Joliet Police Pension Fiasco: Capparelli, Gavin Ripped

JOLIET, IL — Al Roechner was a lousy chief at the Joliet Police Department and Darrell Gavin was equally inept as Roechner's deputy chief, according to Black Joliet community activist Jerry Hervey.

Because Roechner and Gavin were both underachievers, according to Hervey, the Joliet City Council must not allow Roechner to retire with a $31,000 pay raise on his second to last day at work. Days later, Gavin negotiated an $18,000 raise for himself to retire, rather than accept a demotion back to sergeant and a substantial pay cut.

Joliet Patch broke the news of both of these Joliet police pension spiking stories.

And at Tuesday night's meeting, Hervey blasted Joliet City Councilwoman Bettye Gavin during the citizen comment portion. Hervey also ripped Joliet's new city manager Jim Capparelli for giving the councilwoman's nephew an 11.5 percent raise. Doing so allowed Darrell Gavin to spike his annual retirement pension by an extra $10,000 annually.

With just 22 years of service at Joliet police, Darrell Gavin's starting Joliet police pension will be about $95,000 annually, thanks to Capparelli's actions.

Roechner's $31,000 raise in January was negotiated between Roechner and outgoing city manager Jim Hock. That deal was put in place during Hock's last week on the job with Joliet.

Capparelli took over the following Monday, Jan. 11.

Here's an edited version of Hervey's comments during Tuesday night's Council meeting:

"I'm wondering like how did the chief of police get out of this door with a bump in pay and the City Council and the Mayor knew nothing about it? Again, he spent all of his time here putting you all through all of this nonsense. He never attended a single City Council meeting to where nobody could ask him questions, and he just goes around you with the other city manager and does what he feels like he wants to do."

At that point, Hervey directed his comments to the nine members of the council, before turning his attention to Capparelli.

"So, do you all feel like that is appropriate for taxpayers to be on the hook for this guy's bump in pay for the rest of his retirement even though he's cost you millions of dollars in lawsuits and God knows how much grief? Then, you know, Capparelli, I was really high on you. You had a chance to draw a line in the sand with Darrell Gavin and you didn't do it. It was no reason he should have gotten money. They should have been given nothing more than a ticket out this door for all the problems that they caused in their positions. You didn't promise them anything, so you were not obligated to give him anything."

Regarding Darrell Gavin, Hervey said, "He could have simply went back to being a sergeant, or he could leave under them terms. So I went back to the City Council meeting when you were approved, right? And Miss Gavin stood up and said she had reservations, but as long as you would do what you agreed, she would vote in your favor, right?

"So when this comes up about Darrell Gavin, what am I thinking?"

Hervey paused for a moment, then declared, "That this is what she was talking about. Because no matter what happened, her sole intent was to make sure that her nephew was taken care of. And the taxpayers, they should not be on the hook for that. So, what are you going to do with (Joe) Rosado and Marc Reid? Because sure enough as the other two got it, they're coming."

Reid and Rosado were the two other deputy chiefs for Roechner who were immediately demoted in rank upon Capparelli's naming of Dawn Malec as the new chief. Malec made the demotions of Rosado, Reid and Darrell Gavin.

She replaced them with Sherri Blackburn, Carlos Matlock and Robert Brown.

Although Bettye Gavin chose not to respond to Hervey's comments during the meeting, she told Joliet Patch on Friday morning that Hervey's remarks were way out of line and that she never had any conversations with Capparelli about Darrell Gavin's pay scale or his position at the police department.

"I had no involvement in that at all," Bettye Gavin told Patch. "My seat is to serve the people and I will do that with integrity. It upsets me when (someone) attacks my integrity, and I had no involvement in that at all. (Capparelli) knows that I never spoke with him about that. That's not my lane. That's out of my lane. It was way out of my purview."

Capparelli previously told Patch that it was his understanding that Darrell Gavin had already spoken with Hock about a similar financial arrangement, so he considered it a fairness issue and approved the $17,688 bump in pay, knowing Gavin would retire immediately.

During Tuesday's meeting, Hervey gave the Joliet City Council the following advice.

"What I'd like you all to do is write a letter to the police and pension board telling them to deny the raise. Because, he shouldn't have got it to begin with. If you think about all the grief that you all got for the stuff that they done, who in the hell wants to put up with that?"

At that point, Hervey appeared to be referring to Roechner.

"And he goes out the door and gets a bump in pay? ... If you're not going to do it for the entire police department, then don't do it for none of them. That's all I got for you."

Capparelli told Patch on Friday that he did not have any additional comments to make in regard to Hervey's statements at the meeting, other than to say that he agrees with Bettye Gavin, the two of them never had any discussions whatsoever about her nephew's job at the police department.