome of the races, saying that Quillman, Clement, and Wunderlich, if he prevails over Guerrero, are all people he can work with, "who will put an end to this garbage" that has gone on the past two years with the Joliet City Council.

"You'll see a more united Joliet City Council and it's positioned to get back to the way it was during my first four-year term as year, starting in 2015," O'Dekirk told Patch Tuesday night.

Three-term incumbent Larry Hug, who was not up for re-election Tuesday, informed Patch that the residents of Joliet will be well-served by continued representation from Quillman and the additon of Clement.

"It's no surprise Jan won and won big," Hug told Joliet Patch Wednesday morning. "Her commitment to Joliet residents is obvious and sincere and the residents of Joliet responded based on that. Joe Clement is a fiscal hawk just like me and he will be a positive addition to this council. I look forward to working with Joe."

Councilman Pat Mudron and Councilwoman Bettye Gavin are two of the mayor's main rivals these days. In recent weeks, they announced their support for Hudson Hollister, not incumbent Quillman.

And yet their candidate lost by a wide margin, O'Dekirk noted.

O'Dekirk said that Clement, Quillman and Wunderlich, if he prevails, "they're not going to engage in that kind of behavior" displayed by members of Mudron's coalition "who held secret meetings to fire city officials" who fell out of favor with them, including interim city manager Marty Shanahan, who received a $200,000 out of court settlement last year to resolve his wrongful termination settlement against the city of Joliet and former city official Steve Jones.

O'Dekirk said he was also pleased to see Warren Dorris lost by a considerable margin on Tuesday night as well. O'Dekirk said that Dorris would have caused trouble and been a constant source of division, if the voters put him in office.

In the run up to the April 6 election, Dorris spent a lot of time promoting the fact that he got endorsed by Joliet's five past chiefs of police: Dave Gerdes, Fred Hayes, Mike Trafton, Brian Benton and Al Roechner.

Patch asked O'Dekirk if the endorsements of Gavin and Mudron actually hurt Hollister's chances of winning one of the three open seats on the Council. The two-term mayor of Joliet said that's a good question, but he declined to answer. "He did put it out there, though," O'Dekirk said, referring to Hollister promoting the fact that he got 15 candidate endorsements, including the two from Gavin and Mudron.

Hollister provided Patch with a statement on Tuesday night's election results, saying, "I'm grateful that so many voters turned out to support new ideas for Joliet. Joliet's history, architecture and grit are worth celebrating and I am so proud to have done that as a candidate.

"I'll keep working for the renewal of our city as a business owner and through the nonprofits on whose boards I serve. I'll do everything I can to support the leadership of those who'll now be representing us as at-large council members."

For the three open seats, four-term incumbent Quillman was the only incumbent seeking another term of office in the non-partisan city elections. Joliet's longest serving councilman, Mike Turk, announced last year he would not seek another term. Turk was first elected to the Council in 1987.

Here's some information about the races and the 12 candidates in Joliet:

Jan Quillman:

A registered nurse, Quillman was first elected to the City Council in 2005. "I believe the most pressing issue is ensuring that the water supply is secured and to remain diligent in keeping cost and fees down," she wrote Joliet Patch.

On the topic of racial equality in Joliet, Quillman remarked that "The council is working to support racial equality as evidenced by the recent hiring of a female police chief who has assembled a racially and culturally diverse command staff. There has also been the hiring of minority females on the fire department for the first time in the city's history. Equality for all residents of our city can only be accomplished through continuing communication between the citizens and their elected officials."

Hudson Hollister:

The founder of downtown Joliet's HData technology company, Hollister recently announced 15 political endorsements. He said their support represents a broad consensus among Joliet's leaders, neighborhoods, and communities that he is the best candidate to "Get It Done!"
Endorsing Hollister were two state legislators, current members of the Joliet City Council Bettye Gavin and Pat Mudron, two Will County officeholders, eight business and community leaders, plus his grandmother, Joan Hollister Gillespie, widow of baseball and football coaching legend Gordie Gillespie.

Hollister's campaign flier outlines his focus on four priorities: Fix Our Downtown, Connect Our Neighborhoods, Strengthen Our Communities and Leave The Council War Behind.
"Our logistics industry has to provide the community support necessary for its workers to build lives and raise families," Hollister said in October. "Our tourism industry could be so much bigger, even in the pandemic, but we don't even seem to recognize that it exists. The police department has to earn and retain the support of all our people."

Joe Clement:

After serving four years on the Joliet Park District Board and working more than 27 years on the Joliet Police Department until retiring last August, Clement told Patch that "Although the Joliet City Council very recently seems to have begun to work cooperatively in the best interests of our city, the damage from the last few years of political infighting and administrative instability needs to be repaired. I hope to help ensure that we stay on the right track in terms of professional legislative behavior and responsiveness to the needs of our constituents."

