Kendall County Times

The Joliet City Council made an organizational change to the reporting requirements of the city Inspector General's Office during the council's meeting on April 18.

A motion was brought to the board to change the way Inspector General Sean Connolly's office makes its reports, sending them to the entire council rather than to the mayor's office, as is the case currently. The Inspector General is a non-partisan and independent office, although the individual is appointed by the mayor. They are responsible for conducting investigations, audits and reviews of the city government and handling complaints and reports of fraud, corruption and all forms of mismanagement. Council member Sherri Reardon, however, said the position itself was redundant.

"It's not even an inspector general," Reardon told the board. "It's under a court, what's called an auditing official," which means an elected, appointed or hired individual whose purview includes "receiving, registering and investigating complaints and information concerning misconduct, inefficiencies and waste within the unit of local government investigating the performance of officials, employees, functions and programs, and promoting economy, efficiency, effectiveness and integrity in the administration of programs and operations of the municipality. If a unit of local government does not have an auditing official, the auditing official shall be the state's attorney of Will County," she added.

Since in the absence of an auditor would mean the power would shift to the state's attorney's office, she said, "I feel like we've spent a lot of money hiring somebody that we never had to hire in the first place, and we could have been going to the Will County state's attorney for this type of work that was necessary." Reardon made a motion to table the item until a later meeting when the new mayor and council members would be seated.

Mayor Bob O’Dekirk, in his final meeting as mayor before his successor takes over May 1, said he created the position about eight years ago and has been pleased with it, saying he felt no need delay, as Reardon's motion to table the discussion failed by 5-4 vote, with O’Dekirk as the deciding vote. Council member Larry Hug argued the state's attorney's office is merely a backup, and a local inspector general more effectively reduces corruption on the local level.

O'Dekirk noted that the state's attorney's office was currently subject of an investigation and had not been cooperative with it, so he expressed surprise that Reardon would suggest allowing that office to handle local corruption cases. Councilwoman Bettye Gavin voiced her opposition for economic reasons, saying the city should be more conservative with taxpayer money if the city is not required by law to employ an inspector general, but the reporting change was approved by a 5-3 vote.