Joe Clement: 'When You Put The Citizens First, That's What Matters'

JOLIET — Voters in Joliet prefer incumbent elected officials and they are not interested in enacting term limits as shown by Tuesday night's vote totals. Incumbent Joliet City Councilman Joe Clement had the most votes on the ballot and Jan Quillman came in third, good enough to secure the third seat on the at-large Council. Newcomer Juan Moreno, who was aligned with Clement and Quillman, came in second place.

The three had their victory party at McBride's On 52 on Joliet's West Jefferson Street.

"All three of us worked very hard, I just want to let everyone know that I'm going to continue to be the voice of reason on the Council," Clement told Joliet Patch at McBride's. "I want everyone to come together. Let's work together and I tell you what, we had the three J's end up pulling it out and we're going to work good with the mayor and we're going to do everything we have to do to keep the city moving forward.

"I'm so appreciative of all the citizens of Joliet that came out and voted for all of us."

Patch asked Clement how he felt about his prospects for reelection heading into the April 1 race.

"You know, John, I've done a lot of great things for the city of Joliet, in my heart, right, and it has to resonate to the public," Clement explained. "I've done a lot of great things. I really believe that when you put the citizens first, that's what matters, and I guess the results spoke for themselves."

Patch asked Clement about the fact that historically, Joliet's sitting mayor has stayed neutral and not taken a side or made public endorsements of candidates, but that was different this time when Mayor Terry D'Arcy made Facebook political commercials endorsed the candidacy of Damon Zdunich, who came in fourth out of five the candidates on the ballot.

"Were you surprised that Terry D'Arcy decided to endorse Damon Zdunich?" Patch inquired.

"I respect everybody that put their name on the ballot. I've been a police officer 28 years, I've never seen that before, but if that's the way we want to go, what I would like to see instead of doing commercials and Facebook posts, come to the table and give the mayor and the city manager and everybody ideas that we can do to make the city better," Clement advised. "I mean, instead of doing commercials for people, I don't know. I've never done that. You can support people all day and that's fine, cutting commercials for people, I don't know if that's the right to do. It's time now, what happened happened, let's all get together, let's work together, that's what I've always done. I've always treated the citizens and everybody on that dais with the utmost respect and that's what I expect to happen here. We're going to continue to work with the mayor to make the city a better place."