By Bob Seidenberg
A previously announced joint meeting between City Council members and Library trustees for Nov. 19 is off for now, with library officials’, saying they believe that some of the issues the city slated for discussion fall solely under the Library’s authority.
“Because the agenda wasn’t legally permissible, we could not notice a joint meeting, and therefore no joint meeting was ever scheduled,” Board President Tracy Fulce said in a statement Tuesday. “The regular Library Board meeting will proceed through our standard public process once we have appropriate agenda items.”
Clare Kelly, in whose First Ward the main branch library is located, had disclosed at the Oct. 27 city council meeting that a joint meeting of the two public bodies was in the works for Nov. 19.
Her comments came after a number of Library employees, members of AFSCME Local 1891, had stepped forward at the meeting to voice concerns about the Library’s exploration of separating from the city and a hostile work environment and to request that Mayor Daniel Biss and council members intervene.
Kelly expressed hope that a joint meeting between the two public bodies would offer “a good start,” working collaboratively to address the issues. City Manager Luke Stowe advised Biss that he believed that the Fulce had agreed to the meeting.
Kelly said, “I think we all acknowledge our library as being a really incredibly special inclusive space that reflects our values of literacy, equity, and our library staff is the heart of that system
“And I think when our library employees and librarians are speaking about working conditions it’s not just a labor issue, it’s a community issue, and we need to listen.”
In communications between the city and library, Kelly suggested that the Library’s lease with the city, the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) being negotiated between the two sides, and the role and relationship between the two entities be included among the topics discussed in open session.
Discussions of working conditions concerns — with input from AFSCME leadership — personnel concerns, and Board leadership as it relates to personnel could be held in closed session, she suggested.
The library is a separate public body from the city, adopting a Library Fund model in 2012, after years of the budget being lumped in with other city departments and facing repeated cutbacks.
The IGA, which library trustees have been pursuing for more than year, would deal with sharing the costs of renovating the main building at 1703 Orrington Ave., which is owned by the city.
OMA concerns
Michelle Mills, Library Board’s Finance Committee chair, informed the city officials in an email Nov. 13 that the Board was respectfully declining the invitation for a joint meeting on Nov. 19 (a regular Library Board meeting will still be held.)
”While our regular Library Board meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 19 was mentioned as a possible forum,” she wrote in her email, which was obtained by the Evanston RoundTable via a Freedom of Information request, “that meeting cannot serve as a joint session unless it is properly noticed under the Open Meetings Act (OMA), with an agenda identifying the specific topics eligible for discussion..
”To ensure compliance and public confidence in our work together, I recommend we postpone the proposed joint meeting until an agenda and framework are developed and can be noticed.”
In her statement on Tuesday, Fulce expanded on that view, emphasizing, “while the Library Board is committed to transparent communication and problem solving, it must be done within the context of a legal framework.”
““Despite repeated requests, the agenda Councilmember Kelly shared included items that cannot legally be discussed in a joint meeting, including internal personnel matters and operational issues that fall solely under the Library Board’s authority under the Illinois Local Library Act.
“We absolutely welcome Councilmembers to attend our publicly noticed meetings,” Fulce stressed. Further, “we are open to a joint public meeting when there are lawful shared-jurisdiction items to discuss such as the lease, the IGA, or capital planning.
She said questions about internal Library operations are already being handled through the City’s Corporation Counsel, “who is coordinating directly with our attorney.”
Ample time had been given: Kelly
On the city’s part, Kelly said, “We provided a proposed agenda for the previously agreed-upon Nov. 19 joint meeting with ample time for Board collaboration on the agenda and for proper public notice.
“If the Board had concerns about any item, they could have communicated that so we could finalize an agenda together. The goal was to work collaboratively on the meeting to address issues brought to the Council’s attention and to give the public information about the IGA and lease, along with an opportunity for public input. “Instead of offering feedback, the Board simply canceled the meeting.
”Given the three major issues currently before both bodies—the lease, the IGA, and serious labor concerns, a joint meeting is an obvious and essential step towards building a more collaborative relationship and ensuring transparency and accountability for Evanston residents.
AFSCME members “are disappointed that the Library Board chose to cancel the joint session with the City Council,” said Eileen O’Neil, President of AFSCME Local 1891, which represents the library workers. In public comment at the Oct. 27 meeting, O’Neil had questioned Library officials’ decision to create a second HR (Human Resources Department, doubling charging the taxpayers with the city already providing the service.
O’Neil also raised concerns about a 10% tax levy increase the library was seeking in its budget, and the possibility of the city’S transferring the main branch library to the Library’s control, thus “giving them funds to cut and run and leave the public holding the bag.”
She said the decision to not hold a joint meeting restricts “City oversight and limits public visibility into how taxpayer dollars are spent and the working conditions our members are facing.”