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Niles-Maine Library Trustees Discuss Tentative Timeline To Fill Vacancy

7th Trustee Would Be Swing Vote For Divided Board

Niles-Maine District Library Board of Trustees minus the vacant desk of Olivia Hanusiak at the library’s Wednesday, Aug. 18 board meeting, where Hanusiak’s resignation letter was read. (Tom Robb/Journal photo)

Niles-Maine District Library trustees officially declared a vacancy on the library board of trustees and discussed a plan to fill that vacancy at their Wednesday, Sept. 15 meeting. A tentative timeline could see a new trustee chosen by late October or early November.

Library Board President Carolyn Drblik read a resignation letter from Library Trustee Olivia Hanusiak, effective immediately, at the Aug. 18 library board meeting. The letter said, “My other commitments have become too great for me to be able to continue to fill the requirements of my position on the board.” Hanusiak’s vacancy will be filled by a majority vote of remaining library board members.

Hanusiak’s departure and the selection of her successor will likely have a major impact on the future direction of the library. Hanusiak was part of a slate of three candidates who joined with Drblik to create a four-member majority voting bloc that made big cuts to the library budget, instituted a hiring freeze, and made other changes. Since her departure, the voting blocs have been evenly split and fiercely divided on the library board.

A compromise offered as an amendment during the budget process by Hanusiak before her departure allowed a budget to pass earlier this summer.

The tentative timeline and plan discussed at Wednesday’s meeting would begin with Drblik gathering relevant information about the process for replacing a library trustee and emailing that information to board members for their review by Monday, Sept. 20. Library trustees would then have until Friday, Sept. 24 to respond with any concerns or suggestions. 

Concerns about possible violations of the Illinois Open Meetings Act by communicating via email about plans to replace Hanusiak were raised at the meeting. A one-way communication and even a single response from library trustees via email would not necessarily violate the Open Meetings Act, but further back and forth communication easily could. Under the act, discussion of personnel, including the appointments of trustees, is allowed to take place in closed session. Any votes by trustees from those discussions are required to take place in an open session.

Part of the discussion would formulate a uniform set of questions to be asked of all applicants to fill the vacant trustee seat by all sitting library trustees. 

A posting of the trustee vacancy along with information on how residents should submit letters of interest and other information to apply to fill the vacancy would then be posted on the library’s website and likely announced elsewhere on or about Friday, Oct. 1.

Trustees discussed giving applicants about two weeks to submit applications once the vacancy is posted. Discussion with top library administrators indicated if applications were all received by Wednesday, Oct. 13, those applicants could be included in library trustee packets ahead of their regular Wednesday, Oct. 20 meeting. That meeting could include an executive session to discuss applicants.

Library Business Manager Greg Pritz suggested setting a date for interviews, so applicants could set schedules ahead of time to be free for interviews. How long those meetings would go or how many would be needed would depend on how many applicants apply. Trustees said they would be available to participate in a closed session meeting to interview candidates Wednesday, Oct. 27, although more meetings could be called to conduct interviews given how many residents apply. 

Among the questions library trustees at Wednesday’s meeting said would need to be asked of candidates, was a candidate’s legal qualifications to hold office, specifically whether that candidate has lived within the library district for at least one year.

At one point, one trustee asked if the seat needed to be filled within 60 days. Library Trustee Joe Makula accurately responded, “That is only for municipal boards.” 

Library board trustees must have been residents and qualified voters of the library district for at least one year before taking office. 

The Niles-Maine library district includes the village of Niles and extends into unincorporated Maine Township and a small portion of unincorporated Northfield Township known as the Dearlove Triangle.  

Umair Abdul Qadeer was appointed to the Niles-Maine District Library Board in October 2020 but resigned in February 2021 after Drblik raised the fact Qadeer had lived in the library district for less than a year, a condition only added to the Illinois Public Library District Act in 2018. 

Additionally, the Illinois Public Library District Act says a person may not hold office as a library trustee if they are, “in arrears in the payment of a tax or other indebtedness due to the library district or has been convicted in any court in the United States of any infamous crime, bribery, perjury, or other felony.”

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