County Democrats to update sexual harassment policy — but one whistleblower sees more work to do

The Cook County Democratic Party is revamping its sexual harassment policy to better protect those who come forward with allegations of sexual assault and those who file complaints on behalf of others.

For Emily Miller, a senior policy adviser to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, the update comes with a “considerable amount of irony.”

Miller is one of the women who alerted the party’s chair, Toni Preckwinkle, to the allegations against her former county chief of staff, John Keller, before Preckwinkle’s unsuccessful mayoral run.

Since coming forward, Miller says she’s faced retaliation that’s included attempts to discredit her as a whistleblower and exclusion from the party’s sexual harassment task force — though she was initially chosen to help set it up.

“I don’t think it’s possible to fix things moving forward if you’re not able to identify the problems in the past,” Miller said. “If you can’t identify the problem, it’s hard to implement the solution.”

The list of retaliatory actions the proposed amendment seeks to guard against include termination or demotion; intimidation or exclusion; social exclusion or isolation among other things. Any member of the county party who does engage in retaliation can be subject to sanctions.

A summary written by Tina Tchen and Paige Ammons on the proposed revisions says the policy incorporates much of the language from the initial policy, which was adopted in April 2018, but “builds on the prior policy to encourage reporting and stay current with best practices in the rapidly changing area of addressing sexual harassment.”

Tchen and Ammons have been consulting with the county Democrats on the policy revision. Tchen is the former chief of staff to former First Lady Michelle Obama who reached out to Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx on behalf of Jussie Smollett, triggering a series of events that led to Foxx recusing herself and a judge appointing a special prosecutor in the case.

The revised sexual harassment policy clarifies the definition of retaliation and extends the anti-retaliation protection to bystanders and others who participate in any investigation; provides multiple avenues for reporting complaints; enhances the protections for complainants; creates a process where a subcommittee of the Rules Committee makes a determination as to whether an investigation should be initiated and creates a volunteer independent advisory board to ensure independence in the investigation process among other things, according to the summary by Tchen and Ammons.

Sun-Times files

The updates to the initial policy have been in the making for the last few months at the direction of Preckwinkle, according to an email sent by Jacob Kaplan, executive director of the county party, which was obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.

The party’s sexual harassment task force approved the updated policy Monday, sending it to the party’s rules committee, which is chaired by Ald. Chris Taliaferro, 29th Ward Democratic committeeman. The goal is to have the updated language ready to be voted on by August 16, according to the email.

A report was given to the leadership of the county party last April, Preckwinkle said. Tchen and her firm were brought on to look at the policy “more comprehensively,” Preckwinkle told the Chicago Sun-Times.

During the party’s pre-slating meetings last month, a number of candidates for political office were asked if they would commit to sexual harassment training for their staffs.

Kaplan said amending the policy was an ongoing process, and he couldn’t comment further.

As president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, Preckwinkle is no stranger to working groups on the topic of harassment.

An anti-harassment task force she set up to look at the issue in her government office released its findings and recommendations in May. The panel was put together during Preckwinkle’s mayoral run when her handling of allegations of sexual harassment against Keller came to light.

The recommendations from the county’s working group include having the Equal Employment Opportunity Office update its standard operating procedure to “clearly define the range of rehabilitative measures that may be available during the investigation and resolution processes” among other things.

The working group was convened last October, a month after Preckwinkle fired Keller for allegations of sexual harassment. In the mayoral race, Preckwinkle said she was “profoundly discouraged and appalled” by Keller’s behavior, but it became a common point of attack for her opponents.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia / Sun-Times

In his report released Monday, Cook County Inspector General Pat Blanchard said his investigation “revealed no incidents or allegations” involving Keller “sexually harassing or otherwise treating Cook County employees in an inappropriate manner.” Blanchard added that, as for Preckwinkle’s role, “the evidence fails to support the conclusion that the president knew or should have known” about Keller’s alleged behavior towards women outside of county employment before being made aware of it in 2018.

If the party does adopt the bystander protections, Miller said Democrats would have to atone for the ways they already violated the policy to be able to catch retaliation and other problems the next time they happen.

If the county’s policy is retroactive, Miller says she’ll go through the complaint process but she questioned if that complaint would go to the person she says retaliated against her.

“What made them want to include bystanders, what do they understand about the mistakes they made along those lines?” Miller asked. “If the point is to increase the number of people coming forward — which I believe it is, and that’s great — but I have no way to trust that if they’re unwilling to recognize when they’ve engaged in behavior that intimidates or prevents people from coming forward in the past.”