Hinsdale Should Disclose EEOC Complaint: Watchdog

HINSDALE, IL – A watchdog group says Hinsdale should release the discrimination complaint filed by the estate of a firefighter who took her own life.

Earlier this year, the village gave shifting reasons for why it wanted to keep secret the complaint involving Nicole Hladik, a 25-year-old Lyons Township High School graduate who died in July 2020.

Jason Han, executive director of the Elmhurst-based Citizen Advocacy Center, showed Patch the attorney general's opinion in March, which was about a similar situation. He said the Hladik estate's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint should be disclosed.

In 2020, a CBS Chicago reporter tried to obtain complaints of racism, discrimination and harassment against a Chicago streets and sanitation employee.

The city denied the reporter's request. It cited an exception under the state's open records law that allows public bodies to keep secret information that would serve as an "unwarranted invasion of personal privacy."

This was one of the two final reasons that Hinsdale used to keep the EEOC complaint involving Hladik under wraps.

In its March opinion, Chief Deputy Attorney General Brent Stratton said the exemption expressly provides that the "disclosure of information that bears on the public duties of public employees and officials shall not be considered an invasion of personal privacy."

Stratton said complaints describing alleged workplace misconduct bear directly on the public duties of public employees.

"The records at issue describe alleged racism, discrimination, or harassment by City employees while on duty," Stratton said.

In Hinsdale, Hladik's estate last year filed a federal lawsuit alleging that she was the victim of gender discrimination. The lawsuit referred to the estate's EEOC complaint.

In its response to Patch, Hinsdale also cited the exemption under the Freedom of Information Act that allows the village to keep under wraps documents that are considered secret under federal law. In this case, the federal law governing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission calls for the complaint only to be given to the charging party and the respondent.

In the Chicago case, the city's attorneys also noted federal regulations containing confidentiality provisions for certain types of employee complaints. However, the city never asserted that those regulations barred it from releasing the portions of complaints at issue in the matter, according to the attorney general.

In late April, Patch sent Hinsdale a copy of the attorney general's opinion and again filed a request for the complaint. The village did not reply.

In its original response to Patch's request in December, the village cited the possibility of a trial and a pending investigation as reasons to keep the records secret under the state's Freedom of Information Act.

The exemption for trials is to help ensure fairness for criminal defendants, but no one is charged in this case. Further, no investigation is taking place.

After Hinsdale originally denied the records, Patch filed an objection, which prompted the village's changed reasoning.

In 2020, the village paid an independent law firm more than $100,000 to investigate what a village official said were "operational issues." The village has declined to release the firm's report upon Patch's records requests.

In December, Patch reported on the estate's lawsuit against the village, which alleges Hladik was the victim of gender discrimination. In response to a Patch inquiry, the village said in a statement that the law firm's investigation revealed Hladik was treated in a "respectful and fair" manner.

The Hladik estate's lawsuit named the village and fire Lt. Tom McCarthy as defendants.

According to the lawsuit, Hladik wrote shortly before her death, "Work has destroyed me" and "I cannot take one more single day. Almost everyone at work will only be relieved."