Fired Island Lake cop was one of town's 'greatest assets,' record says

A part-time Island Lake police officer fired by the mayor and village board in April received excellent marks in a performance evaluation and was dubbed one of the department's "greatest assets," his personnel records show.

Officer Fred Manetti was so good at his job, the supervisor completing the 2006 evaluation said he should be a full-time police officer.

"Mr. Manetti has many job strengths, so many in fact that I may leave some of them out," wrote Sgt. Anthony Sciarrone, who later served as interim police chief until being demoted back to sergeant in March.

But that glowing review - examined by the Daily Herald through the Freedom of Information Act - didn't keep Mayor Debbie Herrmann from unexpectedly placing Manetti on unpaid leave in December 2009, nor did it stop Herrmann and the village board from firing him last month.

Herrmann has said Manetti was put on leave and investigated by the village's attorney because he exceeded the 1,560 hours a part-time officer is allowed to work in one year under state law.

Officers who exceed that cap are considered full-time officers and must comply with certain state training provisions, obtain a limited waiver from the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board or forfeit their positions, state law says.

Talking publicly for the first time about his dismissal, Manetti insisted he exceeded the 1,560-hour cap on orders from the town's police chiefs.

He produced a 2007 letter from then-Police Chief John Fellmann giving him permission to exceed hours because of his dual assignment as a part-time investigator with the Lake County state's attorney's office, which began that year.

Fellmann's successor, Sciarrone, knew about the order as well, as did village officials, Manetti said.

Even so, Manetti acknowledged not having an up-to-date waiver from the state board. And he felt he didn't have to comply with the training requirement because of Fellmann's order.

"I was simply following a directive. That's what I was told to do," he said. "Nobody ever told me I could not exceed those hours."

Manetti, 58, joined the Island Lake Police Department in 2003, records indicate. He previously had worked with police departments in Hainesville and Posen and with the Cook County sheriff's office in a law-enforcement career dating back to the 1970s.

The Daily Herald procured more than 30 pages of documents from Manetti's personnel jacket through a Freedom of Information Act request filed with Island Lake after his dismissal. The reports include one formal commendation and many positive letters from the public and other agencies.

The review turned up one negative letter, sent by a woman complaining about tactics used during her public-intoxication arrest.

Although Manetti said he received annual performance evaluations, Island Lake officials gave the Daily Herald only one such report, dated December 2006.

In that evaluation, Manetti received "excellent" marks in multiple categories, including: willingness to accept directions and instructions; initiative, motivation and resourcefulness; relations with the public; and decision making.

On a scale of 1-10, Manetti never received a score lower than 7, a mark in the "good" range. He received two 7s. One was in report writing and form preparation; the other was in enforcement of parking laws.

Sciarrone wrote Manetti "is one of our greatest assets" and "should be a full-time law enforcement officer."

An April 2006 letter of commendation from Fellmann praised Manetti's role in an investigation involving a resident with a history of mental illness who possessed "a large quantity" of firearms.

"Your participation ... demonstrated a high level of focus, competence and professionalism, for which you are to be commended," Fellmann wrote.

Manetti's file also includes positive letters from a former police officer whose son was in trouble, a representative of the McHenry County state's attorney's office, and a parent praising Manetti's mentoring of her son.

But none of that mattered to the mayor and three trustees who voted to fire Manetti on April 22. Two trustees unsuccessfully opposed the move.

"Working over (the 1,560 hours) makes him ineligible, so he had to be terminated," Herrmann explained last week.

Trustee Don Verciglio said his decision to fire Manetti had nothing to do with job performance.

"He wasn't fired because he was a bad cop. He was fired because he worked too many hours," Verciglio said. "Technically, he was no longer a part-time officer."

In addition to the issue of the hours, Herrmann said the investigation turned up several "red flags" but wouldn't elaborate. Exceeding the 1,560-hour cap, she said, was serious enough.

"Once you work 1,560 hours, you can't turn it off," she said.

But Wauconda Police Chief Douglas Larsson, the president of the Lake County Police Chiefs Association, said he's never heard of an officer being terminated for this reason, unless it also involved insubordination or disobedience to an order.

"A police officer who puts in too many hours is either being encouraged to do so or allowed to do so, or it occurs because the managers are not watching his hours closely enough," Larsson said. "The sanction would more likely be directed at the managers of the police department."

Manetti said he's unaware of any allegations against him beyond the issue of his hours worked. Other part-time Island Lake officers have worked more than 1,560 hours without penalty, he said.

"I think it was personal," Manetti said of his dismissal. He believes his work for the state's attorney's office contributed to his being let go, but he declined to elaborate.

As for the issue of the hours he worked each year, he insisted he was following orders.

"I'm an officer," he said. "I followed the directive, and I worked."