The Joliet City Council was divided on a vote to hire a consultant for a staffing study with the mayor saying the city pays $10 million a year in overtime.

The council vote was 6-3 with one member saying that the study will be done by retired bureaucrats who will inevitably recommend more hiring.

But Mayor Terry D’Arcy pointed to overtime pay that averages $27,397 a day, saying Joliet needs to examine how it is staffing city services.

Roughly $10 million out of the $90 million Joliet spends on pay for city employees annually goes for overtime, D’Arcy said.

“I think we need to take a look at this and say, ‘Is it in the best interest of the city of Joliet to pay this overtime?’” D’Arcy said.

In the meantime, the city will pay the consulting firm Raftelis $156,500 for the study.

Raftelis has offices across the United States and provides management consulting services to local governments.

Councilman Larry Hug dismissed the study findings before it started, saying Raftelis was comprised of “retired public service bureaucrats” who would recommend more hiring at the city of Joliet.

“Anyone want to bet a dollar that the outcome is to add more jobs?” Hug asked.

Hug said the city has expanded its staff by 11% since 2022 and should not consider adding more jobs.

He was joined by Juan Moreno and Jan Quillman in voting against the study.

Voting for it with the mayor were Cesar Cardenas, Joe Clement, Suzanna Ibarra, Pat Mudron and Sherri Reardon.

Mudron noted that a vote to conduct the study is not a commitment to “approving the outcome.”

City Manager Beth Beatty urged approval for the study while noting that the number of city employees has expanded from 895 in 2015 to 1,010 in 2024.

“Our workforce is growing,” Beatty said. “With that, we need to study it.”

Beatty’s comments suggested that she believes the city is understaffed.

She said department heads “work their tails off with less staff than they should have.”

Beatty, however, added that the study will be “data based” and less prone to recommend more jobs than if city officials did their own review as some suggested.

“If you ask us to do it, we’re all going to say we need more people,” she said.