By Bob Seidenberg
A group of Evanston Public Library employees spoke out at Monday’s City Council meeting about what they described as a hostile work environment, and they called on the council to reject library officials’ 2026 budget request to bring on their own internal Human Resources manager — a move that would split them from the main HR Division that oversees other city employees.
Eric Parker, an Evanston resident and EPL employee for more than a decade, maintained that placing “HR entirely inside the library removes the neutral oversight that keeps workplaces fair and transparent. It gives too much control to a small circle of leadership at a time when trust is already fragile.”
Library employees, who are represented by the AFSCME Local 1891 union, addressed these concerns during the public comment portion of Monday’s council meeting.
Big turnout
Employees from other city departments, also represented by AFSCME, came out to support their colleagues at the library, with city officials setting up an overflow room on the third floor of Morton City Hall to accommodate the turnout.
Speakers raised concerns about a continuing hostile work environment. Several suggested that library officials are intent on breaking away from the city and creating an independent district. They argued against council approval of the library board’s request for a 10% property tax increase or an ownership transfer of the 1703 Orrington Ave. main branch building from the city to the library.
“They claim that there is no intention for the library to separate” from the city, said EPL Librarian Francis Rhoades, “and yet they continue to take functional moves away from the city, violating our memorandum of understanding, violating our collective bargaining agreement and violating the library’s own bylaws.”
Rhoades cited the library posting a job opening for a Human Resources manager internal to the library and separate from city’s HR director as an example.
Union representatives informed library leadership at a labor-management meeting on Oct. 9 that the action violated their own bylaws, according to Rhoades, who uses they/them pronouns.
What was their response?” they continued. “On October 15 at the board meeting, they removed the requirement that the public must be given 30 days’ notice before the changes.”
“They completely removed the city oversight, and they gave themselves the power to change bylaws without notice,” Rhoades
charged. “And on October 23, administration announced for the first time that beginning November 1, they will no longer be using the city’s HR platform for staff evaluation. This removes the entire process and once again violates our collective bargaining agreement.”
When asked to comment, Yolande Wilburn, the library’s executive director since late 2023, said in a statement Tuesday that the library “is committed to maintaining a professional and respectful work environment for everyone.”
“The Library Board recently updated its bylaws to ensure compliance with Illinois Library Law and to align with public governance best practices,” Wilburn noted. “These updates were discussed and approved in open session. The new performance evaluation system was introduced and discussed at the April 2025 Board meeting, shared again during the August strategic update, and presented to all staff at the April 24 All Staff Training Day. The Library continues to work collaboratively with the City of Evanston to ensure the best possible human resources support and outcomes for staff.”
Librarian Heather Ross, delivering remarks on behalf of both herself and Lorena Neal, the union steward for EPL who was unable to attend the meeting, also expressed concern about management’s plan to hire a separate HR manager as “not consistent with the board’s responsibilities or with the collective bargaining agreement that covers all city union employees and departments, including the library.”
‘We will continue to speak out’
Ross said the library’s plans to implement a new performance evaluation system for employees, separate from the city system, is also an issue.
“Local 1891 has communicated our concerns regarding these actions, the hostile library work environment and ongoing union interference to the mayor, city manager and City Council members,” she said. “We will continue to speak out until these matters are resolved.”
Bridget Petrites, another EPL employee also reading from Neal’s letter, noted library leadership’s cuts to the library safety team as “part of concerning trends toward reduction in Library services as a whole.”
In the letter, Neal argued that a new schedule “has led to both reduction in community events and fewer staff working in public service … as well as increasing wait times for patrons with immediate questions and needs.”
Neal asked the mayor, city manager and council members, Petrites said, “to thoroughly investigate the actions of the board and library leadership,” and “to support a better Evanston for residents and patrons.”
At Monday’s City Council meeting, Parker noted that councilmembers will be asked to consider three major changes: “creating an internal human resource department, separating the libraries from the city and raising taxes through a 10% levy increase,” he said. “Each of these deserves careful thought together. They reveal a pattern that should be given a pause — please.”
AFSCME 1891 represents about 340 employees across the city, with around 75 of them library employees, said Eileen O’Neil, the union’s president.
Prior to Monday night’s meeting, the union had tried to address these issues “through all of our steps allowed to us in our contract, and we haven’t been able to hold them [library officials] accountable, so we’re really hoping that the elected officials will hold them [accountable],” O’Neil said.
With budget approval coming up, “we felt that the timing was critical,” she said. “Because of the budget, the library has been asking for funding for an HR manager, which, again, would separate HR oversight. And the other thing we’re deeply concerned about is the gifting of the library building to the library board. We feel like that will give them the funding to separate.
“We don’t necessarily believe that they’re not going to separate. They talk about borrowing against the library building, but they also talk about having pop-up libraries if you go back and read the articles, or having libraries and storefronts. And so we’re concerned that they’ll actually sell a library building.
“That’s why we came out tonight. We’ve tried every other option, really — the grievance meetings, the labor-management meetings. We’ve won the arbitrations.”
Kelly: ‘We need to listen’
Councilmember Clare Kelly (1st Ward), was the lone councilmember to comment on library employees’ concerns following the public comment session.
She said that a meeting between councilmembers and the library board to discuss this situation is scheduled for Nov. 19.
“I think we all acknowledge our library being a really incredible, special, inclusive space that reflects our values of literacy, equity, community,” Kelly said, “and our library staff are the heart of that system. And I think when our library employees and librarians are speaking out about working in [adverse] conditions — it’s not just a labor issue. It’s a community issue, and we need to listen.”