By Bob Seidenberg
Evanston Public Library trustees have pushed off until at least next month the formalizing of an agreement with the firm to conduct the search for an interim Executive Director..
Michelle Mills, the Board’s Treasurer and chair of its Finance Committee, had outlined at the Board’s February meeting the group’s plans to issue request for proposals to bring in a firm to search for a full time interim director.
The action followed the Board’s acceptance of Executive Director Yolande Wilburn’s resignation earlier this year after a little over two years in the top job.
At the Library’s regular meeting Wednesday, Mills noted that the Finance Committee had recommended that the firm DSG|Koya, a leading executive search and strategic advising firm, conduct the search.
The Finance Committee’s recommendation proposes for Library Board President Tracy Fulce or her designee to negotiate a Board-ready agreement with the firm, consistent with the criteria outlined in the RFP and certain guardrails relating to the timeline and costs, Mills said in her brief report.
“The goal is to bring a Board-ready agreement forward at the earliest practical meeting — either the next regular meeting (or) otherwise via scheduling options,” Mills said.
Assistant Library Director Heather Norborg has been serving as temporary interim Executive Director since last November when Wilburn first went on leave.
The Board and Executive Director, who was chosen by the Board after a 15-month nationwide search in October 2023, had been at the center of several protests staged last year by the union which represents library workers.
AFSCME, the largest of the city’s public service unions, had raised concerns about an initiative Wilburn had recommended the Library explore to become an independent district from the city with its own Human Resources Department.
Wilburn had recommended that the option be considered with Library officials (the Library’s budget is roughly $10 million versus $400 million for the city) failing to make progress on a cost-sharing agreement with the city for maintenance of the city-owned main public branch at 1703 Orrington Ave., where an estimated $20 million in renovation is needed.
Library trustees eventually dropped the plan, shifting emphasis back to staying in their current building. Union members had raised concerns that such a move would separate them from other city employees who deal with the city’s Human Resources department on contract negotiations and work issues.
Some employees also raised concerns about a hostile workplace environment as well as a bylaw change, concentrating too much authority in the Executive Director.
The request for proposal which trustees drew up for the interim executive director search described the ideal candidate as someone, “steady, pragmatic and operationally disciplined; able to de escalate and stabilize without avoiding accountability; skilled at communicating with a governing board and diverse stakeholders with professionalism and transparency.”
The proposal lists the target start date as late June of this year. The expected appointment would run 18 to 24 months, with the possibility of the interim Executive Director being considered for permanent Executive Director status.