Joliet’s new city manager to make $32K more than predecessor at $230,000 salary

Incoming Joliet City Manager Beth Beatty will get a $230,000 salary, which is $32,000 more than her predecessor..

The city on Wednesday posted details of Beatty’s compensation package ahead of a City Council vote on the contract next week.

Beatty, who now is a deputy mayor for the city of Chicago, also would get a $12,500 payment for relocation and transition.

Mayor Terry D’Arcy on Tuesday announced the hiring of Beatty noting she will be the first woman to serve as city manager in Joliet.

She also will be the highest paid.

The previous highest salary went to David Hales when he was hired in 2017 at $215,000 a year and left a city manager job in Bloomington. Hales, however, left Joliet in the first year of his three-year contract with a buyout, ushering in a period of instability in the job that could end with Beatty.

Other items in Beatty’s compensation package posted on the city website include: a $250 a month vehicle allowance; health and life insurance benefits the same as those of other management employees of the city; 120 hours of vacation time; and 144 hours of sick time.

Other elements of the contract will be posted by the city on Thursday.

“The contract will be posted on the agenda that goes out tomorrow,” City Clerk Christa Desiderio said.

The council meets on Monday for a workshop meeting and on Tuesday for a regular meeting where there will be a vote on the Beatty contract.

The city manager is the top administrative officer in the city manager form of government that Joliet voters authorized by referendum in the 1950s. Unlike other municipalities, including Chicago, where the mayor controls hiring and firing, that authority is in the hands of the city manager in Joliet. The city manager also oversees all city operations.

The one job controlled by the mayor and City Council control in Joliet is that of the city manager.

The city had three interim city managers before James Capparelli was hired in January 2021 at a salary of $193,000 on a permanent basis but on a one-year contract. He received another one-year contract in the following year at a salary of $198,000. Capparelli then received a six-month contract at the same pay rate as the April mayoral and City Council elections approached.

D’Arcy, who unseated incumbent Mayor Bob O’Dekirk, made clear in the election that he wanted to open the city manager job to applicants. Capparelli left with his own buyout in June before the end of his contract as the City Council prepared to conduct a city manager search.

Current interim City Manager Rod Tonelli replaced Capparelli on pay rate based on an annual salary of $174,000.

Beatty would be the first city manager hired after an open application process since Hales. The City Council abandoned a city manager search that was riddled with controversy before hiring Capparelli, a Joliet attorney who had applied for the job previously but was not then a candidate, after then-interim City Manager James Hock gave two-week notice.

Hock at the time said he did not believe the City Council would complete the city manager search that was in process.

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