Elgin city engineer Rod Rudd submitted a complaint alleging that the city manager, Rick Kozal, seemed to choke Colby Basham, the neighborhood services director. The incident took place at a January senior staff meeting. Basham later told Jim Barnes, the professional standards officer, that he felt Kozal had choked him.
An internal investigation by Barnes notes Kozal saw his gesture as a "bro-hug," and that others at that meeting thought Kozal was joking. But Carol Semrad, a former president for the Chicago Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), said Kozal's gesture was not appropriate.
"It is inappropriate for a leader, supervisor, manager to touch an employee, even if their intention is in jest," says Semrad, a principal with C. Semrad & Associates. "We do not know everyone's background or belief system, nor can we be sure of how a particular gesture might be interpreted if delivered in private versus public."
City Council member Tish Powell agreed with Semrad that an outside party should have been brought in to do the investigation. "This is Human Resources 101," Powell says. "You can't objectively investigate your boss, not to mention the fact that it is completely inappropriate to put your hands on another employee."