Past, present Lakewood employees allege 'toxic,' 'hostile' work environment

Name-calling, intimidation and inappropriate comments have made the village of Lakewood a "hostile" work environment because of Village President Phil Stephan and Chief Administrative Officer Jeannine Smith, according to past and present employees.

This information was found both in written statements and documents obtained by the Northwest Herald, as well as interviews with these employees, some of whom did not want to be named for fear of retaliation by Stephan and Smith.

At Tuesday's 7 p.m. meeting, the village board is set to discuss a "motion authorizing findings of fact regarding personnel matters." The meeting is scheduled to take place at RedTail Golf Club but also can be viewed live on Zoom.

In written statements and interviews, several Lakewood employees called the environment at Village Hall “toxic."

One employee said that Smith is often angry – and will show it, by physically stomping around the office, and screaming at people on the phone.

Although village employees said there is a feeling of camaraderie and support between other staff members, it is often undermined by Smith, who some called a "micro-manager" who will try to physically intimidate those around her.

Both Smith, and Stephan, as a trustee and then later after he was elected village president in April 2019, had instances of being "rude and disrespectful" to staff, both at Village Hall and at the Lakewood-owned RedTail Golf Club, employees said.

One example of this was a past employee, according to written statements, who Stephan would call a "drunk," "felon" and "hillbilly."

In their statements, current and past village employees wrote about how name-calling and threats of being fired are a normality in the workplace under Stephan and Smith. One employee wrote in his statement that staff regularly fear for their jobs, and that he has seen Smith verbally berate employees.

Employees said Smith would speak negatively about current and past employees behind their back.

Smith has also told inappropriate stories in the workplace, such as telling people that when her son was in high school, all of his friends wanted to "do" her. Employees also said Stephan made comments they viewed as "inappropriate," such as a comment about how female bartenders at RedTail looked, or suggesting the golf club get trampolines and have women in bikinis jump on them.

Jean Heckman was general manager at RedTail Golf Club in August 2018 and resigned on June 11, 2019, and had also been village treasurer from the end of September 2017 until the start of May 2019.

"Like other employees are experiencing, I, too resigned because I was no longer going to be belittled and berated while trying to do the best for the village," Heckman said. "In my 35 years of working, I have never experienced anything like that."

Heckman said it was a work environment where people felt disrespected.

"I knew what I experienced and I saw what other employees were experiencing. I just wasn't gonna put up with it anymore," Heckman said. "I am concerned about the number of good, caring people that have left [their jobs at] the village already, and that those that remain have to hate going to their job every single day. Who's going to want to work for the village of Lakewood?"

According to village documents, nine village employees have left their jobs and four were terminated since Smith started in November 2017. In the past week, two more have resigned.

Nancy Lutz, who was a manager at RedTail from March 2018 until the mid-summer of that year, says she resigned because of the hostile work environment.

In her resignation letter, she recounted receiving an email from Smith, calling Lutz "lazy," even after Lutz said she worked very long shifts, for many days in a row, without a day off.

And dealing with Stephan's actions, she wrote, are "beyond what any employee should have to endure."

Once incident Lutz wrote about in her resignation letter was an incident where Stephan called her the wrong name.

In joking, Lutz called Stephan the wrong name back.

"[Stephan] did not take this well," Lutz said. "[He] put his finger in my face and stated, 'This is different, I am a village trustee. I don't have to know your name, but you HAVE to [expletive] know mine."

Another time, Lutz wrote, she was tending the bar when Stephan came in. Though Lutz didn't see him, Smith told Lutz later that she needed to apologize to Stephan for "ignoring" him.

Though employees wrote that there is a sense of support and camaraderie between the current village staff, it is undermined by Smith.

Those who disagree with Smith or Stephan become a target, according to several accounts.

Village Clerk Jan Hansen said she once made a mistake on a board packet. Although she fixed it the next day, Hansen still was cited for insubordination by Smith.

