Capparelli takes charge in Joliet

James Capparelli in his first week as a city manager said he has not come across anything in municipal government that he couldn’t handle.

“I think things are going really well. I’m very excited about what’s going on,” Capparelli said in an interview at his office in Joliet City Hall. “We’re working with the staff. I’m getting to know them. There are some really great individuals who are department heads.”

He was hired Jan. 8 in a 5-3 vote by a City Council divided in part because of Capparelli’s lack of experience in municipal government and in part because of an array of political issues that has divided a council unable to hire a city manager for two years.

This is Capparelli’s first job in municipal government. He has never been a city manager.

It’s not his first job in government.

Capparelli in seeking the job pointed to management experience with the Army at the Pentagon from 2009 to 2012. According to his resume, he managed more than $3 million in acquisitions in contracts to support Army operations worldwide. He spent another two years in Guantanamo Bay and Afghanistan, managing large contracts again and overseeing 7,000 linguists at one point.

Although he has spent his last seven years as a lawyer with Castle Law in Joliet, Capparelli said his first week as city manager was familiar ground from his days at the Pentagon.

“At the Pentagon we had department heads,” he said. And a way of doing things, Capparelli added. “I’m trying to bring some of that organization here.”

Capparelli created a stir on his first day on the job when he notified staff that he was going to post all department head positions to collect resumes. He insisted he’s not looking to replace anyone, but wants to have resumes on hand because of the number of positions that already need to be filled because of retirements late last year.

The day Capparelli was hired, Police Chief Al Roechner retired, a decision believed to have been prompted by the likelihood that his job was on the line under new management.

Capparelli appointed Dawn Malec, the city’s first female police chief, as interim chief on Monday. A new command staff was in place by the end of the week.

As for the three votes against his being hired as city manager, Capparelli said that’s OK, and he won’t be partial to Mayor Bob O’Dekirk, who backed him, or some council members over others, in handling city business.

“We’re running a professional organization here,” he said. “This isn’t high school. This is good government.”

Capparelli is not a native of Joliet. He grew up on the Southwest Side of Chicago in Garfield Ridge, a blue-collar, bungalow neighborhood where he lived before moving to Joliet two years ago. He went to Marist High School, which is in the same East Suburban Catholic Conference as Joliet Catholic Academy.

He joined up with the ROTC while a student at the University of Illinois-Chicago, which led to an Army career after graduation that included a parachute jump into Panama in the 1989 invasion that ousted dictator Manuel Noriega.

After leaving the Army, Capparelli worked as director of operations/personnel for Battaglia Distribution, where he negotiated contracts with the Teamsters union while going to law school. He was a prosecutor for the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office and a bureau chief with the Illinois Attorney General’s Office before entering private practice.

“I think I have the tools (for the city manager job),” Capparelli said. “I’m at the point in my life that this is the right job.”