Clarendon Hills Keeps Embattled Manager

CLARENDON HILLS, IL — Without any comments, the Clarendon Hills Village Board on Monday voted unanimously to keep Village Manager Kevin Barr, despite criticism of his treatment of the village's longtime fire chief.

Barr, who attended the meeting, thanked the Village Board for its support. He is back at Village Hall after two weeks of what village officials called "personal leave."

During public comments, residents urged the board to fire Barr. And Fire Chief Brian Leahy's daughter accused Barr of "brazen misconduct" by showing an age bias against her father.

After the meeting, Village President Len Austin declined to provide a copy of Barr's employment agreement to Patch, saying it was unavailable. He said it was a document subject to a public records request. Patch submitted a request Tuesday morning.

Clarendon Hills Fire Chief Brian Leahy (in white shirt) talks with residents Monday during a closed session of the Village Board. (David Giuliani/Patch)

Austin declined to say why the Village Board needed to approve an employment agreement with Barr, given the manager's existing contract is expiring next year. He did say the manager's pay remained the same. According to village documents, Barr's salary is $170,000.

Asked for comment afterward, Barr declined, saying "it's not worth it" and there was more to the story. He took the helm in 2015.

Last year, Chief Leahy marked his 50th year of service to the Clarendon Hills Fire Department. In recent months, Barr and the fire department have locked horns over whether the village should buy a new ladder truck, which the village said escalated in price to $1.4 million, from $1 million.

Barr suggested the village look at its options, including sharing the costs of such a truck with Hinsdale or Westmont. But firefighters and their supporters said the village needs the truck.

At Monday's meeting, residents took exception to Barr's order banning the fire chief from speaking with the media on policy issues such as the ladder truck. Patch revealed that prohibition in a story last month.

The residents also criticized Barr for twice joking that Leahy was around in 1930. Those comments were during a mid-January meeting of the Village Board's Public Safety Committee. Both times, Barr drew laughs from other village officials. At one point, Barr added, "I'm old too."

At the same meeting, the residents said, Barr revealed the name of a firefighter who tested positive for the coronavirus. That was a violation of the firefighter's right to health privacy under federal law, they said.

Kristen Leahy, daughter of Clarendon Hills Fire Chief Brian Leahy, speaks remotely during public comments. She said the village manager showed age bias against her father. Below the screen is Village President Len Austin. (David Giuliani/Patch)

Resident Erin Magnuson called the comments about age "inappropriate."

"My daughter asked me, 'If I work for the village, could they make jokes about women?'" Magnuson said.

Resident John Benak called the situation the "Kevin Barr nightmare."

"He clearly has a vendetta against the fire department," Benak said. "His comments at the last Public Safety Committee meeting were degrading... He doesn't represent the values of our town. It's time the village had new leadership."

Kristen Leahy, the chief's daughter, said she was speaking as a person with more than a decade of experience in human resources. She said she had "never seen such bold and brazen misconduct in a leadership role."

When Barr made his first joke, she said, he explicitly interrupted the chief. She then referred to the comments about her father and the firefighter who had COVID-19.

"These comments are fairly innocuous at first glance," said Kristen Leahy, who attended Monday's meeting remotely. "But it's really important to consider the context here. These jokes aren't being made between buddies, joking around with each other and going to get beers. These are being made by a person in a position of power over two subordinates who are older than him."

If Barr was so brazen as to make such comments in a public meeting, she said, people can only imagine his behavior outside public earshot.

"If this is not considered egregious behavior to warrant termination, what is?" Kristen Leahy said. "The village manager should be held to the highest standard in order to represent our village. I really think we have lost sight of that."

Clarendon Hills voted on Barr's employment agreement as part of a package of other items known as the "consent agenda." No official gave the public a description of the contract or the reason for it.

The board held a 45-minute closed session earlier in the meeting about a personnel issue, which was likely Barr's agreement. Trustees also met last week for more than two hours behind closed doors.

After the meeting, Fire Chief Leahy declined to comment on Barr's situation.