With big turnover looming on the horizon, the outgoing Northlake Public Library Board met for the second to last time last week.
“Out with the old, everything’s changing,” Trustee Renee Wright said at the board’s May 14 meeting.
She was referring to the board’s decision to enter into a contract with a new firm to audit the library’s finances. But the comment could also be read as the theme for the library board’s hotly contested April elections.
The board had one vacancy prior to the April elections and, unusually, nine people initially registered to run for the six open seats on the library board.
“I would’ve considered them [the challengers] a slate,” said Wright. “But we were just the incumbents.”
Wright, Trustee Maureen Sydor and Treasurer Aracely Gutierrez all ran for reelection while Elizabeth Biddle, Diane Sampson, Toni Glowinski, Jesus Herrera, Joseph R. Klinger and Judith M. Wason all ran as challengers.
Biddle, who is also the executive assistant to Northlake Mayor Jeffrey Sherwin, filed the candidate paperwork for all of the challengers running. Biddle wasn’t the only candidate with ties to the city’s government. Klinger was appointed to Northlake’s Zoning Board of Appeals as well as the Planning, and Economic Development Commission last November. Sampson is a member of Northlake’s Youth Commission as well as the chair of the city’s Community Events and Affairs Commission.
During the course of the campaign, both Sydor and Wright were booted out off the ballot thanks to petition challenges filed by Northlake resident Jeffrey Tewes. Of 135 cities and villages within Cook County, Northlake was only one of three areas that had challenges filed against library candidates in April’s elections, according to election records from the Cook County Clerk’s Office.
The challenge against Wright included complaints that she filed a statement of candidacy that did not comply with the state election code because she “improperly used a designation of Ph.D” on her filing papers and that she didn’t include the phrase “Northlake Public Library District” on the petition sheets she circulated, according to Cook County Board of Election records.
As for Sydor, the challenge argued that she failed to file a statement of economic interests with her nomination papers. Gutierrez also faced signature challenges, but those were dropped and she was able to win reelection. Klinger ended up dropping out of the race altogether.
During last week’s meeting, Sydor said her family sold her home recently and will be moving the village of Palatine.
“This happened all after the election stuff,” she said. “We decided to sell in March and we’ll be moving in two weeks. It was a last-minute decision and it’s moving very quickly.”
As for Wright, she’s considering an offer to work with Berkeley School District 87 in what she described as an unpaid position.
The new board will be sworn in at its June 18 meeting and will be comprised Glowinski, Wason, Biddle, Herrera, Sampson, Gutierrez and Library Board President Orlando Rivera.
Alex V. Hernandez is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
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