Chicago Park District’s deputy inspector general says he was suspended illegally to ‘whitewash’ lifeguard abuse investigationFran Spielmanon August 19, 2021 at 4:46 pm

The Chicago Park District’s deputy inspector general said Thursday he was placed on “indefinite, unpaid emergency” suspension last week in what he called an illegal attempt to whitewash an investigation into rampant sexual assault, sexual harassment and physical abuse among the district’s lifeguards.

Until he was walked out of Park District headquarters last week, Nathan Kipp led the internal investigation of lifeguards at Chicago’s pools and lakefront beaches that has implicated Park District Supt. Mike Kelly in an alleged cover-up.

One of only two investigators assigned to the probe, Kipp had spent a year as acting inspector general. He was a candidate for the job that went to Elaine Little, ex-wife of State Rep. Curtis Tarver (D-Chicago).

Kipp said he was given no reason for his suspension. He called it “shocking”, “meritless” and “illegal,” since it was not ordered by Little and, he added, only the inspector general has the “authority to recommend discipline” for her staff.

Nevertheless, Kipp said he has no doubt about the motivation behind his suspension.

“This meritless action is a clear attempt by Park District officials to impede and obstruct a devastating investigation into widespread sexual assault, sexual harassment and physical abuse throughout the District’s Beaches & Pools Unit,” Kipp was quoted as saying in a four-page statement.

The investigation by the park district’s inspector general “is not independent, as Mr. Kelly falsely assures. Instead, the Park District and its Board of Commissioners have repeatedly and unsuccessfully exerted improper influence over the OIG [office of the inspector general] with the apparent goal of ending the investigation prematurely and as quietly as possible.”

Kelly has been under fire for giving his top managers the first crack at investigating a female lifeguard’s complaints about physical abuse, sexual harassment and drug and alcohol use by lifeguards at Oak Street Beach, instead of referring those allegations immediately to the inspector general.

That’s what he promised the young woman that he would do in an email applauding the lifeguard for her “courage” in coming forward.

Though required by park district rules, Kelly did not contact the inspector general until a second lifeguard’s more graphic complaint of more serious allegations was forwarded to him by Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office.

Earlier this week, Kelly ordered the suspensions of two high-level officials — the assistant director of beaches and pools and the manager of beaches and pools. He told reporters he hopes to receive the inspector general’s final report next month.

Kipp branded the “September deadline” highly inappropriate and proof positive that Little’s final report will be a “whitewash.”

“I am perplexed why information regarding the status of the OIG’s ongoing investigation was shared with Mr. Kelly given that he, himself, should be considered a person of interest in the investigation,” Kipp wrote.

By all rights, Kelly should be at the very least a “material witness” because he received a complaint.

“Moreover, he is a potential subject of the OIG’s investigation because of, among other things, his admitted six-week delay in reporting that same complaint to the OIG, and his apparent abuse of authority when allegedly asking the complainant in April 2021 to keep him ‘in the loop’ of any future contact that she may have with OIG investigators,” Kipp wrote. “Despite these alarming facts, the OIG has not sought to interview Mr. Kelly, and I am not aware of any intention for the Office to interview Mr. Kelly.

“This is not how responsible and independent Offices of Inspectors General conduct investigations.”

While serving as interim inspector general, Kipp said he told Kelly and Park District Board President Avis LaVelle a year ago that the inspector general’s office had “severe staffing shortcomings.” His concerns were “wholly ignored.”

“When viewed in the larger context of the Park District’s repeated influence over the OIG’s investigation, I am left to conclude that the District and its Board have intentionally refused to provide the OIG with necessary resources to prevent it from uncovering the full extent of the criminal misconduct within the Beaches & Pools Unit,” he wrote.

“I have watched the OIG gradually abandon its role as the Park District’s independent oversight agency. Instead, the OIG has been methodically neutered to resemble an internal compliance department that exists to satisfy the Park District’s and its Board’s demands.”

Kipp called on State’s Attorney Kim Foxx to step in and take over the entire investigation, saying, “The dozens of survivors of sex crimes that have been brave enough to come forward deserve their justice.”

The Chicago Sun-Times reported earlier this month that in February 2020, an Oak Street Beach lifeguard sent 11 pages of explosive allegations to Kelly, detailing a frat-house environment at the beach during the summer of 2019. She said she’d been pushed into a wall, called sexually degrading and profane names by fellow lifeguards and abandoned for hours at her post for refusing to take part in their drinking parties and on-the-job drug use.

“I take your assertions very seriously,” Kelly responded, assuring the young woman he was forwarding the complaint to inspector general Little. “Thank you for your courage and call for change.”

But he didn’t forward the complaint, the Sun-Times has learned, for about six weeks — not until after a second woman wrote her own letter to Lightfoot, who forwarded it to Kelly.

That delay runs contrary to Park District rules, which require alleged wrongdoing be reported immediately to the inspector general. The Park District’s sexual harassment policy also mandates allegations be reported “as soon as possible,” or within five business days, to human resources.

Kelly was appointed by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel to his $230,000-a-year post, and retained by Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

He has acknowledged having second thoughts about the way he handled the first woman’s complaint.

“In hindsight, should I just have turned it over to the inspector general that day? Maybe I should have. I always knew it was going there. And it’s my word against whomever’s. But, I gave it to my managers. The second letter came in, and I realized one is terrible. Two is too many,” Kelly has said.

Kelly has said he forwarded the first complaint he received in February 2020 to his chief programs officer, Alonzo Williams, who then had Eric Fischer, the district’s assistant director of recreation, look into it.

Fischer’s daughter is also mentioned as a lifeguard who allegedly participated in hazing and bullying on Oak Street Beach, sources said.

“This is all part of the investigation, and it’s all going to come out,” Kelly said when asked about a possible conflict of interest Monday. “I don’t want to get any further into talking about my employees’ names.”

Kelly and LaVelle could not be reached for comment about Kipp’s allegations.

The mayor’s office had no immediate comment.

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