Shanahan settlement approved in 5-4 vote

A $200,000 settlement with former Joliet City Attorney Marty Shanahan was approved Tuesday in a 5-4 vote by the City Council on Tuesday.

The vote reflected a new majority siding with Mayor Bob O’Dekirk, who has been critical of a former city manager’s decision to fire Shanhahan and supported the settlement.

The council voted 5-3 in November to reject a payout agreement with Shanahan that would have cost $123,000. The settlement also includes a provision that bars Shanahan from seeking employment with the city until January 2023.

The mayor’s vote Tuesday broke a 4-4 tie among council members.

Councilman Herb Lande, who was appointed to the council in December, cast the deciding in favor of the settlement. He replaced Don Dickinson, who had voted against the payout agreement in November and later resigned.

Lande, owner of a construction company, said he believed the lawsuit would cost the city more in the long run, noting he was advised by city legal staff that it could run for two years.

“As a businessman, I know what the costs are now,” Lande said, urging the council to “rip the band-aid off, get the pebble out of your shoe.”

The vote was tighter than what was expected from reports of council support for the settlement when it was discussed in closed session last week.

Councilwoman Sherri Reardon acknowledged that she had changed her position on the settlement after reading a report by former interim City Manager Steve Jones on his reasons for firing Shanahan.

“It made me thin think that if I had an employee who had been terminated for that many reasons and they tried to sue me, I would want to fight it in court,” said Reardon, also a business owner.

Councilman Larry Hug questioned the Jones report saying some of reasons for given for Shanahan’s termination “are, to be polite, inaccurate, to be impolite, untrue.”

Shanahan was fired in May.

During his time with the city, he had also served twice as interim city manager.

In June 2019, the council in a 5-3 vote that reflected the former majority removed him from the position of interim city manager and returned him to his regular duties as city attorney.

Voting for the lawsuit settlement in addition to O’Dekirk and Lande were Hug, Jan Quillman and Terry Morris.

Voting against it in addition to Reardon were Pat Mudron, Bettye Gavin and Michael Turk.