Evanston Announces Findings Of Lakefront Investigation

Press release from the City of Evanston:

02/25/2022 9:49 AM

The City of Evanston announced today that Salvatore, Prescott, Porter & Porter (SPPP) completed its impartial and independent investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct among City of Evanston lakefront staff and has detailed its finding in a report provided to the City. The report is available at cityofevanston.org/LakefrontReport, with minor redactions to protect the privacy rights of individuals.

Commissioned by the City in July 2021, SPPP’s report details deeply troubling instances of sexual misconduct and complaints among lakefront employees and a workplace environment that allowed harassment to occur. The report also outlines the City’s knowledge of the allegations, which were first presented to Parks, Recreation & Community Services and Human Resources staff in 2020. It sharply critiques the City’s handling of this issue and recommends numerous actions for the City to take moving forward.

The City of Evanston is firmly committed to fostering a workplace culture and environment where all staff feel safe and respected. As detailed in SPPP’s report, it is clear that the City failed to uphold this commitment to its staff and fell far short of its values and expectations. The City extends its deep and sincere apologies to all staff, past and present, who experienced sexual harassment, assault, discrimination, and an unhealthy work environment while working for the City of Evanston.

As an organization, the City of Evanston takes responsibility for this situation and is committed to implementing the changes necessary to ensure that nothing like this occurs in the future. To that end, the City of Evanston has taken some initial steps, and will continue to implement all nine of SPPP’s recommendations, as outlined in the report.

The City of Evanston has a zero tolerance policy regarding harassment in the workplace, and is committed to holding all staff accountable for upholding this standard. Since 2020, the City has taken action to improve the lakefront environment and ensure the safety and wellbeing of all employees, including instituting mandatory sexual harassment training for all staff, appointing a Lakefront-Human Resources liaison, and creating an additional full-time Lakefront Manager position. The City is committed to building on this progress and taking the additional steps that are necessary to fulfill its commitment and moral responsibility to create a welcoming and safe environment for all lakefront staff and visitors.

The City is tremendously grateful to the courageous employees who brought these horrific circumstances to light, and who shared their experiences, especially in light of the way they were initially treated. Their willingness to come forward ignited needed changes not only at the City’s lakefront operations, but in the organization as a whole. The City is committed to working with all staff and the greater community to achieve its goals of a healthy, safe and valuable work experience, and upholding the City’s values of accountability, transparency and trust.

This press release was produced by the City of Evanston. The views expressed here are the author’s own.