City manager says Joliet will hire inspector general

Joliet plans to fill the nearly yearlong vacancy for inspector general in 2025, City Manager Beth Beatty said this week.

The position has been open since Beatty removed former Inspector General Sean Connolly from the job in January.

Beatty commented on the job during a discussion about the 2025 budget at a Monday meeting of the City Council, where Councilman Joe Clement asked about the vacancy.

“I’d like to see an inspector general in the budget,” Clement said.

Beatty replied there is money in the budget for an inspector general.

“We plan to issue an RFQ,” she said, referring to a Request for Qualifications.

The process is used to seek contractors to provide professional services, indicating Joliet will again hire a private attorney to serve as inspector general on a contractual basis.

“We feel it’s better to go external to ensure impartiality,” Beatty said Thursday.

Filling the position is “a priority,” and the RFQs will likely go out within a couple of months, Beatty said. Interviews will be done sometime early 2025, she said.

The inspector general is authorized to investigate complaints and questions about city operations, employees and elected officials.

Connolly was a private attorney, not an employee of the city. He had been on contract since February 2022.

Connolly was the city’s second inspector general, a position created in 2016 when Chris Regis was named to the post.

Regis was a city employee and became deputy city attorney when Connolly was contracted to be inspector general. Regis later became interim city attorney. Beatty fired him from that job in August.

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Like Connolly, the next inspector general is likely to be a private attorney doing work for the city on a contractual basis.

Beatty said the city will issue a request for qualifications, a process used to contract for professional services.