The Village of Shorewood Hills Board of Trustees on Tuesday rejected a resolution of censure against a member who accused the former village administrator of racial discrimination.
The resolution, drafted by Village President John Imes, said Lofti was “confrontational and accusatory” against former village administrator Sharon Eveland in remarks at the April 16 Village Board meeting that were “disrespectful and inflammatory, targeting Village Administrator Eveland with a highly offensive and baseless accusation” of discrimination.
However, after hearing from constituents and discussing the matter, the board voted unanimously to postpone the resolution indefinitely, effectively rejecting it.
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Tensions
Lotfi was first elected to the Board of Trustees in Shorewood Hills, a village of about 2,100 people along the shore of Lake Mendota and surrounded by the City of Madison, in 2019. Eveland was hired as administrator in late 2021.
In an interview Monday, Lotfi detailed a history of difficulties and tensions between her and Eveland, most of which was substantiated in an investigation prompted by the April 16 incident.
For example, as chair of the Services Committee, which oversees facilities, Lotfi maintains she should have been able to work with a consultant hired by the village to perform a facility study, but Eveland refused to give her contact information for the consultant for seven months.
In June 2023, due in part to tensions among staff, elected officials and residents, Eveland suggested asked all village board members to sign a “Civility Pledge,” in which officials promised that their communication would “model civil behavior, being open, honest, transparent and courteous,” and that they would “seek common ground through active listening, thoughtful participation and by taking a cooperative approach to problem solving.”
Lotfi signed the pledge in September.
Tensions between her and Eveland came to a head over meeting agendas.
Lotfi said Eveland often altered language on agendas for committee meetings that Lotfi was going to preside over as chair of the Services and Personnel Committees. After Lotfi objected repeatedly, in January 2024, Eveland instituted a template that all committee agendas were to adhere to.
Discrimination claim
At the April 16 board meeting, Eveland brought up the agenda template issue to suggest a minor change, and Lotfi took the opportunity to note that several committee agendas did not adhere to the new template. She said that made it feel like the bureaucratic change to the way agendas were prepared was targeted at her, “the brown girl.”
Eveland said Lotfi was the reason for the template, but not because of her race.
“I don’t appreciate the insinuation that anything I do is based in discrimination,” she said. “The reason we had to come to this … is because you wouldn’t quit arguing with me and other staff about the wording (on committee agendas).”
“I would believe it wasn’t discrimination if there wasn’t a Confederate flag tattoo on your body,” Lotfi responded.
Eveland had publicly acknowledged that she got a Confederate battle flag tattoo on her back at the age of 21, saying that she was taught, growing up in southern Georgia, that it was simply a symbol of southern heritage. She said she learned later that it was a symbol of racism, a realization she said was part of her “journey with respect to DEI.”
Eveland stormed out of the village board meeting after Lotfi’s remark about the Confederate flag.
Lotfi said in an interview Monday that she didn’t want it to come to that.
“It was not my first choice to address the situation by saying, ‘I feel discriminated against,’” she said. “I was trying to avoid that. There were residents who were saying,’how do you still sit there, given the way they treat you?’ So it almost was like, if I don’t say I feel discriminated against, nobody can hear me. It’s all disguised under, ‘well, this is a policy.’”
Fallout
Lotfi said that Imes emailed after the April 16 board meeting, asking to discuss her behavior.
“I wrote to John, saying, when somebody voices discrimination, you’re supposed to do an investigation,” Lotfi said. The village retained attorney Malina Piontek to conduct an investigation of Lotfi’s claims of discrimination; her report said Eveland’s conduct did not meet the criteria to be called discrimination.
On Friday, Imes placed a resolution of censure on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting.
At the meeting, more than a dozen people, including several former board members, spoke against the resolution. None spoke in favor.
Speakers were not clearly identified in the Zoom meeting. Many were sharply critical of Eveland, noting she had a confrontational style and seemed to make arbitrary rules and procedures. Most speakers were supportive of Lotfi.
“My recommendation is to reject the resolution and move on,” one speaker said.
“Let it go,” another said.
“Just forget it, just leave it,” said another. “We give important business here in the village to do, and this is wasting everybody’s time.”
Board president John Imes, who drafted the resolution, opened debate on the resolution by giving “context.”
“For me it was about the tone and manner,” he said. “And that it was in public.” He said conflicts with personnel should be handled in closed session, and that the incident could harm employee morale.
Trustee Carol Barford said her primary concern was employee morale, and ensuring village employees could trust that their private, privileged information wouldn’t be “blurted out” in a board meeting.
Lotfi did not say anything in the April meeting that was not already publicly known.
Barford said she initially intended to vote in favor of the resolution but changed her mind after hearing from the speakers, especially with regard to the relative seriousness of censure.
“While I personally believe trustee Lofti’s actions were injurious, and not in line with the Civility pledge, I recommend that we as a board, choose not to vote for censure,” Trustee Dietmar Bassuner said in a written statement which he read at the meeting. “Instead, I propose that we focus our efforts on re-establishing a collaborative, productive Village Board that is best suited to serve the interests of our constituents.”
“I think that this incident, we as a board, and in particular, John, failed each other in this incident,” Trustee Robb Stankey said. “Both Shabnam and Sharon were off topic, and there was no attempt to calm down the rhetoric. It was a very heated discussion for some time before the comment being addressed in this resolution.”
He added that he didn’t think the comment at the April meeting rose to the level of censure.
“I believe (Lotfi) made that comment because she was trying to provide evidence for her belief that she was being discriminated (against),” he said. “I understand where she’s coming from. And because of that, I don’t think it was truly a comment made to put down another person, but rather she was trying to make a point. While I don’t think the point was made kindly, in that context, I understand.”
Several members noted that the civility pledge was vague and lacked any enforcement mechanism, and suggested a more comprehensive code of conduct for board members.
For her part, Lotfi said the the incident in April was the culmination of many issues.
“This is after months and months of respectfully and professionally asking for equal access to information and asking for my role as a trustee and chair to be respected,” she said. “The former administrator bulldozed over my role and made my decisions for me.”
Ultimately Imes said he was willing to withdraw the resolution. No trustee moved to approve it.
Eveland is now city administrator in Sandersville, Georgia.
This story has been corrected. It initially stated that the resolution died for lack of a motion.
