Joliet City Council looks again for interim city manager

The Joliet City Council may need to look outside city staff for an interim city manager.

Interim City Attorney Sabrina Spano, who emerged last week as a favored candidate for the job, decided against it on Wednesday, sources said.

The City Council has two weeks to find someone with interim City Manager Steve Jones planning to leave Aug. 7.

Mayor Bob O'Dekirk, who previously expressed confidence that the city would have someone in place by now, said Wednesday that he believes the issue will be resolved next week.

The council is likely to hold a special meeting Tuesday to discuss the matter in closed session.

"We were planning to do that," O'Dekirk said. "There are other names that we talked about."

O'Dekirk would not discuss whether an interim city manager would come from outside city staff.

Reportedly, there are still efforts to persuade someone out of the city management ranks to do the job until the city hires someone on a regular basis.

But Spano joins at least a few other prospects at City Hall who have declined to take the city manager position even on an interim basis.

The job has become a hot seat with Joliet now looking for its third interim city manager since last having someone in the office on a permanent basis in October 2018.

Councilwoman Bettye Gavin said she believed the council now will consider someone "outside of city hall unless some other name comes up that I know nothing about."

Local attorney Michael Hansen appears to be a possibility as the council looks outside of staff ranks to fill the job..

"I think he has enough support to be that person," Councilwoman Bettye Gavin said.

Hansen is a corporate attorney with a long list of clients who have done business with the city, including CenterPoint Properties whom he represented in recent negotiations to finalize a lease agreement with Joliet for the future Houbolt Road bridge.

Hansen also was the attorney for the controversial Love's Travel Stop that is to be built near the Interstate 80 interchange at Briggs Street and still faces opposition from neighbors.

Gavin said Hansen would have to "decouple himself from all of those businesses that do business with the city. I understand that he's willing to do it."

Gavin said Hansen was among several people on a list of alternatives if Spano decided against taking the job.

Hansen would not comment on whether he was interested or willing.

"There's no reason for me to comment at this point in time," he said.

Others said to be on the list include banker James Roolf and attorney James Capparelli.

Capparelli was among three finalists who interviewed for the city manager job when the city council sought to fill it earlier this year. He did not make a final list of two, but neither of those two candidates had enough support to get the job either.

Roolf, who is president of the First Midwest Bank's Joliet Banking Center, was asked about his interest Monday after he appeared before the council to speak in support of the Joliet Public Library on an issue.

He declined to talk about his own interest in the job but mentioned that he would have to work out something at the bank if he intended to take the position.

They need to get things resolved so we can move forward with the city," Roolf said about the pending council decision.

Jones, meanwhile, said he does not intend to say beyond Aug. 7.

"It absolutely is a firm date," he said.

The city last month hired a consulting firm to conduct a search for a regular city manager, but the process is just getting started.