July 25, 2018 ‘Mr. President Paul Mulcahy Village of Lake inthe Hill 600 Harvest Gate Lake inthe Hills, IL 60186 Dear President Mulcshy, We, the undersigned management staf, respectfully request you address the organizational issue detailed below. We contend the Administrator ofthe Village of Lake in the Hills, Mr. Gerald D, Sagona, hes violated the Vilage's Personne! Rules and Reguiations and, of no lesser importance or effect, is olhervise ineffective and inappropriate in his management and leadership practices. It is our position that the Village of Lake in the His, by and through Mr, Sagona, has falled to provide a healthy work envionment. The workplace culture at his direction, is that of fear, intimidation and hostily Woe can no longer ignore the risk of harm his unwanted conduct and unpredictable behavior has upon our mental ‘and physical health; each of us reporis experiencing undue etress end anxily Working under his direction. We Personally find is conduct abhorrent, undignified, embarrassing and degrading, {is our opinion thet past remedies to acldress Mr. Sagona's behavior have felled, In fact, we feel we have been Needlessly subjected to @ systematic campaign of his behavior due tothe Village of Lake in the Hils' omissions to take all reasonable steps to eliminate the conduct oreating the environment in which we work. These omissions are detailed in the following paragraphs. In 2013, an investigation was conducted into these same and similar allegations against Mr. Sagona at which time records were provided to substantiate staff accounts. Remedies, if any, were unsuccessful in Improving the experiences of those who work for him, | 2018, at the direction of the Vilage Board, an engagement survey and subsequent focus group meetings again Identified the same concerns. Remecies, if any, were unsuccessful. We further suggest the records of this work ‘wore elther ineccurate or altered as they cid not include what we, the parlcipants, know to have been explclly ‘communicated, ‘During your tenure es Village President, from 2013 to present, the Village has experienced a concerning level of tumover in its management staff. tis our understanding that this was due to Nr. Segona’s conduct. These have bbeen great losses for the Village, as talent, Institutional knowledge and commitment to this community have been compromised. ‘This turnover has resulted in lost time, the expenditure of unnecessary resources and addtional pressures on remaining staff. tis only expected to continue. During this same period of time, the Vilage has also faced significant difficulty in replacing these management Positions due to the reputation of Mr. Sagong in the field. Candidate pools have been weak, professionals have Tefused requests for referrals and many have turned dowm Invitations to interview. ‘This, of curse, is only recent history however we would be remiss to not point out that we are aware of several other situations over Mr. Sagona’s tenure with the Vilage, and in previous positions he held, in which the same or similar allegetions have been presented President Mulcahy, the ebove examples demonstrate that our concems are pervasive and have been repestedty brought tothe attention ofthe Village Board,We believe itis the responsibilty of the Vilage Board to champion, promote, communicate and implement the Village's policies and procedures and we have come forward to seek remedy, We believe that a fallure to do 60 may make the Vilage end its individuals vicariously liable and we ask that you consider the magnitude of risk to ‘cur community should you refuse this request. Itis therefore our request that you -iscuss our Issue and position wit the members ofthe Village Boerd, -that you adres it tothe fullest extent of your authority, -that the Vilage Administrator is relieved of his duties during such time any investigation is conducted, and Finally, to the extent possible, we ask that your good falth etforts allow for confidentiality while seeking resolution ‘and that your due diigence protects us from any and all retelition. We, collectively, invite the opportunity to meet With you and the Village Board to discuss our concern In detail While we acknowiedge we are not decision makers in this situaton, I would be @ disservice to this community and ‘0 the people who serve it to not say that we believe there is no'reasonable solution ather then to remove Mr ‘Sagona from his position considering the opportunities he has had to resolve it We trust our organization can flourish under more postive circumstances end look forward o pursuing our careers with the Vilage of Lake in the His. Respectfully, Trustee Steve Harfinger ; ce: ‘Trustee Doug Cummings Trustee Bob Huckins Trustee Paula Yensen Trustee Ray Bogdanowski Trustee Russ Ruzanski Village Clerk Denise Wasserman