Gavin: 'I Was Pretty Much Accused Of A Crime' At Last Meeting

JOLIET, IL — At Monday night's pre-council meeting, Joliet City Councilwoman Bettye Gavin let everyone know she did not work out a deal with new city manager Jim Capparelli to help her nephew at the Joliet Police Department financially benefit.

At the March 2 meeting, Joliet resident Jerry Hervey suggested that Bettye Gavin may have voted to hire Capparelli in exchange for approving a nearly $18,000 raise for her relative.

Gavin's nephew, Darrell Gavin, had been a deputy chief under Police Chief Al Roechner from December 2018 until Jan. 12 when he got demoted to sergeant by the new police administration.

Rather than stick it out, Darrell Gavin chose to retire, but not before he obtained an 11.5 percent raise to spike his pension. Gavin also got paid several thousand extra dollars for cashing out his unused sick and vacation banks at a much higher salary than what he made in 2019 and 2020.

The deal Capparelli approved in January let Darrell Gavin retire after 22 years of service at a starting pension of more than $94,000, which is about $10,000 more per year than Gavin should have got under his regular salary during the past year of $153,817.

A day before Darrell Gavin's demotion was announced, Capparelli gave him a raise of nearly $18,000. Gavin submitted his retirement papers later that same week.

After Hervey spoke during the citizen comment section of the Council meeting two weeks ago, Bettye Gavin and Capparelli did not respond.

On Monday night, about 15 minutes into the meeting, Councilwoman Gavin informed everyone she had something to say as she wanted to revisit the issues Hervey raised.

"I was pretty much accused of a crime in here at the last meeting," she remarked, "About working out some deal with the city manager regarding one of our former staff. Mr. Capparelli, did I ever approach you or have a conversation with you regarding Deputy Chief Gavin's salary, position or anything like that?"

Capparelli responded by saying, "Absolutely not, councilwoman. As a matter of fact, I was delighted and surprised by your support for my candidacy."

"And there was a statement I made during that, that was also twisted," Gavin told him. "I wanted to address that. When we finished our interview with you, and you were about to be confirmed it was my turn to vote, I said, 'Mr. Capparelli, I did not vote for you on the first round, but I listened to you as the full Council did, about your plans and what's your vision and all of that was. And when I made that statement that I would vote for you, but you must do what you said you promised all of us you'd do' and so that's where that statement came out.

"But the whole thing was twisted and like I said, I was accused of a crime up in there, and I will defend my integrity wherever. And I was so glad to get the input from (former city manager Jim) Mr. Hock that explained the whole situation to this full Council of what was done and what was said. So, I, like Mr. Hock said, I will defend my integrity, sir, and I'm glad you said and made that very clear to the residents of this city and to the people in this hall that I never, ever, and that's not in my lane and I'd never do that."

Hervey was not in the audience for Monday night's pre-council meeting, which is mainly a discussion and informational meeting.

The 6:30 p.m. Tuesday meeting is the regular meeting for Joliet City Council business.

Since Feb. 16, Joliet Patch has produced numerous articles about the Joliet police pension spiking controversy:

• Despite Demotion, Marc Reid Gets $18,000 Raise And Isn't Working
• Darrell Gavin Gets $18,000 Raise To Retire
• Deputy Chief Joe Rosado Accepts Demotion, Pay Cut
• Joliet Police Pension Fiasco: Jerry Hervey Outraged
• Chief Roechner's Pension Spike Surpassed Joliet's Salary Range
• Chief Roechner Got Huge Raise 1 Day Before Retiring