Joliet Township asylum grant was not a complete surprise at City Hall

City Hall officials appeared to back an expansion of asylum-seeker services in Joliet, but it is not clear whether anyone knew the scope of the state grant Joliet Township eventually would pursue.

The public outcry against new services for asylum-seekers led to Joliet Township announcing Friday that it has abandoned an $8.6 grant announced by the governor’s office Sept. 29.

Joliet Mayor Terry D’Arcy led the call for Joliet Township to reject the grant, saying he and other city “decision-makers” were not informed of the grant and were blindsided by the announcement from the governor’s office.

City officials, however, were not in the dark about the township’s pursuit of the grant, and D’Arcy himself supported a separate application of state funding for asylum-seeker services, according to emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

D’Arcy on Monday acknowledged that he had signed a letter in July supporting state funding for a welcome center at the Spanish Community Center in Joliet.

But D’Arcy said “there was no connection” between the funding he endorsed and the $8.6 million grant that Joliet Township officials eventually sought.

“The Spanish Community Center in Joliet has been a welcome center for many years,” D’Arcy said. “I’ve always believed in their mission to support immigrants coming here.”

Emails and comments from public officials indicate that D’Arcy signed the letter before township officials even became aware of the larger state grant in August.

Joliet Township Supervisor Angel Contreras said last week at a turbulent township board meeting attended by 350 people, most of them objecting to the $8.6 million grant, that he learned of it from City Hall.

Contreras said he was informed of the grant in August by interim City Manager Rod Tonelli.

Tonelli acknowledged informing Contreras of the grant but said there was never any follow-up discussion between the two of them.

“I had talked with him at a meeting he and I had – not on that particular topic,” Tonelli said. “At that meeting, we had a discussion of existing conditions for migrants who are already here.”

Tonelli said he informed Contreras of the asylum-seeker grant being made available by the state.

“I never had a conversation with him about that again after that,” Tonelli said. “After that, no city staff was aware of any grant application that they had filed or the scope or amount until the governor’s statement came out.”

Actually, an email from Joliet Township to Kristi McNichol, a housing finance specialist for the city who gets involved in grants, shows that she at least was informed of the grant application, but only after it was sent to the state.

Joliet has issued a statement acknowledging a Sept. 1 meeting involving city officials and representatives from Joliet Township, which eventually applied for the grant, and the two potential beneficiaries of the grant – the Spanish Community Center and the Will-Grundy Medical Clinic.

City officials, however, said they were not aware of the scope of the grant that Joliet Township eventually would pursue.

A Sept. 1 email from McNichol to Tonelli informs him of the meeting. The email does not go into detail about the topic of the meeting, but it informs Tonelli that Joliet Township is to be the “fiscal agent” and that McNichol would keep Tonelli posted.

A Sept. 18 email from McNichol to Contreras, Spanish Community Center Executive Director Sylvia Acosta Chavez and Will-Grundy Medical Clinic Executive Director Shawn Marconi refers to a meeting the previous week and asks, “Were you guys able to hammer out any additional details?”

Chavez responded Sept. 25, telling McNichol that the grant application was made Sept. 15, three days before McNichol’s email requesting information.

“We decided to request approximately $12 million,” Chavez said in the email.

McNichol would not comment on her involvement and referred questions to Tonelli.

Staff reporter Felix Sarver contributed to this story.