33 Years On Joliet City Council Is Enough For Mike Turk: Ferak

JOLIET, IL — How many years should someone serve on the Joliet City Council? Mike Turk has spent half his life as a city of Joliet politician and his at-large seat is up for re-election in the April 6 races. At age 34, Turk was elected to the City Council in April 1987, and he's held the seat ever since.

"Turk Working Hard: Candidate Says His Chances Are Good," declared the March 29, 1987 headline from The Joliet Herald-News. At that time, Turk was a Democratic precinct committeeman who was also serving on the Joliet Park District.

A couple paragraphs from the 1987 City Council newspaper profile article stood out.

First, Turk was quoted as saying, "I think the last thing anybody wants to do is raise taxes. I think it's your job to work with the money they're willing to give you."

And secondly, Turk reflected on his time on the Joliet Park Board, saying, "it's not a board member's job to get involved with the day to day administration of the district."

Turk won his 1987 race against Ken Pritz by a margin of 8,249 to 5,395.

Fast forward 33 years, Turk is still on the Joliet City Council, and if he chooses to run for re-election in April, I'm pretty confident he will be a dark horse candidate.

He's definitely not a front runner at this stage of his political career. Turk is in the twilight of his Joliet political career. The sun is setting.

Actually, if Turk chooses to seek another four-year term on the City Council, he should be obligated to erect a campaign yard sign that reads, "Turk The Taxman."

Last year, Turk was responsible for passing a slew of city of Joliet hotel-motel increases, a fuel tax increase of an additional 3 cents per gallon upon his citizens of Joliet.

Turk also supported spending another $6.5 million in city of Joliet property taxes to help the Joliet Public Library District pay for a more than $10 million renovation of its downtown library branch that most people in Joliet will not use.

Let's not forget, Turk was a key behind-the-scenes mover and shaker in getting rid of Marty Shanahan as interim city manager in June of 2019. Under Turk's current term on the council, dysfunction has ruled the day in the city manager's office and Turk helped create the mess.

In 2017, Turk voted to hire David Hales as city manager, only to pay Hales $89,000 to break his three-year contract after less than 11 months on the job. Turk chose to remove Shanahan from the city manager's position after eight months in the role following the Hales debacle. In February, following a national hiring search, Turk opted not to extend an employment offer to any of the finalists vying for the position.

Now, the tides have turned, and Shanahan has pulled petition papers to run for one of the three open slots on the Joliet City Council next April.

Last week marked the first opportunity for Joliet citizens to pull nominating petitions at City Hall. Eight people did so last week including four-term incumbent Jan Quillman. The other two at-large incumbents are Turk and Don "Duck" Dickinson. However, Dickinson has already announced he won't run for re-election in April.

Dickinson, like Turk, made the questionable political decision to align himself with Councilman Pat Mudron and the Mudron 5 coalition over the past couple years. So, it's hardly a surprise that Dickinson decided not to seek another term. He didn't want to get slaughtered in April's at-large elections, and I imagine Turk is having the same thoughts too.

Turk, so far, has not pulled his nominating petitions at the city clerk's office.

He also has not announced he is stepping down from public office, either.

If Turk does decide to seek another four-year term, he will probably have to win without the support of Joliet's key labor unions and tradesmen and that could hurt him, big time.

Sources in the labor and trades industry have told me that Turk won't have their backing if he runs for re-election in April.

For the sake of Turk's political legacy, let's hope he makes the wise decision and chooses not to run in the 2021 race.

All in all, Turk is a good person. People have told me about multiple times when Turk has been there for his constituents during instances when they've had a problem in their neighborhood or in cases of emergencies, he has helped people whose basements were flooded.

Turk's good deeds, and there are many, should not be overlooked.

But let's face it, Turk has already had 33 years on the council. He was elected during the second term of presidency for Ronald Reagan.

It's time for someone else's turn on the Joliet City Council.