Joliet Taxpayers Funding Another New City Hall Director Position: City Council Vote Nears

JOLIET, IL — Seven months after Joliet City Manager Beth Beatty and Mayor Terry D'Arcy brought the citizens of Joliet increases in their property taxes and fuel taxes, both of Joliet's leaders are urging the Joliet City Council to create another new position at City Hall that will pay in excess of $100,000.

At Tuesday night's meeting, the Council voted 7 to 2 in favor of Beatty's recommendation to create a new job for her city manager's office. The position will be known as director of cultural affairs and special events. The City Council agenda did not contain a salary or salary range for the position.

Councilman Larry Hug and Councilwoman Jan Quillman were the only elected officials to vote against creating yet another $100,000-plus salaried position at Joliet's City Hall.

This week, Joliet Patch obtained that information after reaching out to Rosemaria DiBenedetto, City Hall's communications director. She indicated the salary range begins at $111,000 with a targeted hire salary between $140,000 and $160,000.

DiBenedetto informed Patch that "the position will be advertised and filled when we find someone with the qualifications we are seeking. Our desire is to have someone in place by late summer early fall."

At Monday night's pre-council meeting, City Councilman Larry Hug was not enthusiastic about creating another high-paying administrative job at Beatty's City Hall.

"Maybe we should wait until the 2026 budget to take a look at that," Hug told Joliet Finance Director Kevin Sing. "We've added over 10 percent new positions since 2022; 2022, 2023 and 2024 we added 10 percent new positions. Not all were police and fire ... there were a lot of other positions. We had a grant writer, which I'm told ... the grant writer position is now open. And saw no return on that. There was never any presentation at least claiming a return.

"We expanded the economic development department, and I've seen no return yet. So maybe we should wait for the returns on the 10 percent in new positions that we've already added in the last two and a half, three years, before we start adding more positions in the middle of a budget year," Hug declared.

"And my only response to that would be, we waited, as we wanted to be closer, and that was maybe a strategic fail on my part," Beatty informed Hug. "But we wanted to wait until the person could be hired and hit the ground running to really get all these events in like a year for us ... in 2007 and 2008, a lot of positions at the city were eliminated. We have recovered some from that, but we haven't fully recovered from all that. I literally don't have enough people to do all the improvements that I would like to do and that's why I'm coming to you with it now ..."

Hug informed Beatty that back in 2010 and 2011, Joliet was named the 15th most likely city to become bankrupt in five years by Business Weekly.

"We were bloated then and we're starting to bloat now," Hug announced. "We need to slow this down. We're hiring all kinds of new positions and we've got now return on those new positions ... What happens if this person doesn't provide anything? It's just somebody filling the new position. I don't have a lot of confidence that they will ...."

"Well, I would say there are a lot of needs for Joliet, I would just ask that you allow us to show you that we can do this and really improve our staff and really be providing top of the line service to our community," Beatty responded to Hug. "Like, we hear from the community all the time. There might be the Mexican Independence Day parade, but what about a different cultural group of people wants to have something like that ... we have a very diverse community ... some of this will be free things for everyone to come to and enjoy and some won't and we'll get sponsorships. I really believe this is the right move for the city of our size and just observing other communities around us that have been very successful at this. And that's all I can say, let me prove it to you."

According to the Council agenda: director of cultural affairs and special events will oversee Cultural Affairs, Bicentennial Park, City Square and City-wide special events. This position will enhance and promote Joliet’s rich cultural heritage by leveraging and coordinating the City’s resources and staff. This position will report to the City Manager’s Office and manage Bicentennial Park and the city square.

The Director of Cultural Affairs and Special Events will serve as a dedicated liaison to event organizers and serve as the City’s designated representative to facilitate seamless and successful events. Additionally, this position will seek out regional and national event partners to attract larger entertainment events and retain events such as IHSA, NHRA, and NASCAR.

Finally, the Director of Cultural Affairs and Special Events will solicit grants, donations and sponsorships which will allow Joliet to mitigate current and future operating costs.

According to the agenda, this position currently exists in many medium-to-large communities in northeast Illinois.