The Yorkville Public Library Board invited City Council members to its meeting Monday night to open the dialogue and improve relations between the groups, but library trustees were the only ones at the table.
“We invited them (but) didn’t get a response from them,” Library Board President Russell Walter said.
City Administrator Bart Olson had no comment.
Library trustees were trying to repair the relationship with the City Council after a disagreement over the hiring of a librarian and a breakdown of negotiations on a new intergovernmental agreement.
Library trustees publicly reached out after reading in The Beacon-News on May 13 that Yorkville Mayor Gary Golinski had decided to delay consideration of appointments for three Library Board trustees whose terms have expired.
Walter after Monday’s meeting told The Beacon-News he was disappointed that no City Coucnil members showed up. Walter acknowledged it’s not regular practice for City Council members to attend Library Board meetings. However, he was hoping for some representation being the board reached out to them.
“I was hoping they would be here or a couple of them, maybe the mayor. I am disappointed no one showed up to start the conversation. I don’t know where to go from here,” Walter said.
Walter said he thought at least the City Council’s Library Board liaison Ald. Jackie Milschewski would come to the meeting.
“Most of the time she was here, since all of the problems with the intergovernmental agreement, she has not been here,” Walter said.
Milschewsi said her “absence has been due to family and work conflicts and nothing to do with the intergovernmental agreement.”
The library is a city facility that operates with its own tax levy and a nine-member board, whose members are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the City Council.
Tension started between the City Council and appointed members of the Library Board last year after the city suggested they delay the hiring of a library director as a money-saving move because the library was running a deficit.
The Library Board rejected the idea and hired a new library director last August.
Aldermen last October voted to terminate an intergovernmental agreement the city had with the municipal library with the intent to renegotiate and approve a new one that would go into effect May 1.
Library Board members were reviewing terms of a draft agreement with the city when they reacted to certain conditions with public remarks toward city officials that prompted some aldermen to ask for an apology.
However, after hearing an audio recording of the Library Board’s Policy Committee discussing the issue Jan. 29, the City Council decided to stop those discussions with the library.
Walter had made a remark in the meeting concerning the city, saying, “They are trying to take control of the library.”
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In February, Golinski said the city owns the library and property and will continue maintaining its obligations. He told aldermen then, “I don’t see a need for an (agreement) unless somebody else feels strongly about it.”
Library trustees in a letter to the editor issued May 22 acknowledged “an inappropriate comment” was made by one of the board members “during a passionate discussion.” They further stated in the letter “apologies have been made and we are eager to further mend any hurt feelings.”
One of the sections in the draft agreement that provoked discussion pertained to use of the library building. Under the agreement, the library would submit by Sept. 1 an annual schedule “for use of each room” that is used for library purposes.
The city would then notify the library of its needs by Oct. 1 for the use of rooms not reserved for library use.
Some Library Board members said they found the idea “offensive.”
But Walter Monday night said they were close to resolving issues with the schedule.
“Staff developed a six-month plan specifically how the building is used,” he said.
Walter, whose term expires on the Library Board in May 2019, said that the three Library Board trustees who want to be reappointed have not heard back from the city.
The terms for Library Board members Carol La Chance, Jason Hedman and Wamecca Rodriguez are up.
Hedman, appointed in 2017 to fill a vacancy, had suggested the board invite the City Council to the meeting to mend the relationship.
“The city was looking at a full year of room bookings and we had looked at six months of room schedules to provide the city. We were working with them on that point,” Hedman said.
“The biggest thing that disappoints me is that one person’s comment at one meeting which was apologized for shouldn’t derail the whole process,” Hedman told The Beacon-News.
Hedman said he would like to have an intergovernmental agreement formalized and be able to work closely with the city to promote library events.
“There were differences of opinion when we hired our new library director but I feel we are moving in the right direction,” he said.
La Chance, who has been on the Library Board for 26 years, is being patient waiting for word on whether she will remain on the board. She said she hopes she is not replaced.
“If I go that way, I go that way. I hope I don’t, but if I do, I can’t do anything about it,” she said.
Rodriguez, who was appointed in 2015, said she’s not discouraged that she hasn’t heard about whether she’ll be reappointed.
“We’re still working hard for the library. We’ll deal with the outcome whenever we hear it,” she said.