Joliet Needs Term Limits On City Council: John Sheridan Explains Why

JOLIET — With three open seats on the Joliet City Council up for grabs in the April 1 municipal elections, John Sheridan, president of Joliet's Cunningham Neighborhood Council, made an appearance at Tuesday night's meeting, to implore Joliet to follow the lead of several other Illinois communities by enacting term limits for the city's elected officials.

In the April 1 races for three open at-large seats, incumbent Jan Quillman will be seeking her sixth four-year term in office, while Joe Clement is running for his second term. They and candidate Juan Moreno are all backed by the building and trades unions. Meanwhile, Damon Zdunich is backed and endorsed by Mayor Terry D'Arcy and the Joliet Police Supervisors Association.

Glenda Wright McCullum is also running for office again. Jim Lanham is running as a write-in candidate, and Larry Crawford is running as a write-in candidate as well.

"I'm here tonight to start a discussion amongst the Council and the voters of Joliet," Sheridan said. "I'm going to talk about term limits. There seems to be a tidal wave going across America to put term limits on elected officials. The number one issue with overwhelming support from the American people across all political party lines is term limits."

Sheridan said he conducted a poll more than a month ago and received about 300 responses about term limits, "and about 90 percent were in favor of term limits," Sheridan shared. "Concentrating on our local elections, of the three at-large seats for City Council, now is the time to vote for candidates that endorse the concept of term limits. There are seven candidates that are currently running for the three seats at large. The voters of Joliet need to have them commit to putting in term limits for the Council seats, or chance not getting elected on April 1st."

Sheridan explained that the five District council members are up for re-election in two more years, along with the mayor's position.

"This ordinance, if passed, would only affect the ones after the ordinances is passed. As one of the current Council members put it, when he ran for City Council, he said, 'Call me old-fashioned, but I believe that running for election is a call to civic duty.' He also stated, I, for one, am tired of career politicians of any level. Councilman Hug, I support your position 100 percent."

In closing, Sheridan urged the City Council, "The time is now to make it happen ... Currently, nine out of the 10 largest cities in the United States have term limits. Joliet is the third-largest city in the state of Illinois. In the short time that I found these cities in Illinois have term limits, are as follows: Naperville, Calumet City, Lynwood, Orland Park, Rolling Meadows, Gurnee. All passed with a rather large majority. I'm sure there are more. If presented to the voters, I would wager it would pass two to one, just like the voters did for the mayor election. Voters want change. Their elected officials to listen to what they are saying. Let me read that again, voters want change and want their elected officials to listen to what they're saying."

Council candidate Glenda Wright McCullum also addressed the Council supporting the concept of term limits, saying, "I am standing in agreement with Mr. Sheridan in terms of term limits on councils. And I would say that because I am a candidate running for City Council at large, that it will affect me as well, if these term limits are put in place ... there's a scripture in First Samuel chapter eight, where the children of Israel were asking God for a king. And God did not want to give them a king, but He said, 'Obey the voice of the people in all that they say.'

"What he was saying to them was, give the people what they want," McCullum explained. "And so I will appeal to you today that we would remind ourselves that the reason that we sit on these councils, and the reason that we have been elected or that you have been elected to represent the people, that we would hear the voice of the people, and we would adhere to the needs and desires and the decisions that they are saying that they want to see take place."

Before the meeting ended, first-term District 1 Councilwoman Suzanna Ibarra proclaimed, "I agree with what everyone says. I definitely agree with term limits."