Joliet's Old Political Guard Resurrects At City Hall: Ferak

JOLIET, IL — In 2017, the Joliet City Council made an incredible blunder in conducting a national hiring search to replace retiring city manager Jim Hock. The city spent nearly $40,000 during the hiring process, ended up with more than 80 applicants and then voted to hire Bloomington City Manager David Hales, whose contract was not being renewed after nine years on the job.

Joliet gave Hales, who was in his mid-sixties, a three-year contract and a $215,000 starting salary, plus a few hundred bucks every month as a car allowance.

Hales proved to be a disaster, which I wrote about extensively. Hales did not last an entire year on the job.

Last October, the Joliet City Council negotiated a severance to get rid of Hales. The city council's action to break the terms of the contract gave Hales five months of pay in order to go away, a decision that cost the city of Joliet nearly $90,000.

Since October, city of Joliet corporation counsel Marty Shanahan has served as interim city manager. Shanahan, who worked in the private sector for years, was hired during the city administration of former Mayor Tom Giarrante, who was defeated in 2015 by Bob O'Dekirk.

Most people around City Hall and a number of constituents who have reached out to me in recent days believe Shanahan is doing an outstanding job and should get the job on a permanent basis. The city council did that last year when it made Al Roechner the permanent chief of police in December after appointing Roechner as interim chief last August.

The city council also did the same thing years ago when it elevated Tom Thanas from corporation counsel to city manager.

However, Joliet's old political guard is trying to make a comeback.

Pat Mudron and Mike Turk have been actively working behind the scenes to bring in somebody else as the new city manager.

In years past, the city of Joliet's political movers and shakers did not always hash out the city of Joliet's business in a public form at City Hall.

The real deals were struck on West Jefferson Street inside the Al's Steakhouse and at other area restaurants where Joliet City Councilmen liked to congregate.

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Mudron, who runs his own insurance company on Republic Avenue and is a prominent Joliet Catholic High School alum, did not return phone calls to Joliet Patch for this column.

Mudron, at the moment, may have enough muscle on the Joliet City Council to make sure Shanahan does not become the permanent city manager of Joliet.

Don "Duck" Dickinson, newly elected Sherri Reardon and recently re-elected Bettye Gavin of Forest Park appear to be aligned with Mudron and Turk in their quest to bring in a new city manager who may be politically connected to the old political establishment of Joliet.

I've been told by people in the political know that there are four names being circulated by Joliet's Old Guard politicians as possible permanent city managers. One of them is Nick Palmer, the long time chief of staff for Will County Executive Larry Walsh.

Last month, I broke a story that revealed how behind the scenes plans were in the works for Larry Walsh to retire in May and hand over his County Executive position to State Sen. Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant, essentially clearing the way for Bertino-Tarrant to run as an incumbent in the 2020 general election.

Sources are now suggesting that Joliet's old guard politicians may be warming up to the idea of making Palmer the new city manager for Joliet; doing so would pave the way for Bertino-Tarrant to become Will County Executive.

This would maintain peace and harmony within the Will County Democratic Party.

Another name being mentioned is someone who works in local municipal government here in Will County.

A third possibility is the husband of a current Will County Board member, who has ties to Joliet Catholic Academy, like Mudron.

The fourth person on the old guard's short list works in Du Page County government.

This past Tuesday night, the rift between the new guard and the old political guard reared its ugly head during the Joliet City Council meeting.

At the bottom of this column, you can watch the broadcast of the council discussion. It starts at the 46 minute mark. It's worth your while.

Veteran city councilwoman Jan Quillman was the voice of reason during the meeting. Here were her key comments:

"I've been thinking about this. And with all due respect to my city council members, I have to get this off my chest. Now that the city council is in place, I think it's time that we get a permanent city manager here. And I know that everybody here wants to be transparent and transparency is the word of the day, and the city council has been very transparent as far as I'm concerned. And the current interim city manager, Mr. Shanahan, has been a public interview for the last 14 months, off and on. I don't know how much more transparent you can get.

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"He's done the job, people like him, I've heard nothing but good things. He was out there at 3 a.m. with the snowplows to see what the (Local) 440 guys do in the middle of the night. I was just told last night that he went on a fire training exercise where he donned a wet suit and they went into the canal ... and learned how to rescue somebody to see how the fire department works when they are on duty."

Next, Quillman reflected on the city council's events that transpired during the summer and fall of 2017.

You know, the events that resulted in the David Hales debacle as city manager.

"Now we did a national wide search about a year ago and we all know how that turned out. And that cost thousands of dollars. I personally don't want to waste any more taxpayer dollars on a national search, or a regional search. The last time it didn't pan out ... Now, Mr. Shanahan has become the face of Joliet. He's everywhere. He's at Rotary. He's at Chamber. He attends charity events. He participates in charity events.

"I just can't say enough. He was at the (Old Joliet) Prison working hard out there ... and with all of these important projects that we have coming up right now, it would be a complete disaster to change right now ... we have the person sitting right here."

Mudron and Turk were clearly taken aback by Quillman's comments.

"We're the third largest city in the state of Illinois ... and I think we need to open up the job and if Marty is the best candidate as you think, he would win out in the interviewing process, but we need to ask the public out there, 'Is there somebody else?" Mudron told Quillman.

Even City Council member Bettye Gavin echoed Mudron's comment. She suggested "that Marty was welcome to apply.

"For me ... it does not have to be nationwide," Gavin explained to Mayor O'Dekirk. "We can certainly narrow that down."

Even the Old Joliet Guard has a suggestion for how to open up the hiring process.

Run a print newspaper advertisement for the city manager's job in The Joliet Herald-News paper.

Finally, the Joliet City Council's elder statesman, Mike Turk, spoke up. Turk wasn't happy.

You see, Turk did not like the direction of Tuesday night's council discussion because it was hindering his plans to work behind the scenes to line up someone who would be preferable to the Old Guard of Joliet.

If it was up to Turk, in my opinion, any interviews for the next city manager of Joliet would be taking place in a back room over at Al's Steakhouse, not at City Hall.

"You know what, this is an odd conversation because in all my years on the city council we've never discussed personnel issues up here at the Dias," Turk told the council during Tuesday's meeting. "We only hire one person in this city, and I think we should all be able to speak in closed session, iron it out and come out here unified, but to discuss the man's future right here, I think is totally inappropriate, that's my opinion."

Besides Quillman and O'Dekirk, councilman Terry Morris and Larry Hug are on board with making Shanahan as the permanent city manager.

Hug spoke up at the meeting, offering blistering criticism of his colleagues who have been actively working behind the scenes to line up someone else as city manager.

"We're not talking about personnel," Hug reminded Turk. "We're talking about whether we're going to hire somebody or do a search ... let's put everything on the table. I've stood back and kind of rubbed my whiskers and listened. I've heard three members of this council mention a man's name that they want in that position. Politics are being played here. (Is) somebody here going to have the decency and the integrity to come forward and say 'I'm one of those three, here's the guy I want?'

"That's not transparency," Hug snapped at Turk.

"I have no idea," Turk responded.

"We want Marty because Marty has proven himself," Hug answered back.

The drama at Joliet City Hall will be continued. The next city council meeting is not for another two weeks. It will be interesting to see what political maneuvering happens by then. And if you see Turk and Mudron sitting at one of the back tables at Al's Steakhouse - or another local restaurant in the Ruby Street area - be sure to snap a photo and give me a call.

My number is+18155312857.