EDWARDSVILLE – A Collinsville employee claims she has been subject to more than 20 years of sexual and racial discrimination by her supervisor and co-workers.
Plaintiff Kimberly Hopkins filed the lawsuit in the Madison County Circuit Court against the City of Collinsville, citing discrimination and retaliation in violation of the Illinois Human Rights Act.
According to the lawsuit, Hopkins is an African American female employed by the City of Collinsville's Public Works Department, Waste Water Division, and has been working at the wastewater treatment plant since 1998. In November 2021, she was appointed the Waste Water Division's Chief Operator. She alleges she was the only employee that had the necessary licensed to hold the position. The plaintiff states that in her 24 years of employment, she has performed her duties to expectations.
Hopkins claims that during her employment, she has been subject to discrimination based on her gender and race from managers and co-workers. The pattern of harassment included derogatory comments, name-calling, and physical intimidation. Hopkins alleges she reported the behavior to her supervisor, Dennis Kress, but her complains were allegedly ignored because her supervisor participated in the alleged harassment, the suit states.
She claims that Kress opposed her initial appointment to her current position, despite being the most qualified applicant for the job and the only applicant licensed to hold the position. She also states that after she took the position, Kress tried to portion out parts of her job to unqualified Caucasian male supervisors, pays her less than her Caucasian male contemporaries, ignores her input in favor of input from her lesser qualified Caucasian male co-workers, refuses to collaborate with her on reports, opting instead to work with Caucasian male chief operators, refused to allow her to work from home despite allowing the same for her Caucasian male counterparts and refuses to pay her overtime for her excess work over forty hours per week.
According to Hopkins, she reported the behavior of Kress and her co-workers to City Manager Mitchell Bair and to the city's human resources department on July 2, 2021. She claims the defendant informed Kress and her co-workers of her report so they could bring representation to the interviews. She also claims that a co-worker who subjected her to verbal harassment was promoted to a management role in another department and that Kress was not disciplined for his actions.
Following her report, Hopkins claims that she and another African American co-worker began to face a pattern of retaliation by her co-workers. She also claims that the city created a new Superintendent of Utilities position between her and Kress, effectively creating a new layer of reporting and effectively demoting her. She states that the new supervisor Jay Favor treats her the same as Kress and her Caucasian co-workers, maintaining the hostile work environment.
Hopkins claims she has endured emotional distress, pain and suffering, mental anguish, inconvenience, humiliation, embarrassment, loss of enjoyment of life and stress.
The plaintiff is requesting the court enter a judgement in her favor, awarding damages in the form of lost wages and benefits, damages, interest, attorney fees and any other relief the court deems proper. She is represented in this case by attorney Jessica M. Scales of Sedey Harper Westhoff, P.C. in St. Louis.
Madison County Circuit Court case number 2022LA000810