During his candidate questionnaire, Clement informed Patch that his top goals, if elected, are to help "facilitate the creation of 100 new businesses for Joliet with living wage jobs, helping facilitate a better relationship between the Joliet Police Department and all of the citizens they serve, and supporting our city manager in leading the administration as our city rebuilds its economy."

Warren Dorris:
One of Joliet's best known politicians is making a comeback after being away from elected office the past 10 years. Warren Dorris spent 24 years on the Joliet City Council representing the east side. In 2011, Dorris ran for mayor and lost.

When Patch asked Dorris in his candidate questionnaire to identify the top issues facing Joliet, he responded: "Fiscal Responsibility. Attempt to convince the Mayor and Council to put together a comprehensive five-year active budget with fiscal restraints. Address declining revenues along with the continued decrease in medium household income in Joliet. Need to attack higher paying jobs and reduce the incentive plans for developers."
On the issue of city spending, Dorris responded: "You can't out spend what is coming in, it is revenues versus cost. If your revenues are declining you must be able to adjust you cost immediately."

Cesar Guerrero:

The 25-year-old legal aid staff member at the Spanish Community Center said that a lack of racial equity is not only a problem for the Latinx community, but for every minority community in Joliet.

"The most pressing issue facing Joliet right now is the City Council's decision to finance a fresh water pipeline to Chicago by raising the cost of water to an average of at least $138/month per household - making it unaffordable for Joliet's working families," Guerrero told Patch in his questionnaire. "Even before the vote was passed, my campaign called for a cap to be placed on the price of water to residences and small businesses, for a ban on residential water shutoffs, and for the implementation of tiered water pricing to make sure heavy industry pays its fair share, and helps keep clean water affordable to every working family in Joliet and across the region."

Glenda Wright-McCullum

McCullum told Patch that revitalization of Joliet's south side is her top issue, if elected.
"I have served the community in a ministerial leadership capacity for over 30 years, I know the heartbeat of the city with its strengths and weaknesses; I have led initiatives to promote character, skill building, mentorship, education, and training through workshops and seminars, I am a trusted leader in the community with proven character," she told Patch.

Bob Wunderlich:

Besides Clement and Quillman, the Will-Grundy Building Trades Council agreed to back the candidacy of the owner of Wunderlich Builders in Joliet. Wunderlich has also served on the Joliet Junior College board of trustees for more than 40 years.

"He was the best candidate for the Will-Grundy Building Trades Council," according to Gregory, whose organization represents about 25,000 union members.

Wunderlich has been a Will County union carpenter for 27 years, and he was a member of Joliet Local 174, Gregory said. Wunderlich's brother is a long-time Joliet Fire Department firefighter/paramedic.

Jeremy Brzycki:

A 38-year-old project manager who is a first time candidate for City Council, Brzycki told Patch that "the single most pressing issue facing our board is that patronage and corruption are running rampant in the city of Joliet. Too many members of the council are putting politics over people, making decisions that favor their friends rather than the good of the city. I intend to break this cycle forever by hiring only the most qualified people and making sure important decisions favor the citizens of Joliet over special interests."

Four other candidates running for Joliet City Council did not fill out the Joliet Patch candidate questionnaire for the April 6 election: Nicole Lurry, Isiah "Ike" Williams, Jim Lanham and Roger Powell Sr.

In some other Joliet area races of note:

Angel Contreras topped Diane Harris and Jodi Adelman-Sartori in the three-person contest to become the Joliet Township Supervisor, replacing ousted Dan Vera.

Contreras had 3,042 votes, Harris had 2,229 and Adelman-Sartori had 736.

In the Joliet Township Highway Commissioner race, Vincent Alessio, a former Joliet City Council candidate against Mudron in 2019, garnered the most votes in his race against John Lawson and Michael Turnbull. Alessio had 3,244 votes, Lawson had 2,031 and Turnbull had 547, unofficial votes show.

In the contested races for Joliet Township trustee, the top four vote getters were:

Suzanna Ibarra with 3,336 votes

Raymond Slattery with 3,291 votes

Karl Ferrell with 3,011 votes

Cesar Escutia with 2,983 votes

The three losing candidates were: Jan Nahorski with 1,924 votes, Tim Hendricks with 1,910 votes and Jason King with 1,854 votes.

In the race for Shorewood village president, unofficial vote totals showed Clarence "CC" DeBold with 1,055 votes with Dan Anderson having 15 votes less, at 1,040. The voters of Shorewood also had to elect three village trustees: long-time mayor Rick Chapman, who chose not to run for mayor, was the second highest vote getter at 1,084. Diane Lambert showed the most votes with 1,334. The third highest total was 942 for Donald Carroll.

The other two candidates were Daniel Warren at 826 and Christopher Brophy at 735 votes.