Republican and Democratic county board members on Monday called for answers over a separation agreement between the county and a former administrator, following a pair of reports by The Rock River Times.
The bi-partisan group says they are “calling for more transparency in the hiring and firing of county employees,” after documents uncovered by The Times laid out the arrangement with Amanda Hamaker, a former official in chairman Frank Haney’s office. Further investigating has unearthed questions about other settlements reached by the county during Haney’s first term.
“(The Hamaker) example, and a few others that we are looking into, has us concerned over the transparency of these types of complicated agreements,” said Burt Gerl, D-15, in a statement. “We think the county board should be involved and given more detail when a situation like this arises.”
The group is looking into whether the nearly $30,000 agreement reached with Hamaker was structured to avoid reporting practices seen under similar deals. Officials across multiple county departments indicated to The Times that they had not been made aware of the details of the “separation” agreement until reports surfaced in the paper last week.
“As county board members, we have an absolute obligation to look into the circumstances surrounding large payout to any employee,” said Eli Nicolosi, R-8. “The administration has cited ‘legal’ issues and human resource issues, but the fact is that the county board should authorize any settlement this large.”
Democratic Caucus Chair Joe Hoffman said any possibility of workplace harassment claims being tied to the Hamaker deal or any other settlements should have ensured such packages were brought before the board for discussion.
“We all have watched state and national reports about employees who have been harassed and then paid out a dollar amount in exchange for their cooperation and silence,” Hoffman said. “Harassment cannot be challenged nor can the perpetrators be brought to justice when the victims are paid off.”
And Republican Keith McDonald questioned why these deals are being put together in this first place, saying, “it appears that these things rarely if ever happen in the private sector unless there (are) some extenuating circumstances. I think the county board deserves to be in the loop on these types of situations.”
Hamaker’s deal is just one that was highlighted as a concern by county officials following The Times’ initial report last week. In the wake of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the paper earlier in the month, some officials were provided with a copy of Hamaker’s deal.
But the FOIA turned up a final copy of the agreement with material changes throughout, leaving some officials to questions why they had been provided with a draft of the arrangement that was not the final package.
Multiple sources told The Times last week that various county departments are now looking into similarly structured and worded agreements for other former employees. Officials said that at least two agreements had similarly been sanctioned without board oversight.