Park Board disciplines commissioner again, but stops short of another censure

The fallout from a contentious investigation into a Winnetka elected official’s conduct appears to have found finality.

Winnetka Park Board commissioners during their Thursday, Feb. 26 meeting voted to issue a series of consequences against one of their own following the findings from a months-long inquiry into Colleen Root’s behavior.

A split board cast a 4-3 vote to regulate all of Root’s future communications with district staffers related to Park Board business. Board President Elise Gibson and Commissioners Christina Codo, Jeff Tyson and Scott Corley voted in favor while Root, Cynthia Rapp and David Seaman voted against the measure.

Specifically, the board’s approved motion states that any communications between Root and district staff must be directed to Shannon Nazzal, executive director of the Winnetka Park District, who filed the complaint that sparked the internal investigation in 2025. The communications must also include a second Park Board commissioner, regardless of whether that communication is in person, by phone or in writing.

As first reported by The Record, Nazzal in late September of last year lodged a formal complaint against Root alleging that the second-term commissioner “engaged in a pattern of conduct that’s been inconsistent with the board’s code of ethics, district policies and Nazzal’s employment agreement.”

According to the official findings and conclusions of the investigation, a 12-page document that The Record obtained via a public-records request, Nazzal alleged that Root, among other things, “made several unfounded accusations against her” and created a “hostile work environment and has interfered with Nazzal’s ability to perform her role.”

The investigation, executed by Michelle Marks of Marks Employment Law, concluded that “Root’s conduct has been inconsistent with portions of the policy and code”; however, that Nazzal was not subject to a “hostile work environment under the policy” and her park district employment agreement was not violated.

Since, park commissioners over the course of multiple meetings have devoted time to the results of the investigation and in late January began to float consequences as a result of the findings.

Codo, the most-recent former president of the board, was the sharpest critic of Root during commissioner comments on Feb. 26, calling for the board to issue a second censure of Root.

The board in 2024, as previously detailed by The Record, cast a 5-2 vote to censure Root arguing she had at least 21 allegations of code-of-ethics violations at the time.

“It is your behavior and your actions that have driven us to this point,” Codo said of Root on Feb. 26.

She later added that “to protect this board, something needs to be done.”

“If there is another harassment claim, and I do not believe your behavior will change … this board is then liable and this staff is unprotected.”

Other commissioners also decried the assessment of Root’s actions put forth in the investigation’s findings but did not go as far as to suggest a second censure.

Tyson, the current vice president of the board, called the findings “anything but a glowing recommendation” of Root’s actions.

“I share Christina’s concern that we need to protect our staff; we may be open to liability,” he said. “I’m not all the way there as far as what we did before. I think this needs to be addressed; I’m just not 100 percent sure how to get there.”

He later suggested “targeted actions and changes” related to communication, adding that he thinks the board “owes it to the staff to do something.”

Seaman during his remarks called for Root to reflect and to look to make the functioning of the board more effective in the future.

“The only individual who is going to perhaps change the behavior of Commissioner Root is Commissioner Root,” he said. “It’s not anything this board does or says. So, I’m hopeful that she will reflect and as well all do when we do certain things, we try to be better.”

Root, who spoke in the middle of commissioner comments, reiterated her concerns that since April of 2024 — the moment when the board voted for the censure — she has been subject to what she called “character assasination.”

In her remarks, Root expressed that she lamented not having the opportunity to first meet with board leadership and Nazzal prior to the investigation moving forward.

She suggested the $40,000 spent on the investigation was an unnecessary taxpayer expense for something she said could have been handled internally.

While saying she was still “puzzled as to how and why we got here,” Root went on to suggest that the source of friction against her is related to her stance on the district’s lakefront planning.

“For six years, our lakefront planning has followed a pattern of big spending, constant shifting plans and closed-door alignment with a private interest,” Root said. “I have been the minority member of this board with respect to that continuing plan.

“These plans have always been tied to a long-running property exchange agreement with that private interest who has sought to limit public access to his expanded public beach south of Centennial Park. … I really believe that has been the catalyst and has been the source of friction.”

Root’s peers who followed her remarks made it a point to denounce the suggestion that she’s being singled out for her views on the lakefront.

Root ended her comments by again calling for unity moving forward.

“This is our opportunity to actually move forward and to begin to attempt to work collaboratively and cooperatively and I’m very sincere about this,” she said. “I remain very interested in trying to do that. But to do that means you have to talk to me.”

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