Kane County paid ex-building boss Chris Allen nearly $79K over 8 months of administrative leave

GENEVA – Kane County paid its former executive director of building management Chris Allen nearly $79,000 not to come to work from February through September while his department was being restructured, records show.

According to the separation agreement, Allen was hired July 6, 2020 and was appointed interim executive director of building management in January 2021 before being made executive director March 9 at a salary of $118,000, county records show. Before he was promoted, Allen was director of capital projects for the county.

Allen was put on paid administrative leave from Feb. 5 to Sept. 18. Records show he was paid $4,629.23 each week for a total of $78,696.91.

Allen signed the seven-page separation agreement on July 5 and his employment was to be ended on Sept. 30, 2022, records show. The county released Allen’s separation agreement in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The County Board unanimously approved the agreement July 12.

The agreement states that the reason for the separation is “the County has determined it is in the best interests to restructure the Building Management Department” and in connection with the restructuring, Allen and the county “have mutually agreed to terminate their employment relationship.”

Efforts to reach Allen for comment were unsuccessful.

Board Chair Corinne Pierog and Vice Chairman Kenneth Shepro both said putting Allen on leave was necessary to the restructuring of the building department.

“It was a restructuring, a deep dive into best practices, including historic practices that predated Mr. Allen, and all of that took a little bit of time to be reviewed,” Pierog said.

“The county was determining the future course of action for the department,” Shepro said. “We had an obligation, when he was given leave, that he would be compensated for that time. It was apparent that the department was in need of reorganization and redefinition of its role, but the process took longer than anticipated to play out and it would have been unfair to Mr. Allen not to compensate him for the time he was effectively in limbo.”

The agreement also states that Allen would release and waive all other possible claims against the county, and that the county agreed to pay $20,725.68 to the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund on Allen’s behalf.

In March, the County Board put Information Technologies Executive Director Roger Fahnestock in charge of buildings while Allen was on paid leave, with a temporary pay increase to $189,863. In county wage data, Fahnestock’s salary was listed as $163,272 for 2020.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the board approved combining the duties of the executive director of information technologies and executive director of building management into one position. The board also appointed Fahnestock to the new position, and set the temporary salary of $189,863 as the permanent salary for the new position.