After a protest, a public hearing lasting more than an hour, and a failed amendment, Niles-Maine District Library trustees adopted a final $6.6 million budget Monday in line with what was adopted as a tentative budget one month ago.
The new budget adopted one day before the state deadline to file keeps many cuts made to the budget last year while increasing spending by $300,000. The new budget also continues a hiring freeze at the library.
During the meeting, Trustee Becky Keane offered an amendment to adopt a budget recommended earlier in the budget process by library staffers for $7.4 million, which failed on a tie 3 to 3 vote.
In voting for the lower budget amount, Keane said, “It pains me to vote for this budget, but it would pain me more not to have a budget.” In the final vote, only Trustee Patti Rozanski voted against the budget.
Before the meeting, several dozen protesters, including state legislators State Sen. Laura Murphy (D-28th), State Sen. Ram Villivalam (D-8th), and State Rep. Mike Kelly (D-15th), attended a protest decrying the budget’s austerity, temporary hiring freeze in place since May 2021, and last week’s temporary restraining order preventing a new trustee, appointed by Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, from being seated, which could have shifted the outcome of Monday’s budget vote.
The board has been bitterly and evenly divided since Trustee Olivia Hanusiak resigned in August 2021.
In response to protests over budget cuts, Trustee Suzanne Schoenfeldt said she was elected, “To promote our goal to make taxes less burdensome,” and said the library needs to engage people with programs and services, “Within our means.”
To which Rozanski replied that she received more votes without discussion of cutting budgets.
During budget negotiations, a proposed 5.9% raise for library staff was rejected, with Board President Carolyn Drblik saying ongoing negotiations with a newly formed employee union would dictate wages.
Several union employees spoke, including Kathy Steichen, the employee union representative, who said, “We are a union, we are not an excuse. We are not standing in your way… Front line staff should be seen as partners.” She said negotiations should be further along and, “We will not waive our rights.”
Among the speakers at the protest, and later in the public hearing before the budget vote, were several children, one as young as 8 and two as young as 13, speaking out against measures in the budget which would combine the KidSpace and Teen Underground areas in the library into one space.
At the meeting, former Maine Township Trustee David Carrabota defended the spending cuts, saying they do not go far enough.
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3trustees have blocked minds and do things their way which goes against what people in community need and want.