"I didn't punch in, I didn't punch out, I went on my own time and I fixed it," Hansen said. "I fixed it, but [Smith] was mad that I didn't tell her and ask permission."

In an employee survey obtained by the Northwest Herald, 26 Lakewood staff members took a survey about Smith. These survey results had 16 people answer the question "how likely is it that you would recommend you supervisor to a colleague?" All 16 people who answered this question said they would not recommend Smith.

According to the survey results, 76.47% of people said their training from Smith was "not-so-effective" or "not at all effective,"; 82.35% said the decisions Smith made are not so reasonable or not at all reasonable; 94% of those who answered said Smith listens to employees' opinions when making decisions "not so often" or "not at all" often; and 60% said it is "not so easy" or "not at all easy" to disagree with their supervisor's decisions. 82.35% said their supervisor is not so reliable or not at all reliable. 82.35% of employees said Smith acts not so professionally or not at all professionally.

Phil Stephan, in a phone interview with the Northwest Herald, denied the allegations made by employees.

"This is all second and third party defaming efforts that will be decided in the courtroom if this moves forward," Stephan said. "There are no formal complaints."

Stephan said that he spends "very little time" at Village Hall.

"I go there mainly when checks need to be signed," he said. "It's simply a hello and a goodbye at Village Hall. I have next to no interaction with the employees and there's only a few of them there anyway. I don't micromanage. I'm simply not there. I go there, I sign checks and I leave. I can't believe anyone would say anything different than that."

Smith, in a response to an email from the Northwest Herald, said she made a statement regarding the allegations at the last meeting.

During this meeting, Smith said as the Chief Administrative Officer for the village, she swears to uphold the Constitution of the United States and state of Illinois, along with village code.

Smith mentioned that she is part of an organization, called the International City/County Management Association, that upholds tenants including that "professional management is essential to efficient and democratic local government."

Smith did not respond to a follow-up email from the Northwest Herald asking if she had a comment on retaliation or intimidation of employees at Village Hall.

Lakewood Business Analyst, Sue Villie, said at a May 26 Village Board meeting that 27 past and present employees and counting have spoken up about the mistreatment, and it is her understanding that more will as well, at a past Village Board meeting.

In response to that, at the next week's meeting, Stephan said Villie sent him an email saying that she does not have a list of names of complainants, and that the 27 number mentioned was what Trustee Bryan Younge had given her.

Younge has previously said that he was asked to look into a simple altercation between two village staff members, which led to him interviewing these 27 people.

Earlier this week, Younge confirmed to the Northwest Herald that more than 30 people have been contacted and have levied complaints in either in writing or verbally to one of the trustees. He declined to comment further on these complaints.

Villie said employees started coming to her voicing their concerns with Smith and Stephan's behavior for more than a year.

She said most of them wanted to file a formal complaint in writing, but feared retaliation.

"Every department [in the village] has spoken to me about different things," Villie said.

According to the village's 2018 harassment policy, all employees and officials are urged to report any suspected harassment by another employee or official to the Chief Administrative Officer, unless the CAO is the one accused of harassment, as is the case here.

If the victim prefers to report the suspected harassment to someone else, the complaint can be reported to the village president, village clerk or a member of the Board of Trustees.

"The report may be made initially either orally or in writing, but reports made orally must be reduced to writing before an investigation can be initiated and a resolution achieved," according to the policy.

A petition, started by a resident, is now going around online, asking the board to put Smith on administrative leave, pending the outcome of an independent, third-party investigation of allegations of harassment and retaliation toward any current or recently resigned employees of the village.

"Should the investigation prove these complaints are valid, Jeannine Smith will immediately resign effective the date of her administrative leave and repay the village any pay she received during that period," according to the petition. "Any board member named in a valid complaint during this investigation will also resign their position immediately."

As of Monday afternoon, 164 people had signed the petition.

This is not the first time claims of a hostile work environment because of village officials have been made.

In 2018, a former RedTail Golf Club manager said he was ousted from his position after upsetting village trustees.