Arlington Heights park director getting $95,000 payout to formally leave job
More than six months after going on a leave of absence, former Arlington Heights park director Rick Hanetho on Wednesday will get a $95,000.10 check - equal to another six months of his salary - to walk away from the job.
The separation payment represents the formal end of Hanetho's tenure at the Arlington Heights Park District, whose board of commissioners hired him as executive director in June 2016.
On April 9, they inked a separation agreement and general release that guaranteed him the check approaching six figures.
But his departure - and his leave of absence from the park district starting last October - remains shrouded in mystery, with the park board and park district attorneys refusing to detail why Hanetho left, or even if he was still being paid while out of the office.
Hanetho and his attorney on Tuesday also didn't comment.
A Freedom of Information Act request for documents that would show whether Hanetho took vacation time or sick days, or was on paid or unpaid leave since October 2018 was denied by the park district, citing "a clearly unwarranted invasion of his personal privacy which outweighs any legitimate public interest in obtaining the information."
Hanetho requested a leave of absence from his job in mid- to late October through the park district's finance and personnel department, in line with the process that other employees follow, according to park board President Maryfran Leno.
On Nov. 13, the park board sent Hanetho a letter objecting to the automatic rollover provision in his employment contract, which enabled him yearly automatic extensions unless the park board intervened. By that letter, Hanetho's contract was due to expire June 7, 2021.
Leno said park board commissioners had for months been discussing striking that clause from the employment agreement, believing it was not in the "best interests" of the park district. The board's action, she said, had nothing to do with Hanetho specifically or the leave of absence he had just taken.
Previous park director contracts in Arlington Heights have contained the rollover clause, but going forward, "most likely we would not be using the same contract that has been used in the past," if a contract is even used at all, Leno said. She estimated about half the park directors in the area have employment agreements.
Last February, Hanetho told the park board that he wanted to retire, which led to negotiation over the separation agreement. His last official day as executive director, per the agreement, was March 22.
Under the five-page agreement, Hanetho and the park district voluntarily agreed to settle and resolve all claims he has or may have against the park district, with both parties wanting to "avoid controversy, litigation, costs, legal fees and inconvenience."
Hanetho still also is getting six more months of health care insurance premiums paid on his behalf. He's also entitled to be paid for his 94.5 hours of unused vacation time.
Hanetho doesn't have any sick days available, but even if he did, he wouldn't be eligible to get paid for them, officials said.
Leno said the park district's attorneys also determined the separation agreement does not fit into the same criteria of a new state law that limits severance pay for a public employee about to be terminated to five months' salary.