County’s anti-harassment panel releases recommendations

A working group convened by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle after she fired her chief of staff for allegations that she said “appalled” her released its recommendations on Thursday for creating a workplace “free of harassment and retaliation.”

Some of the chief recommendations 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.”

The group focused on five categories: policies and standard operating procedures; reporting and investigation protocol and processes; training and awareness; workplace culture; and transparency.

Other recommendations entail making information more accessible and understandable for employees as well as developing a plan to publicly release equal employment opportunity data, conducting a yearly review of policies and procedures and making sure employees and witnesses know they can request reasonable accommodations and bring a support person to their interviews or meetings.

The working group was convened last October, a month after Preckwinkle fired her to aide John Keller for allegations of sexual harassment. In a heated, and crowded mayoral race, Preckwinkle said she was “profoundly discouraged and appalled by the behavior of my chief of staff.”

Preckwinkle admitted in a Chicago Tribune report that she knew of “an unsubstantiated rumor” about Keller’s behavior months before she fired him.

Last November, Preckwinkle sent out a survey to Cook County employees titled the “Culture of Reporting Harassment.” Results of that survey found that nearly a third of county employees had little faith that reporting harassment in the work place would prompt a fair investigation. The results of that survey were provided to the working group.

In a statement Thursday, Preckwinkle expressed her gratitude to the group.

“It is a top priority of my administration to create a workplace where employees and members of the public are treated with respect and support,” Preckwinkle said. “I am grateful to the Working Group for their contributions to produce this report. The recommendations from the Working Group are thoughtful and practical and we have already implemented some of the action items and are working on the long-term recommendations.”