The conclusion informally agreed upon by five of seven Board members in the Lakewood controversy, read by Trustee Ryan Berman, have been published previously.

Today, let’s look at the original questions proposed by Trustees Bryan Younge, Brian Augustine and Amy Odom to Chief Administrative Officer Jeannine Smith and Village President Phil Stephan:

= = = = =

Brian Augustine writes;

Cal, for the record, someone added my name here.

Not my questions.

This should not read Brian Augustine.

Thank you,

Brian

= = = = =

Updated 7-7-20

Cal, would you please add this post under Brian Augustine’s comments.

Here are the details:

Wed., 5/20/20 – 2:05PM
– I sent email message to Brian Augustine with subject: questions for the CAO and President. “Brian, below are my proposed questions for Phil and Jeannine. Please look them over carefully to make sure I’m not exposing the identity of the complainants too obviously (if it’s a current staff member’s accusation). Make any changes you think necessary. I will take your feedback and Bryan’s, make your recommended changes and then submit to the other 3 trustees, Phil and Jeannine.” – Amy

Thurs., 5/21/20 – 11:39AM
– I sent email message to Brian Augustine: “Any comments/additions/changes??” – Amy

Thurs., 5/21/20 – 1:04PM
– I received response from Brian Augustine: “Hi reading now. Thank you.”

Thurs., 5/21/20 – 1:09PM
– I received call from Brian Augustine…duration 21 min.

Thurs., 5/21/2020 – 3:45PM
– I sent email message to Bryan Young[e] with subject: final draft questions for the CAO and President. “Bryan, Brian (Augustine) got back to me as well and said that some of this could start to come across as too aggressive vs. straight-forward YES or NO questions. So I took out what he suggested to keep it from being considered too inflammatory…” – Amy

So Brian Augustine did review/edit and give input on these questions.

And very obviously, THESE questions were completely disregarded and the “new” questions submitted by Brian Augustine and Ryan Berman to CAO and the President DID NOT CONTAIN A SINGLE ONE OF THESE ORIGINAL QUESTIONS.

Why is that? I thought all the trustees were looking for the truth?

Amy

= = = = =

Updated 7/8/20 from Brian Augustine:

Cal, can you add this to my last comment from this morning.

Amy, the night prior to our last Village Board meeting, we talked at length. It was a good conversation. It was agreed to by you, that there was NOTHING TERMINABLE for Smith/Steffan. Those were your words.

QUESTIONS RE: LAKEWOOD – FOR CAO SMITH AND PRESIDENT STEPHAN

JEANNINE: Would you explain the circumstances of your separation agreement from Prairie Grove?

Please answer YES or NO to the following questions. Thank you.

Accusations of inappropriate treatment of employees:

JEANNINE: How many employees have left or been fired from Lakewood since taking over as CAO in Nov. 2017?

JEANNINE: Did any of them leave a letter of explanation as to why they were leaving or were asked to leave?

JEANNINE: Were any of these letters shared with the board?

JEANNINE: Were any of them destroyed?

JEANNINE: Have you ever been told that the morale among staff members is “horrible”?

JEANNINE: Have you ever berated or screamed at a staff member in front of others?

JEANNINE: Have you ever yelled and slammed doors in front of staff?

PHIL: Have you ever made reference to a staff member’s wage/raise in front of residents?

PHIL: Is it true that you called a staff member by the wrong name, they joked by calling you the wrong name back, and that you then put your finger in their face and said, “This is different, I’m a Village Trustee. I don’t have to know your name but you f[redacted]g have to know mine!”

JEANNINE: Have you ever “looked the other way” when golfers have been disrespectful to staff members?

PHIL: Have you ever screamed at a staff member in front of other staff members, saying they are not doing their jobs and should be worried about keeping their jobs?

JEANNINE: Have you ever called a staff member “a liar”?

PHIL: Have you ever referred to a staff member as “a monkey”?

PHIL: Have you ever referred to a staff member as “a hillbilly” in front of other staff members?

JEANNINE: Have you ever divulged negative information about employees to their peers?

JEANNINE: Have you ever shared a resignation letter marked “personal & confidential” with other employees?

