O'Dekirk Wrong About PR Director For Joliet: Ferak Column

JOLIET, IL — Only a few dozen Joliet citizens tune in to watch the Joliet City Council meetings on YouTube, but every so often there's some entertainment value.

Monday night's special meeting was a great example.

Joliet Mayor Bob O'Dekirk sounded furious that his city has not established a full-time public relations director. In essence, O'Dekirk wants Joliet's taxpayers to fund him a public relations director as their Christmas present to him.

According to Joliet's mayor, the city had such a position more than a decade ago, but it was eliminated after the 2008 economic recession.

Now, the City Council is debating the spending proposals in the 2022 city operating budget. City Manager Jim Capparelli wants Joliet to create a director of public relations role with a $90,000 starting salary, plus fringe benefits.

Five-term Councilwoman Jan Quillman was one of the elected officials to raise concerns about the creation of the public relations director post, but O'Dekirk told her, "A city our size to not have a public relations director is insane. Will County has them. Other communities do. I think we do ourselves a real disservice by allowing others to tell our story and tell it incorrectly.

"I think we should do it ourselves," O'Dekirk continued.

"Well, if it's a PR person, I think they should have had much experience, not just fly by night or somebody here or there," Quillman replied.

Quillman turned to Capparelli and said, "I know who you had in mind. I don't agree with that. I'm just going to say it because, I'll tell you privately why."

"OK," Capparelli spoke up.

"And I think that it's someone who should have had experience with the PR as far as promoting and not just someone that wants a job," Quillman continued.

Next, four-term Councilman Larry Hug spoke up, saying, "Mayor, I would respectfully disagree. Whatever PR we do or don't have, we're heading towards $5 billion in investment since 2014."

"Right," O'Dekirk replied. "How many people in this city know that?"

"I just announced it," Hug remarked.

O'Dekirk started laughing, as he exclaimed, "Yeah, because you're never going to read it anywhere. I mean, per capita, there's no other city in the state that has had growth that we've had here in Joliet. But that's not the story that's ever told about our city."

"And it hasn't hurt us as a city," Hug reminded the mayor.

"It hasn't, but it's frustrating as the mayor that the people don't realize how well we're doing financially and economically here," O'Dekirk told Hug.

Quillman told the mayor that "It's very hard to get our citizens. We don't have a newspaper that they all read, OK? They don't all have computers. How do you reach folks?"

"Well, that's what a PR person does," O'Dekirk said.

"I know, but how is that going to make it any different?" Quillman inquired. "Unless it's a computer or a newspaper or a newsletter."

"Well, you said most of them," O'Dekirk responded. "Social media is where most people get their information today."

At one point, O'Dekirk told everyone that "Other city managers have come here and have said, 30 year veterans, they can't believe the negative media coverage. They've never seen a city where local papers do nothing but trash the city. I've had two city managers that came from out of town, actually three, that complained about that, and they can't believe what's happening. So I think we do ourselves and our citizens a disservice by letting negativity rule the day. I think it's been overdue ... it was in Joliet previously, and it's long overdue to bring back."

Hug told O'Dekirk that his public relations director position isn't necessary for Joliet.

"With our successes, I don't need, I can speak for myself mayor only, a high paid $90,000 or $120,000 a year paid PR to make me look good, or make me look bad," Hug said. "We're the elected officials. I don't see an advantage ... We send out press releases."

"Again, you're acting as if this position does not exist," O'Dekirk told Hug. "Go look at Aurora, look at Waukegan, and Springfield, Peoria, etc. and you're going to see every city near our size would have a position like this filled. But I guess if you think you know more than the rest of them, then that's your opinion. I disagree."

Finally, Quillman inquired again to the salary for the public relations director.

City finance director Jim Ghedotte reminded her the salary in the proposed 2022 budget is $90,000 for a full-time position plus fringe benefits.

"I'll quit and take that job, OK?" Quillman told everyone, laughing.

On Tuesday afternoon, I spoke with Capparelli in City Hall.

He told me the public relations director's position was not removed from the proposed city budget following Monday's special meeting.

If the proposed city budget gets approved later this month, the public relations position would be funded.

Can Quillman and Hug convince three of their City Council colleagues to stop O'Dekirk and Capparelli?

I hope so.

Perhaps Pat Mudron, Sherri Reardon and Bettye Gavin, at least two of them, along with 25-year-old Councilman Cesar Guerrero, can form an alliance to remove the public relations position from the upcoming budget before it gets approved in the coming days.

The taxpayers of Joliet aren't going to be served by a new public relations director having an expensive office and new furniture inside City Hall to crank out press releases proclaiming how great O'Dekirk and Capparelli believe they are doing.

If O'Dekirk and Capparelli have an extra $90,000 — plus fringe benefits — burning like a hole in their pockets, they should use that money to hire extra police officers, firefighter/paramedics or more public works staff to clean up the many streets and areas of Joliet littered with trash.

And for starters, O'Dekirk could buy a few hundred gallons of paint to clean up the crumbling giant murals of our city's legendary sports heroes, murals that are peeling and look reprehensible near the railroad viaduct along Jefferson Street.

First and foremost, Joliet's mayor needs to clean up the city before he goes and hires someone to clean up the city's image.