April 10--Days after being re-elected, the mayor of a long-troubled suburb was sued by one of his former top aides who claimed the mayor allowed others to berate and threaten her after they stopped dating.
The ex-aide, Sandra Alvarado, served as Harvey Mayor Eric Kellogg's spokeswoman and a top police administrator for years as Kellogg battled scandal after scandal. In an about-face from years of defending Kellogg, she repeats in her lawsuit allegations long made by Kellogg critics: that he controls the city hall through rampant nepotism and political favoritism. She alleged both contributed to her feeling she had no choice but to quit over fears of her safety.
She is seeking at least $300,000, and has asked that the city of Harvey, Kellogg, and a top aide, Sammie Young, be held liable for what she said was gender discrimination.
The current spokesman for Kellogg, Sean Howard, said the suburb does not comment on pending litigation.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court -- two days after Kellogg received 36 percent of the vote, enough to defeat five others on the ballot and a write-in candidate, according to unofficial election results. After the election, Howard told the Tribune that voters vindicated the mayor's long stewardship of the south suburb. The re-election followed a string of articles in the Tribune -- articles the mayor said were unfair -- detailing the suburb's high crime, subpar policing and insider deals that have drained the town as it has struggled to pay bills. The articles also noted that federal and state authorities failed to do what they could to force reforms.
Amid that series of articles, Alvarado abruptly quit her job in April 2014. She sent an email to Kellogg and other top aides, obtained by the Tribune, in which she said officials were allowed to "behave lawlessly" and know of "illegal and immoral acts and do absolutely nothing about it." She wrote then that she was leaving her city-owned vehicle at the address of an FBI office in Orland Park.
Her lawyer, Patrick Walsh, declined to say whether she has spoken with the FBI. Sources have previously confirmed the FBI spoke with a number of Harvey officials late last year about an insider deal, first exposed by the Tribune in 2013, that could cost taxpayers $20 million for a largely gutted hotel in foreclosure. The mayor has refused to answer questions about the hotel deal under oath, invoking his Fifth Amendment right to not say anything that could be used to prosecute him for a crime. No criminal charges have been filed, although federal regulators called the deal a "fraud" and Kellogg's one-time comptroller was fined $200,000.
Alvarado's lawsuit does not mention the hotel deal or other specific scandals over the years. But she complains in general that Kellogg controlled city hall through relatives and political hires. In her lawsuit, Alvarado said she dated the mayor from 2003 -- the year he won his first term -- until 2012. She claimed that after their breakup, he allowed those relatives and political hires to berate her or physically threaten her, including Young.
Young -- who oversees community service officers in Harvey -- responded that he never threatened Alvarado, and that the pair were at odds because Young questioned perks she got: "I'm the one who's been harassed by her."
In her lawsuit, Alvarado alleged that she repeatedly filed complaints, but they were ignored by Kellogg's administration.
She also claimed the mayor regularly used a derogatory term to describe her to other city employees and, in 2013, "grabbed" her arm at a staff meeting held in front of a currency exchange. She said he "dragged" her to the side of the building so he could yell at her. Because a deputy chief saw the incident, Alvarado alleged the mayor made her call the deputy chief to apologize about it.
Walsh said Alvarado filed the lawsuit only after failing to reach a settlement with the suburb through a process set up by a federal commission that investigates employment discrimination.
jmahr@tribpub.com
mwalberg@tribpub.com
