Joliet City Manager Capparelli not sure he will reapply

Joliet City Manager James Capparelli this week said he has not decided whether he will reapply for his job when his contract ends in June.

“It remains to be seen,” Capparelli said when asked if he would be expected to stay after a new mayor and City Council take their seats following the April 4 election.

Asked if he would reapply for the job, which likely will be open to other candidates, Capparelli laughed and repeated, “It remains to be seen.”

Capparelli’s future was uncertain even before the election. He is working on a six-month contract with an expiration date that was set to give the next City Council an option to replace him if it wanted.

It became more uncertain when Mayor Bob O’Dekirk, who backed Capparelli for the job, lost the election to Terry D’Arcy.

D’Arcy wants to open the job to other potential candidates, although he has said Capparelli would be given the opportunity to reapply.

Capparelli said he would continue to help the city in the transition to a new mayor.

“I would never leave the city high and dry,” he said.

At the same time, Capparelli said he would not want to be “left hanging” as the new mayor and City Council explore options.

Capparelli said he has met with D’Arcy to help with transition matters, but his future was not discussed in depth.

Capparelli has been working on two one-year contracts and the current six-month contract since he was hired in January 2021.

Joliet is structured as a city manager form of government, which gives the city manager authority to operate the city on a daily basis. The city manager is the only job controlled by the mayor and city council.

Even under his short-term contracts, Capparelli has been the most stable presence in the city manager office since David Hales left with a separation payout in October 2018 after less than a year on the job.

The city then operated with three interim city managers and was in the process of recruiting a permanent city manager when interim City Manager Jim Hock, who already had stayed longer than he intended, told the council he was leaving.

The council in a divided vote hired Capparelli, a private attorney in Joliet who had no previous experience in municipal government but had an administrative background with the U.S. Army and at the Pentagon.