Last month, Rock Island County agreed to settle a lawsuit for $630,000, bring an end to a legal battle that has lasted more than five years. The suit was originally filed by three former employees of Partners in Job Training and Placement/Workforce Development (PJTP) after they were fired for “reporting alleged financial fraud conducted by Mark Lohman, who was then interim director.” The three former employees were Jeanette Dawson, Carol Slavish and Michelle Holmes.
Last month, Rock Island County agreed to settle a lawsuit for $630,000, bring an end to a legal battle that has lasted more than five years. The suit was originally filed by three former employees of Partners in Job Training and Placement/Workforce Development (PJTP) after they were fired for “reporting alleged financial fraud conducted by Mark Lohman, who was then interim director.” The three former employees were Jeanette Dawson, Carol Slavish and Michelle Holmes.
The suit itself was filed in January 2014 and named Rock Island County, “the Workforce Development Board and Lohman after they were terminated by Lohman on April 29, 2013.” In the suit, the three former employees cited “protection under the Illinois Whistleblower Act, claiming they were terminated as retaliation for filing complaints.”
Who is responsible for paying the settlement, though? Well, according to John McGehee, the attorney for Rock Island County, the county will pay $250,000. The other $380,000 will be paid “by the other defendants, including Great American Insurance Group, the insurer of Lohman, and Tri-County Consortium, the umbrella over Workplace Development of Rock Island, Henry, and Mercer counties,” according to the settlement agreement.
When commenting on the settlement, McGehee said, “It was a very expensive piece of litigation that went on for years. The settlement agreement settles all of the issues involved.” As for why the county was named as a defendant, McGhee said it was because “federal money came through the county to fund the Tri-County Consortium.” He added:
“It is an agency within the county of Rock Island. The county is a pass-through of the federal funds of this particular agency. When grant money comes through different agencies, it creates some responsibility.”
Each the plaintiffs are expected to receive $65,000 and their attorney, Katz Nowinski PC, will take home $239,540.
What happened, though? What were the events leading up to the lawsuit? According to the suit, Lohman began working as an interim director in April 2012 “under an independent contractor agreement.” In the position, he “was to receive $3,300 per month in advance of each month’s work,” something the lawsuit argued, “violated state and federal restraints on the use of Workforce Investment Act grant funds.” Then, a mere four months after starting the gig, Lohman “received a $900-per-month raise and a one-time bonus of $5,600 and another $700 per month raise thereafter.”
The suit went on to argue that the raises and bonuses “also violated state and federal restrictions on the use of grant funds, calling them excessive compensation.” It further stated that “James Bohnsack, county board chair at the time, agreed to pay Lohman mileage for commuting to and from work from his home and private business, further violating Workforce Investment Act grant funds.”
As if that wasn’t enough, the suit also alleged that Lohman was “reimbursed for traveling to events he did not actually attend and for driving to the office on days he was not there.” He even occasionally “submitted requests for mileage reimbursement twice for the same trip,” the complaint claimed.
During the same time, Dawson, who was working as a division manager, “was a candidate for PJTP executive director, in competition with Lohman.” Around the same time, Slavish and Holmes were transferred to the “Moline office in October 2012, denying them access to financial documents located in the main Rock Island office.” Eventually, the three plaintiffs reported Lohman’s actions to Bohnsack and members of the county board. They also filed a complaint with the Workforce Development Board Oversight Committee in November 2012, “expressing concerns with unapproved purchases, vouchers billed to the wrong clients, taxes paid on tax-exempt items, multiple payments on one voucher and other problems.”
In response to their complaints, Lohman allegedly retaliated against them. For example, he punished Slavish and Holmes “by taking away their keys to their office, thereby restricting their access to the things necessary to do their jobs.” To make matters worse, Lohman was eventually hired as executive director of PJTP and ended up firing all three plaintiffs on April 29, 2013.
As part of the recent settlement, neither party is liable. Final terms of the agreement were approved by county board members on December 18.
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