New Joliet city manager will get three-year contract

Beth Beatty will get a three-year contract, the first multiyear contract provided to a Joliet city manager since 2017.

The city announced Tuesday that Beatty has been hired as its new city manager after an agreement was reached by the City Council in closed session the night before.

The council will vote at its next regular meeting Tuesday on Beatty’s contract, which provides a $230,000 salary in the first year and a potential increase in future years to be determined by the mayor and council.

The contract is included in the City Council agenda posted online on the city’s website, joliet.gov.

Beatty is coming to Joliet from the city of Chicago, where she has worked for almost 20 years and most recently served as deputy mayor of intergovernmental affairs.

Beatty’s hiring could end a period of instability in the top administrative post in the city since the last city manager with a multiyear contract, David Hales, left in October 2018 near the end of his first year on the job with a separation agreement.

The city since has had four interim city managers, including Rod Tonelli, who has held the post since June.

The only city manager hired on a permanent basis in that time was James Capparelli, who had two one-year contracts and a six-month contract. Capparelli resigned in June with another month to go on his six-month contract as the City Council prepared to open the job to applicants.

The contract also includes four months of severance pay if Beatty is terminated, $12,500 for relocation/transition costs as she comes to Joliet and a vehicle allowance of $250 a month.

The city has not yet announced when Beatty will start.