The Cook County Board has agreed to pay $180,000 to settle a wrongful termination lawsuit involving a Board of Review commissioner.
Cook County: The Cook County Board just settled a lawsuit for $180,000 with a former employee, Frank Calabrese. He claimed he was wrongfully fired by Board of Review commissioner Samantha Steele.
Calabrese said he was let go after he refused to share details about the Chicago Bears’ property tax appeal. He believed Steele wanted him to hurt other commissioners she was at odds with. He also mentioned that his cooperation with the county’s inspector general played a role in his firing.
Steele, who is one of three Democrats on the Board of Review, denied the allegations when the lawsuit was filed. She didn’t comment on the settlement but has faced criticism for how she handled the Bears’ appeal.
The inspector general found that Steele shouldn’t have shared confidential info with the media and suggested she undergo ethics training. Calabrese, in his letter to the county board, said he just wanted his job back but accepted the settlement after a new job opportunity came up.
He also released video from Steele’s DUI arrest, which showed her acting inappropriately with police. He felt that if the public saw how she treated officers, it would be easy to believe how she treated him at work.
Scott Britton, who oversees such settlements, voted present. He had advised Steele during her arrest but not afterward. Steele’s next court date is in February.
In a separate report, the inspector general criticized the Board of Review for not following its own hiring rules when they brought on 20 new staff members. The investigation revealed that many of these hires were politically connected and didn’t go through the proper hiring process.
Some new hires had worked on campaigns for the commissioners, and the report highlighted that many managers didn’t even know the hiring rules. The inspector general made several recommendations to improve the hiring process, but the Board of Review hasn’t responded yet.
