JOLIET, IL — Just three days beforeJoliet city manager Beth Beatty informed Cesar Suarezthat his time was over as the city of Joliet’s economic development director, the Joliet City Council had its pre-council meeting to discuss the upcoming all-important vote on the future of the future of 4200 West Jefferson Street out near the Joliet Municipal Airport.
On the agenda, the Council would be voting on the U-Haul redevelopment proposal, news that Joliet Patch broke as part of an exclusive story last September. U-Haul plans to demolish the Joliet Plaza Inn & Suites, an overnight lodging business that you would never intentionally let your out-of-town family members stay.
In preparation for the vote, City Councilwoman Jan Quillman turned to Joliet’s economic development director. She wanted his guidance. The City Council Chambers went silent. Suarez had chosen to skip the meeting.
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“Where is Mr. Suarez, he’s our director, and he’s never here. He should be here today to answer these questions. This is pretty important. Does anybody know where he is? Come to work today?” Quillman asked at the March 4 meeting.
“His director, Eva-Marie Tropper is here,” responded Beatty.
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City Council Chambers went silent for about five seconds.
“How can I help?” remarked Tropper, the city of Joliet’s director of community development, who would also be ousted from her job along with Suarez just three days later.
Tropper, it turned out, didn’t have any worthwhile information to share with the City Council in preparation for their vote on the U-Haul development project.
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“Where is he?” Quillman asked.
“Not here,” Tropper told everyone.
Tropper then said nothing in regard to the U-Haul project.
“Okay, thank you for that answer,” Quillman remarked. “Let’s move on.”
Then, Councilman Larry Hug spoke up. He was not ready to let the meeting continue without letting everyone know that Joliet had celebrated numerous milestones and achieving in economic development — before Suarez and Tropper arrived in their respective jobs in 2022 and 2021.
“Well, let me be clear,” Hug began. “See, we came off a roughly eight-year span where we brought in roughly $5 billion dollars in developments. Since May of 2022, you can draw the conclusions you want, folks … we’re setting up a meeting next week, it has to do with tying up some loose ends and extending things with the grocery store on Jackson Street, El Guero, we’ve not had but three meetings,” Hug said, referring to the city’s economic development committee.
“We used to have a meeting every month when we were doing so much economic development. We’ve not had since 2022 but three meetings, this will be the fourth one. Three of the four had nothing to do but tying up loose ends from previous projects …. with one bringing in as economic development (electric vehicle) charging stations. That’s what I can report to you as chairman. So, yeah, we need to kickstart this back to the way it used to be.”
That’s when Councilwoman Suzanne Ibarra, who beat Terry Morris last April, spoke up.
“Economic development for District 5 has been disappointing and pathetic,” Ibarra let everyone know. “So that would be great if we kickstarted it.”
In the end, Joliet voted 8-1 on the Joliet Plaza Inn & Suites redevelopment, which means the hotel will be torn down this year to make way for a new U-Haul truck rental and storage facility along Joliet’s western gateway, coming from Interstate 55 and Route 52.
“Yes, precisely,” Hug agreed. “It’s been bad for the entire city. We’ve had nothing since 2022.”
Next, Councilman Joe Clement spoke up, saying, “Mayor, I don’t mean to pile it on, but economic development has completely stalled. We have our trades that are taking projects outside of the city of Joliet. We need to get back on track and listen to the public, listen to the trades. Let’s bring some projects here and let’s move this city forward some more.”
As of March 18, Joliet had no employees left in its economic development department.
The city has been advertising job openings since late last year for senior economic development specialist and economic development specialist. The job opening created by Suarez’s forced resignation nearly two weeks has not been posted on the city’s human resources page.
Suarez made $135,000 in 2023 while his boss, Tropper, who also let go, made more than $157,000 working at Joliet City Hall in 2023.
Related Joliet Patch coverage:
Joliet Hotel Faces Demolition Near Airport For New Project
2 Joliet Employee Dismissals Were Long Overdue: Ferak Column
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