Accusations of inappropriate/disparagingly comments in front of staff:

PHIL: Have you used the term “crazy or nut-job” to describe a resident with mental illness in front of other staff members?

PHIL: Have you commented to/about the female bartenders about how good they look or how beautiful they are?

QUESTIONS RE: LAKEWOOD – FOR CAO SMITH AND PRESIDENT STEPHAN

JEANNINE: Did you say, after a (male) resident sent a positive note/request about hiring back a previous employee (female), that “she was probably doing him” to other staff members?

PHIL: Have you made comments in front of other staff members (to a larger, big-breasted employee) joking that larger, big-breasted woman will not be able to find a shirt to fit their chest?

JEANNINE: Did you ever say in front of staff members that once your son was in school, redacted?

JEANNINE: Did you in front of other staff members make fun of a mentally challenged employee, saying “it’s hilarious how Phil makes fun of him” (with the new leaf blower)?

PHIL: Did you make fun of / imitate this mentally challenged employee?

Accusations of knowingly ignoring proper procedure:

JEANNINE: Have you ever revealed suspect information in a police investigation to the victims of a crime?

JEANNINE: Have you ever told any member of staff not to have verbal or electronic communication with members of the Village board trustees?

PHIL: Have you stated when making a complaint against a neighbor and then being advised that you should make a police report, that you were “from Chicago” and that these types of things could be “handled with a baseball bat”?

Lakewood Municipal Code (3.05) requires the village to have either a building inspector or a code enforcement officer. Sending out untrained building code enforcement could/has resulted to liability.

JEANNINE: Has the police department explained that they are not trained or educated in the enforcement of village codes and that having them do so could open the village up to possible legal problems?

PHIL: SAME QUESTION. Has the police department explained that they are not trained or educated in the enforcement of village codes and that having them do so could open the village up to possible legal problems?

JEANNINE: Have you ever circumvented the proper procedure of village code enforcement by sending police officers instead of a trained code enforcement officer?

PHIL: SAME QUESTION. Have you ever circumvented the proper procedure of village code enforcement by sending police officers instead of a trained code enforcement officer?

Accusations of keeping information from the board:

JEANNINE: Did anyone other than you proof the 2021 budget calculations?

JEANNINE: Were any other engineering companies interviewed before hiring HR Green?

JEANNINE: Were bids received from two other possible firms as well?

JEANNINE: Do you have any personal relationship/affiliation with HR Green?

JEANNINE: If so, was the board told that before hiring them?

JEANNINE: Do you have any personal affiliation with the payroll software Paylocity?

JEANNINE: If so, was the board told that before changing over to them?

QUESTIONS RE: LAKEWOOD – FOR CAO SMITH AND PRESIDENT STEPHAN

JEANNINE: Do you have any personal affiliation with Sun Systems, the landscaper who worked at Turnberry Parks?

JEANNINE: If so, was the board told that before hiring them?

PHIL: Is it true that our golf carts le[a]se is $43,000 ANNUALLY…so that actually all “profit” goes to the lease?

During the executive session of April 28, 2020, regarding Jeannine’s complaint about Chief Richardson “yelling/berating” her 3X in the last month for non-emergency Dispatch Call-in Procedure.

The proper procedure to make contact with our officers on the street is with the non-emergency phone number that goes through McHenry County Dispatch. When contacted by residents with non-emergency complaints, those people are to be directed to call the non-emergency number so that this is handled by trained police dispatch before sending an officer.

Inherent dangers of by-passing proper procedures are:
o Hampers/prevents the gathering of viable recorded details of the incident
o Makes identifying the complainant difficult (if not impossible)
o Sends officers to potentially dangerous situations without advising anyone else of the details of the
situation or the officer’s location
o Prevents information that can be used to justify or exonerate police actions
o Opens up their personal communication devices to subpoena

JEANNINE: Have you been told this by Chief Richardson?

JEANNINE: Were you told this by former Chief Roth?

JEANNINE: Has this proper police procedure been brought to your attention more than once?

JEANNINE: Have you circumvented this procedure and contacted the police directly via text or phone instead?

JEANNINE: If so, more than once?

JEANNINE: Why was Trustee Young censured for reminding you of proper police procedure?

PHIL: SAME QUESTION. Why was Trustee Young censured for reminding you of proper police procedure?