Angelo Hightower, outside city hall
MARION, Ill.—As of the conclusion of the Marion City Council meeting last night (Monday, August 11, 2014), Marion Police Officer Angelo Hightower says the city has had plenty of time to decide on the Lieutenant position.
And now, Hightower says the situation has left him with no choice to file a grievance with EEOC on the matter.
Hightower has been attending meetings regularly and has been voicing his opinion on why the city hasn’t promoted him to the position of Lieutenant after the previous Lieutenant, Dawn Tondini, was promoted to chief in the wake of the retirement of John Eibeck. The matter has been perpetually tabled at the meetings and remains unaddressed.
Hightower plans to hand-deliver the grievance in person later this month in Chicago. Most people don’t know that Hightower has scored higher than current Chief Tondini on the tests for sergeant’s position (Hightower was passed over for that position) as well as the test for Lieutenant position that was created for Tondini. Now some members of city council want to do away with that position. Hightower says he was shocked at a recent article in the Marion paper that quotes Mayor Bob Butler as saying Hightower’s performance “didn’t qualify him for the position.”
Hightower also says he texted Tondini recently and ask if she was still on vacation and her immediate response was no she was not.
He replied in a text say”ing how about we do lunch to talk about the lieutenant position, my treat” he said. He got no response until the next day when she declined the lunch offer and said they could talk in her office. The next day he went to her office and she said there would be some changes in the position if it were to be Hightower appointed to it. One would be that it would be primarily nights. Interestingly, Tondini never worked nights and kept her daytime shift. She also mentioned that there would be the problem of overtime. However, Hightower said there were always overtime issues ,even when Tondini was lieutenant.
There are over 17,000 residents in the city of Marion. Over 300 people are on the payroll that work for the city. Of that 300 employees, there are only about six, including Hightower, who are African-American. Hightower is the only African-American on the police force.