As the Niles-Maine District Library Board remains in a 3-3 stalemate between factions, it did not approve, at its June 15 board meeting, a budget in time for the July 1 start of the new fiscal year.
Not only did the taxing body fail to discuss and approve a budget ordinance, the Board was unable pass the minutes for three previous board meetings, including one dating back to January 19. The Board has also been unable to agree on appointing a seventh member to replace one who resigned last August.
In one tumultuous exchange, Board President Carolyn Drblik refused to allow Trustee Becky Keane to present an item of new business when that topic had been left off the meeting agenda. Board meeting agendas of various local governments, including villages, school districts and libraries, routinely contain a new business item.
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“I have new business,” Keane said. “The chair is obligated to make the opportunity available by asking if any member has such business. If you’re going to invoke Robert’s Rules at the beginning of the meeting then you need to follow them through the whole meeting.”
Drblik then advised Keane to contact the library attorney for more information and told another trustee that new business would not be allowed.
“You’re not a president,” Keane retorted. “You’re a dictator and a tyrant, just following your own rules.”
A previous library board meeting saw deadlock over tax abatement, and another meeting was cut short when Trustees Keane, Dianne Olson and Patti Rozanski left the dais saying that the they were given no information about matters they were expected to vote on.
During public comment at the June 15 meeting, residents had plenty to say.
“It is clear we’re not the library we once were,” said Jeanette Lee. “Please, start listening to the patrons, to the community and the staff when they are overwhelmingly asking you to increase staffing to its correct level in your new budget.”
“What is being proposed about moving the teen underground is unfair and inappropriate,” said Evan, age 13, who identified himself as a Culver School student. Pioneer Press/baiduhai is withholding his last name because he is under 18.
“To say we have too many books in the library is absurd. It’s like saying that a restaurant has too much food. It doesn’t make sense.”
Resident David Carrabotta said,”The (library) services provided are not bad, but we are being overcharged for what’s provided.”
The library board currently is handcuffed with six members rather than its usual tie-breaking seven because former Trustee Olivia Hanusiak resigned last summer.
In January, Trustees Keane, Rozanski and Dianne Olson asked the Illinois Secretary of State Office, which also functions as the State Librarian, for help with either mediation or appointing a new trustee. The Librarian was expected to refer the issue of the unfilled board seat to the Illinois Attorney General’s Office.
The 3-3 deadlock on approving the January 19 minutes happened with Trustees Keane and Patti Rozanski joining Dianne Olson objecting to some content in the document.
The vote to approve the minutes of two other meetings also ended in a tie when trustees argued that the summaries were either inaccurate or transcribed incorrectly.
The board meeting highlight, which was expected to be discussion and passage of a budget ordinance, never got off the ground because preliminary differences had not yet been worked out among trustees.
Keane distributed to trustees transcribed pages of an email containing budgets with line items proposed by the library staff, by the library treasurer and by library trustees.
“We have to go through it, line by line, and come to a compromise because there’s no way you guys are going to vote for what we put forth,” Keane said to trustees.
Trustees ended up agreeing to discuss the budget on Friday, July 1, the first day of the new fiscal year. A final budget, including a public hearing, will be presented on Aug. 17, officials said.
“I really hope we’re going to work together on July 1 and compromise on a budget,” Keane said.
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