D’Arcy takes heat on picks for Joliet planning panel

Several residents and a councilwoman on Monday blasted Mayor Terry D’Arcy’s picks for a citizens committee that will help guide the implementation of a comprehensive plan, saying it was loaded with local officials including some living outside Joliet while lacking regular people affected by city decisions on land development.

The proposed Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee, which goes to the City Council for a vote on Tuesday, does read largely like a who’s who list of community, government and business leaders in the city.

The panel selections was a topic of discussion at Monday night’s Joliet City Council workshop.

“Where are the ordinary citizens on the board?” asked activist Trista Graves Brown.

Resident Jay Ringo said he was concerned the list included people who lived outside the city.

“I believe it should be citizens and residents of the community who own a house,” Ringo said.

Megan Cooper, a resident who has spoken out against warehouse development in the southeast section of Joliet, said the proposed committee lacked significant representation from that area while including three people with connections to the Joliet Latino Economic Development Association, including the one City Council member appointed to the panel.

Some of the most severe criticism came from Councilwoman Suzanna Ibarra, who represents District 5, which includes the southeast section, and who normally is a D’Arcy ally.

Ibarra said she and other council members were not aware of who was going on the committee until the city put out the proposed list last week.

“We were not consulted on this, except for Councilman Cardenas who is on the committee,” Ibarra said, adding that Cardenas’s appointment gives his section of the city “an unfair advantage” in the development of a comprehensive plan.

The outcry against the proposed members was a setback in what is intended to be a step forward in the city’s efforts to develop its first comprehensive plan since the 1950s.

“I’ll take the heat,” D’Arcy said, while defending his picks and rejecting calls that he pull back the list for another look.

“We worked hard to put together a group of people who are going to homogenate with the community,” he said.

D’Arcy noted the development of a comprehensive plan was one of the top issues in his mayoral campaign.

“If I was elected to be the mayor, I sure would like to have the opportunity to be the leader,” he said.

He added that there are three more positions to fill.

One of the proposed members, Samantha Ante Martinez with the Joliet Latino Economic Development Association, has been removed since the list was released last week. Two other members are to be named to fill out a list of 15.

Martinez’s departure leaves one other active member from the Joliet Latino Economic Development Association: Diane Vivero. Cardenas is a former member of the organization.

D’Arcy read through the list of proposed members, defending each one of the selections.

He pointed out that the Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee will work with subcommittees from the community yet to be created in providing people’s input into the development of the comprehensive plan.

“You have to start with a core group,” he said. “That’s where we’re at now.”

The list includes three people who do not live inside the city: Jen Howard, president of the Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry; Doug Pryor, CEO of the Will County Center for Economic Development; and Nora Gruenberg, local governmental affairs director for the Three Rivers Association of Realtors.

D’Arcy said all three meet criteria in a city ordinance regulating appointments to such advisory committees because of their involvement in Joliet.

While only one council member was proposed for the committee, the appointments include a candidate in the April 1 election for City Council: businessman Damon Zdunich.

Other proposed appointments are:

• Elaine Bottomley, deputy chief of staff for Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant

• Wendell Martin, senior pastor at Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church

• Hugh O’Hara, executive director for the Will County Governmental League

• Steve Randich, a retired community banker

• J.D. Ross, former president of Joliet Junior College

• Theresa Rouse, school superintendent at Joliet Grade School District 86.