Joliet councilman questions outside probe

Joliet City Council member Larry Hug on Monday questioned a proposal to bring in outside lawyers to look into disputes at City Hall, but did not say that he’d vote against it.

The council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the proposal to bring in law firm Ancel Glink to examine ethics complaints filed at City Hall and other matters.

Hug asked why the city is going outside its own staff.

He also brought up an incident four years ago when the village of Oswego voted against payment of a legal bill to Ancel Glink when interim Joliet City Manager Steve Jones was working there as village administrator.

Jones has already retained Ancel Glink but is seeking council approval, he said, to “formalize” the arrangement.

“Is there a reason why we’re not using our own legal staff or inspector general?” Hug asked Jones, adding that people have been asking why the city is going outside for the investigation.

“I would say it’s a sensitive issue,” Jones said. “I wouldn’t go into personnel or performance. I would say it’s more global than that.”

After the meeting, Jones would not elaborate on his comment.

But a letter from Ancel Glink to Jones outlining its services states that Jones "indicated that you need to retain our services because the allegations involve city officials and that the corporation counsel's office and the inspector general's office could possibly have a perceived conflict as they may be fact witnesses to some of the issues that are pending."

Jones told the council at its Oct. 1 meeting that he intended to bring in an outside firm to examine disputes between city hall and the police department in the aftermath of Mayor Bob O’Dekirk’s accusations that a police sergeant was drunk while serving on security detail at a downtown street festival in September.

Sgt. Lindsey Heavener took blood and urine tests the night of the festival to show his sobriety, according to a police memo on the matter. Heavener later filed ethics complaints against O’Dekirk and council member Jan Quillman, who was also at the event.

Jones told the council Monday that Ancel Glink would handle ethics complaints and “some of the high profile disputes that have occurred in the last six to nine months.”

Hug made reference to a dispute over an Ancel Glink bill at the village of Oswego, but did not elaborate.

Later, he referred to an article in the Aurora Beacon-News about an Oswego Village Board meeting in February 2015 when the board voted to withhold a $6,380 payment to Ancel Glink because the firm delivered a legal opinion to two outside attorneys before providing it to the village.