Chicago Park District’s interim CEO gets a three-month contract extension

Lifeguard door
The board of the Chicago Park District gave a three-month contract extension to interim General Superintendent and CEO Rosa Escareno, who took over in the fallout of a lifeguard abuse scandal. Manuel Martinez / WBEZ
Lifeguard door
The board of the Chicago Park District gave a three-month contract extension to interim General Superintendent and CEO Rosa Escareno, who took over in the fallout of a lifeguard abuse scandal. Manuel Martinez / WBEZ

Chicago Park District’s interim CEO gets a three-month contract extension

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The board of the scandal-scarred Chicago Park District has given a three-month contract extension to interim General Superintendent and Chief Executive Officer Rosa Escareno.

Escareno has been in the job since October, when Mayor Lori Lightfoot picked her as the temporary replacement for longtime park district chief Michael Kelly.

Lightfoot forced out Kelly as he and other park district leaders faced mounting criticism over their handling of the sexual misconduct scandal involving young female lifeguards at the city’s public beaches and pools.

Escareno has said her original contract was a 90-day deal. Records obtained by WBEZ show the contract was signed on Oct. 14 and would have expired on Monday, but last week the park district board and Escareno agreed to the extension through April.

Under the amended deal, she will continue to be paid more than $19,000 a month – the same, $230,000-a-year salary Kelly had been receiving at the end of his 10-year run as the agency’s top executive.

Escareno had been an aide to three mayors, previously working also for former mayors Rahm Emanuel and Richard M. Daley. Since taking over for Kelly, Escareno has promised to institute reforms addressing the widespread allegations of a toxic and misogynistic workplace culture in the park district’s Aquatics Department.

A spokesman for Lightfoot said Wednesday the park district and its board are continuing to search for a permanent replacement for Kelly.

“Mayor Lightfoot is committed to ensuring every resident can safely enjoy Chicago’s parks,” the spokesman, Cesar Rodriguez, said in a statement to WBEZ. “Mayor Lightfoot is confident that Interim Superintendent Escareno will provide the needed leadership based on her exceptional career as a public servant.”

Last week, the park district’s inspector general said her office’s ongoing probe had found evidence supporting 29 of 48 allegations of employee misconduct at the beaches and pools. Those cases included complaints of sexual violence against underage girls and the assault in 2021 of a “drunk female patron” by a park district lifeguard supervisor.

At the last park district board meeting, Escareno introduced a proposal to create a new “Office of Prevention and Accountability,” which would investigate future complaints of sexual misconduct instead of the inspector general’s office.

“To truly build a park district that prioritizes the safety of all employees and patrons, we must do much more,” Escareno told the board.

And in a statement last week, park district officials said Escareno met several times in the past month with “supervisors, current and previous Aquatics employees as well as parents of current and prospective lifeguards.”

The internal investigation began nearly two years ago, after female former lifeguards complained of pervasive abuses by supervisors at beaches and pools in letters to Lightfoot and Kelly in early 2020.

But the inspector general’s investigation remained out of public view for more than a year, until WBEZ broke the story in April.

Since August, Cook County prosecutors specializing in sex crimes and public corruption have been conducting a criminal investigation at the park district. That probe has led to sexual assault charges against a former lifeguard supervisor, who was accused of exploiting teen girls he managed at Humboldt Park.

When she replaced Kelly, Escareno said she would lead a “serious review of existing processes to ensure that we continue to regain the trust of the people of Chicago and that employees will look to the park district as a great place to work.”

And in November, when park district board President Avis Lavelle also resigned, Escareno said more than 3,000 employees were scheduled to complete sexual harassment training by the end of the year.

Dan Mihalopoulos is an investigative reporter on WBEZ’s Government & Politics Team. Follow him on Twitter @dmihalopoulos.