Joliet Mayor's Race: 3 Candidates On 2023 Election Ballot

JOLIET, IL — When Joliet residents vote in the April 4 mayor's race, they have three choices on their nonpartisan election ballots: Terry D'Arcy, president of D'Arcy Motors, two-term incumbent Bob O'Dekirk and Tycee Bell.

This marks O'Dekirk's first contested race since he became mayor in 2015 by defeating Tom Giarrante. O'Dekirk didn't have any opponents in 2019.

D'Arcy has told Joliet Patch's editor that his campaign to become Joliet's next mayor involves three main goals: improving Joliet's quality of life, how city resources are allocated and improving how Joliet is viewed.

One of D'Arcy's key goals, if elected, is to diversify Joliet's housing stock.

He said that Joliet needs to offer more housing for recent college graduates as well as empty-nesters. He said that many of Joliet's surrounding communities including Plainfield and Romeoville are doing a much better job in offering housing for people who are 55 and older, as well as for college graduates from nearby Lewis University, the University of St. Francis and Joliet Junior College.

Citywide beautification projects would be a focal point of D'Arcy's tenure as mayor.

"We just need to take pride in our city, and we need to come off as a world-class city," D'Arcy told Joliet Patch. "If we think that way, we will be that way."

Since his campaign announcement last June, D'Arcy has met with hundreds of citizens across Joliet. "A lot of people just don't feel like Joliet shows its pride when other people are entering our city the first time," D'Arcy remarked.

"Residents feel frustrated, and, in some cases, ignored when it comes to how the city is run and how and where resources are allocated," D'Arcy explained. "City leadership needs to do a better job of listening to our residents and restoring pride back in our city."

In 2019, the last mayoral election, O'Dekirk ran unopposed, and he garnered 7,604 votes in the third-largest city of Illinois, a community with a population topping 150,000.

This time, "you have three choices, and this is a once in a lifetime option for them to see three people for mayor," Bell explained.

Bell said she is 45 years old, and graduated from Joliet West High School in 1994.

"I'm a woman, and I'm a strong, very influential woman," Bell told Joliet Patch. "For me, the key thing is the relationship building and collaborative efforts with business groups, neighborhood associations, Will County, Joliet Township.

"My parents raised me here, and I'm from Joliet. I've been an active community member as a worker."

Joliet Patch asked Bell what it will take to defeat both O'Dekirk and D'Arcy.

"A strong voter turnout and finding those people who feel ... they want something concrete for the next 10 to 20 years, and they want to be included."

Bell's website states she "is a dedicated and efficient community strategist with over 20 years of nonprofit experience advocating for the growth and development of communities and families."

Bell's campaign for Joliet mayor is focused on health care, safety, work force development and neighborhood improvements.

"Politics are not the old, pale and stale politicians that lie to us. Politics are you, me and the issues our community shares," states Bell's campaign literature titled, "Reset Joliet."

"Our issues will never get solved unless we come together to build our power and demand change, starting with the structures that impact our everyday lives."

On the topic of safety, Bell wants to focus on healing families and the survivors of violent crimes. She advocates for "life-saving gun safety reforms — local, state and federal legislation."

Bell said one of her strengths that prepares her to become Joliet's next mayor "is the relationships I've built over the years have kept me very grounded and confident that I can assess peoples' needs and also empower them to speak up."

"I want people to know that I definitely will lead with my heart," Bell told Joliet Patch's editor. "My core values all centered around my service for others."

When he first got elected to the Joliet City Council in 2011, O'Dekirk said City Hall did not even have an economic development director. In those days, Mayor Giarrante had a small committee of "local business guys" who met in private with Giarrante. No news media could attend and there was no meeting agenda, O'Dekirk said.

Under his time as mayor, "there are no secret committees. There are no backroom deals," O'Dekirk told the crowd at 176 West during his February state of the city speech.

Last year included several major announcements for Joliet, O'Dekirk said. Last June, Tony's Fresh Market opened at the blighted and vacant Kmart property at Joliet's busiest intersection. Last February, VASA Fitness opened at the former Ultra Foods grocery store in the North Ridge Plaza, as did the nation's first Portillo's Pickup. Last year, Hollywood Casino announced it would stay in Joliet and build a new casino and hotel at the Cullinan Property. And last year meant the new construction for Joliet's new Olive Garden restaurant.

If the turnout for Olive Garden is anything like the interest in getting an Olive Garden for Joliet, "Olive Garden will probably be printing money," O'Dekirk said, laughing.

As for his nine PowerPoint slides: O'Dekirk noted the following accomplishments have been made during his time as mayor:

No. 1 New Will County Courthouse in downtown Joliet.

No. 2 Houbolt Road Bridge over the Des Plaines River at Route 6

No. 3: Cullinan Property near Interstate 55 and Interstate 80, where infrastructure and new roads are well underway and construction of the new Hollywood Casino and hotel will begin this year.

No. 4: Prison Redevelopment. Built in 1858, the Old Joliet Prison was left abandoned by the Illinois Department of Corrections for 15 years and became the target of repeat vandalism and multiple arson fires during the summer of 2017.

No. 5: Development in the South, notably Amazon creating 3,500 new jobs, Lion Electric and NorthPoint. Lion Electric is the Canadian-based electric bus and school bus manufacturer that just opened its first plant in the U.S. here in Joliet off Youngs Road near Route 6. Excavation for NorthPoint got underway last summer along Route 53 near Elwood.

No. 6: I-80 Repairs And Improvements O'Dekirk cited $1.4 billion committed to Interstate 80 by the state of Illinois over the coming years for additional lanes of traffic along Joliet's I-80 corridor "and a whole new bridge built over the Des Plaines River."

No. 7: Evolution of Louis Joliet Mall.

No. 8: New Corporate Headquarters. O'Dekirk cited Joliet becoming the new corporate headquarters for four different companies.

No. 9: Water Project. Joliet worked out a long-time agreement to acquire its future drinking water from Chicago through a pipeline that will be built to Lake Michigan.

O'Dekirk revealed during his annual state of the city speech that the long-abandoned U.S. Steel property near Collins Street is coming back to life as part of an agreement with Argonne National Laboratory, the U.S. Department of Energy and other entities.

"They're currently working through the environmental issues on the site, they're working with U.S. Steel," O'Dekirk told the crowd of 350 gathered to hear his presentation on the current state of Joliet. "The idea is to implement advanced technology for plastics and metals. They want to recycle electric car batteries or vehicle batteries, and they want to reprocess automotive plastics on the site."

During one of his Town Hall With Terry mayoral forums, D'Arcy told his crowd that the U.S. Steel property has been a blight to our community for a long time.

"So, Bo and I have been talking about, you know he told me I was a little crazy to run for mayor, but I said, 'Bo, I want to do some work here in the city, one last thing.' And he and I were talking about what he's been doing with his company, Bo Jackson Elite Sports.

"So the newest thing that Bo's been doing with his team, they're developing what they call tournament centers. And he's got some of them around the country right now ... they take the domes. There's one coming out of Rosemont ... they're doing 130,000 square-foot Bo Domes and on a 30 to 40 acre campus, they're including hotels, restaurants and ways for families to pull in."

Related Patch coverage:

Joliet Mayor's Race: 'I Feel I Have A Strong Chance To Win'

Terry D'Arcy Wants To Improve Joliet's Quality Of Life, Image

Bo Jackson Dome For Joliet? Terry D'Arcy Draws Crowd To Town Hall

9 Joliet Milestones: Mayor O'Dekirk Proud He's 'Ultra Aggressive'

Joliet's Abandoned Steel Mill Means Hundreds Of New Jobs: O'Dekirk