Kalamazoo County has shed some light on former administrator Terrence Neuzil’s departure, releasing records that detail claims about inappropriate comments Neuzil is said to have made to and about female staff.
Neuzil resigned on Tuesday less than four months after the county hired him. He released an email statement Thursday calling the allegations a “false” and “malicious” attack.
The records the county released Thursday include claims that, among other things, Neuzil commented on staff members’ looks, instructed female employees not to speak to him in the presence of his wife, and told women who worked for the county not to text him anything that might get him in trouble with his spouse.
Asked if such remarks would amount to sexual harassment, county attorney Thom Canny said the issue was more about workplace equality.
“It was primarily a difference in treatment, so that’s not necessarily harassment. That is a discrimination based on gender,” Canny says.
In his statement, Neuzil denied making unprofessional comments to anyone at the county. He accused Canny and Deputy County Administrator John Faul of unfair treatment and suggested that Faul stood to gain politically from his departure.
“Kalamazoo County government has unethically and dishonestly mishandled nearly every phase of an employee relations issue,” Neuzil writes.
County Board Chair John Taylor voted, with all board members, to accept Neuzil’s resignation. But he says his own interactions with Neuzil were positive.
"I come in for maybe an hour, hour and a half each day, other than my subcommittee meetings and committee meetings that take place in other parts of the county, so my interactions with him were very brief, but they were productive. I didn’t have a problem with him," he says.
The investigation did not reach a conclusion about Neuzil’s conduct because it ended when Neuzil resigned.
