To Avoid Firing, Senior Illinois Emergency Officials Resign: Report

SPRINGFIELD, IL — A trio of top emergency officials have been ousted from the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, or IEMA, with two of them now banned from ever working for the state agency again after they quit to avoid firing, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Former IEMA Deputy Director Scott Swinford, Chief of Operations Marc Sullivan and Jennifer March, a legislative liaison who worked as confidential assistant to agency director Alicia Tate-Nadeau, all resigned last month, according to the Sun-Times.

March resigned on July 27 "in lieu of termination due to poor performance." Sullivan resigned on July 28 "in lieu of termination for misconduct," and Swinford — the agency's second-in-command — quit the same day, providing an identical letter of resignation as Sullivan citing personal reasons, records obtained by the newspaper show.

According to the newspaper, Sullivan was placed on administrative leave and banned from his office in May, with that leave extended on July 11 until his date of resignation. In a letter to Tate-Nadeau, he asked for "a copy of the investigation findings that drove me into administrative leave."

An agency spokesperson told the Sun-Times all three "independently resigned for personal reasons." Both Sullivan and March have reportedly been forbidden from working for IEMA again.

According to a message to agency staffers following the trio's departure, the responsibilities of the chief of operations and legislative liaison have been absorbed into the director's position. Sullivan had a salary of more than $160,000 last year, while March had a base salary of nearly $110,000.

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