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IN HER OWN WORDS!
Linda Frame. A legal response (excerpted) to her being fired as Harbor Master by the Department of Public Works, reveals volumes about internal city operations in Lake Geneva
Due to COVD-19 since the City of Lake Geneva decided the entire City and everything in it would be open for business, from his office, my Supervisor, Tom Earle, and I privately devised a plan to find a way to keep the Beach occupancy as safe as I possibly could and still not close the beach completely. But to stop any chaos, my supervisor Tom Earle instructed me from day one, this beach occupancy plan was to be kept only between the 2 of us and NO ONE else was to be told of this plan. He further advised me: “This is NO ONE else’s business, the police department, Lt Way, the mayor, not the media, city officials, my beach staff, or anyone except he and I.” Therefore, he instructed me to ‘absolutely” keep the beach occupancy numbers only kept between him and I.
By using the National Occupancy methods, and the COVID 6-foot spacing safety, (just as we were using the 6-foot spacing in the lines at the beach entrance and sidewalks, which I had all marked and people were complying with), he, my supervisor, calculated the numbers/capacity of our beach and through a series of calculations, he, my supervisor, determined an occupancy limit of the number of beachgoers were allowed to be on the beach at one time. Obviously, I started the instructed capacity limits quite low initially to allow time for selected staff to be in place and help to ‘educate’ the public about COVID while still being able to enjoy the outdoors. I changed the IN/OUT entrance of the main Wrigley Drive entrance, to both staircases IN only, and the OUT gate was at the Riviera end on the South end of the Beach. How it worked: he, my supervisor, would give me by phone call, a number to allow in, until the capacity was hit, and we stopped. As the people left OUT the gate, we let that many come through the IN gate.
Meanwhile, some/selected members of the Beach Staff walked around ensuring all were adhering to the 6-foot spacing on the beach. It was a team effort, but I would only change the capacity through his, my supervisor’s direction given to me via phone call. As for the “beach occupancy,” this number was kept between my supervisor & me, and I only carried out the plan with the numbers given to me.
The 700-occupancy limit was the original limit and of course, there’s a sign bolted on the Beach House with it on the building, which we could not physically remove, and since this whole occupancy process was a temporary measure. However, the occupancy for the COVID-19 capacity was posted by hand at all the entrances and the only one who know what it the number was going to be at any given time, was my supervisor, who called me, and informed me, and I (only) to inform my Beach Staff Lead, period. I had a conversation with my Supervisor about Lt Way, who kept calling me with instructions about the capacity. The Community Police-foot patrol and the mayor kept calling me with their instructions about the capacity. But, Tom, my supervisor told me I’m only to listen to him. I was told by my supervisor not to tell the mayor what was going on as it was not her issue. I was not to tell the PD Lt Way what was going on, as it was not the PD issue, or anyone else‘s, as it was only a Dept of Public Works/Lakefront issue, only Tom‘s and mine. This was done “to keep any confusion, rumors, misinformation, and fabrication, or any chaos from starting and getting out of hand by people who have nothing to do with it”. Therefore, I only did what I was told by Tom, my supervisor who was responsible and orchestrating this plan, and he instructed me that he would “handle the other people/departments to keep their nose out of it.”
