Kane HR director fired over claims of discrimination against disabled employee, others

GENEVA – The Kane County Board fired former human resources director Sylvia Wetzel because she allegedly harassed and discriminated against a disabled employee, and discriminated against an older worker and remarked about another employee’s immigration status, two board members confirmed.

The board voted unanimously to fire Wetzel at a special meeting on May 13.

Kane County Board vice chairman Kenneth Shepro, R-Wayne, and Board member Mohammad “Mo” Iqbal, D-Elgin, both confirmed the reasons behind Wetzel’s firing.

“If I was there, I would have opposed it,” Iqbal said. “I was opposed to firing her. I did not buy the allegations. I believed they did not rise to getting fired.”

Shepro criticized Iqbal for being absent from the special meeting when Wetzel was fired.

“Mr. Iqbal states a few of the many reasons that persuaded me that termination was the only appropriate option,” Shepro said.

“If he felt so strongly that the reasons were insufficient or insufficiently explained, it is puzzling to me that he chose not to participate in the final review presented by our independent counsel or to ask questions that he believed he deserved to be answered,” Shepro said.

For her part, Wetzel said she never harassed or discriminated against anybody and that her firing was the result of a conspiracy of other employees who did not like her.

“Because it’s ‘at will,’” Wetzel said, referring to state law allowing employers to terminate their workers at will.

“They can create whatever they want. … All of a sudden this was something fabricated because the intent was built to be able to remove me,” Wetzel said. “My hand to God’s ears and grandchildren, I am speaking the utmost truth.”

After a special meeting of the Human Services Committee March 8, officials put Wetzel on administrative leave and escorted her out of her office.

Wetzel’s letter

On May 12, Wetzel wrote an 11-page letter to Kane County Chairwoman Corinne Pierog, County Board members and Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser. In the letter, Wetzel defended her record against an internal investigation in an apparent attempt to head off her impending termination.

A Freedom of Information Act request denied releasing Wetzel’s letter, but the Kane County Chronicle later obtained a copy of it. In a telephone conversation, Wetzel confirmed that it was the letter she wrote.

“I can provide the handful of people that may have complaints and disdain me and it is a component of the job for an HR (human resources) executive,” Wetzel’s letter stated. “Still I prefer to focus on how I have touched many hearts, proven my expertise and moral compass across an institution of 1300+ employees and leaders.”

Wetzel’s letter refers to the Illinois Department of Human Rights hearing regarding an alleged wrongful termination.

Wetzel wrote that though she had “no concrete information to these allegations, I will take a stab on the whom (s) of these unfounded FMLA/ADA allegations.”

The employee with a disability asked for intermittent family leave, but did not have ADA paperwork, Wetzel’s letter stated

In response to the allegation of age discrimination, Wetzel wrote that she was a senior citizen herself.

Another worker had asked her to file his recently received legal citizenship papers, and she congratulated him on the benefits he would get, she wrote.

The employee’s supervisor later told her the employee complained about her remarks and she apologized in writing, she wrote.

Another employee sought an accommodation to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. And though a doctor confirmed the employee should be allowed to work from home, Wetzel sought more documentation, citing federal law.

In response to an internal investigation conducted by outside counsel, Wetzel said she told the attorney, “there was no olive branch I could have offered these employees that they would have ever accepted from me.”

“That every day it is my mission to be the very best and for others to do the same. That I was saddened by the things she was sharing and that under any circumstance did I do anything to violate any ADA, FMLA or Age discrimination,” Wetzel wrote.

“I am a highly respected professional across the entire North America,” Wetzel wrote. “I have never seen anything like this. … All my work is stellar. It’s on public display.”

Wetzel said she has not decided whether to sue the county.

Wetzel became human resources director in 2017 when former director Sheila McCraven left. McCraven had a separation agreement that included being awarded a year’s wages, $136,737.12, agreeing to resign and not pursue a discrimination lawsuit or any other future claims against the county, records show.