The Palos Heights City Council officially appointed Joe Smith to be the Director of Public works last week.
Smith has been serving as the Interim Director of Public Works since December following Adam Jasinski’s appointment to City Administrator from the Public Works Director role in September 2025. The official appointment to the permanent director was held off until June to give Smith time to complete training for a water operators license through the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
Prior to his interim appointment, Smith had served as the Assistant Director of Public Works since January 2023. He has been with the department in various capacities since June 2012.
“I’m thrilled at the opportunity,” Smith said. “I love this community, and I’ve had a great experience here.”
Smith said his previous experience working with Jasinski in the department has made the transition to leading public works “wonderful.”
“We’ve always had a strong working relationship, and that extends to the crews too,” Smith said. “I’ve worked with a lot of them for years.”
The appointment at the June 16 city council meeting came on the heels of what Mayor Robert Straz called “the worst storm I’ve seen in my 50 years in the community” on June 10 and 11, for which he praised the response of the entire public works department.
Multiple city council members took time to recognize the long hours Smith and Jasinski put in in the aftermath of the storms, noting Smith riding out with crews to evaluate property damage and putting in long overtime hours.
“I cannot applaud our public works department enough,” said City Clerk Shannon Harvey.
“What a job Joe did,” said Alderman Jack Clifford of the storm recovery efforts. “My kudos to those guys, thank you for a job well done, mission accomplished.”
