By Bob Seidenberg
Evanston Public Library Executive Director Yolande Wilburn, whose selection after a 15-month search in 2023 was celebrated by library trustees, has tendered her resignation from the position.
An agenda item in the Library Board packet for Wednesday night’s regular Library meeting lists acceptance of Wilburn’s resignation as well as a second item to seek proposals from firms brought in to find an interim director.
The Board sent a letter to Library staff on Monday, informing them about the executive director’s resignation, confirmed Ellen Riggsbee, the Library’s Marketing and Communications Manager.
The Board is expected to issue a statement about the resignation on Thurday, after acting on acceptance of the request, Riggsbee said.
The first African-American director in EPL’s over 150-year history, Wilburn has been on leave since late last year, with Assistant Library Director Heather Norborg serving as interim Executive Director during Wilburn’s absence
Wilburn’s selection in October 2023 was hailed as a local-kid-makes-good.
The EPL Board, mostly comprised of new members, spent a deliberate 15 months on the search, soliciting feedback from residents, staff and volunteers.
They eventually selected Wilburn, who had started her career with Chicago Public Library system, where she was part of a team that helped develop one of the nation’s earliest maker labs.
A “Library Builder”
She had then went to head several in California, presiding over major buildouts. As the director of the Santa Cruz Public Libraries, she gained a reputation as a “library builder,” presiding over the opening of five branch libraries over a short period of time.
”Her record of strategic planning, budgetary management and staff is exactly what is needed to support the extraordinary work our staff do on a daily basis,” EPL’s Board President Tracy Fulce said at the time.
She and other library trustees burst out in applause after voting unanimously to approve Wilburn’s contract, ending the long search.
In her new job, Wilburn advocated early on for a first-time lease with the city on the main branch library, 1703 Orrington Av., which is owned by the city; as well as some kind of cost-sharing agreement that would define responsibilities of the two parties and ongoing maintenance of the building which opened in 1994.
Who’s taking care of the lease?
The lease could be set for a nominal fee, she maintained. “And then [the discussion is] ‘Hey, city, are you going to take care of the roof [an estimated $2 million cost]?. Do we take care of the carpet — you define what the role is and who’s taking care of what’s in the lease.’”
For more than a year, trustees sought talks with city officials, seeking a memorandum of understanding or intergovernmental agreement outlining sharing of costs. In a brief update to the council at the Nov. 24 meeting city council meeting, City Manager Luke Stowe broke the city’s mostly silence on the issue, announcing that there had been some progress made in recent discussions between the two entities, on a new lease and agreement.
Wilburn and the trustees came under strong opposition, though, last year from union employees – members of AFSCME, the city’s biggest public union – in their move to explore becoming completely independent of the city and establishing a separate Human Resources department.
AFSCME staged several public protests, including one in August of last year, where members marched from Fountain Square to the main public library at 1703 Orrington Ave., to demonstrate their opposition.
Union officials maintained the move would separate library employees from other union employees whose work issues and grievances go through the city’s HR department. They also raised concern about work grievances and a hostile work environment.
A level of hostility that feels ‘racialized’
At a November meeting, Board President Tracy Fulce raised concern about a level of hostility that feels “racialized.”
”Over the past several weeks, our Executive Director and I have been the target of public accusations, mischaracterizations and even calls for removal,” said Fulce, the Library Board’s first African-American president, “and I will name this plainly: the level of hostility directed at us — Black women leading a major institution — has felt deeply disproportionate and at times racializied. I will not speculate publicly on the motives of those who engage in such behavior, but I will say this, I refuse to be intimidated out of doing a job I volunteered to do, nor will I allow our incredibly competent ED (Executive Director) to be victimized.”
Asked about the concern, AFSCME leader Eileen O’Neil noted that AFSCME is the most diverse union in the city. “This is not about race. It is about following our Collective Bargaining Agreement, diminished library services and increased costs to the taxpayer,” she said.
The request for proposal Library trustees are to act on Wednesday night calls for have an interim Executive Director to be selected by June 20.