The Kane County Human Services Committee approved an addition to the county personnel handbook on Nov. 12 that requires annual performance evaluations for employees and directs that written evaluations be placed in employee personnel files.

Staff said the policy requires departments to conduct annual evaluations but does not force a single, countywide form. "This policy moves to require an annual evaluation of employees by their department, but leaves it up to the department primarily to determine how that's handled and what form they wanna use," staff told the committee. The staff also said a base form exists that departments may modify or continue to use if they prefer.

Several committee members raised concerns about allowing different departments to use different evaluation forms. Greg Gripe cautioned that widely varying forms could produce inconsistent criteria across departments and increase the risk of legal challenges in termination or discipline cases. "Those criteria could lead to terminations of employees... and I might... point to another department... and say, we work for the same county... That's what I'd call it if I want to file a lawsuit," Gripe said, urging at least a standard approach to avoid potential litigation. Staff responded that HR must sign off on terminations and that due-process protections, including performance-improvement plans, are part of existing procedures.

Members asked staff to gather the evaluation templates currently in use across departments and present them for review at a future meeting. Miss Lewis suggested collecting the different forms first to see which elements would be appropriate for broader adoption. The motion to add the evaluation policy to the personnel handbook was moved by Lewis and seconded by Gregg; roll-call votes recorded ayes from Allen, Garcia, Lewis, Tarver and Linder and the motion passed.

What happens next: Staff will collect department evaluation forms for committee review; HR will continue to provide the base evaluation form and can work with departments to address legal and due-process concerns.