Judge rejects Niles Library trustee’s legal attempt to unseat another trustee: ‘Brought shame to our board and library’
Niles-Maine District Library Treasurer Joe Makula has lost his lawsuit arguing that fellow Trustee Becky Keane was illegally appointed to her seat on the library board, according to court documents obtained by Pioneer Press Wednesday.
The resolution of the lawsuit means Keane will continue unimpeded in her service as a library trustee. She has served continually since October 2020.
A Cook County Circuit Court summary document shows Cook County Circuit Court Judge Thaddeus Wilson on Dec. 13 rejected Makula and his attorney Dan Kelley’s argument that Keane was unlawfully appointed to the board due to violations of the Open Meetings Act.
The complaint, which Makula filed in late 2021 alongside Gerald Szczepanski and Robert Zalesny, sought Keane’s removal from the library board. Makula and Keane have been on opposite sides of a 3-3 voting deadlock on the board, so forcing her to step down would have given Makula’s side an advantage.
“I’m grateful that common sense and justice have prevailed and that I won my case against Treasurer Makula,” Keane said in a statement to Pioneer Press. “By bringing about this lawsuit, Treasurer Makula has brought shame to our board and library. It is high time for him to stop his litigious games and accept the reality that Umair Qadeer and I are (or soon will be) trustees of [the library].”
Keane said the library’s insurance policy would cover her legal costs and predicted the library would see increased insurance premiums due to the suit.
Makula and his co-plaintiffs argued that the meeting agenda for the April 2021 meeting where Keane was sworn in was ambiguous and vague and thus constituted a violation of the Open Meetings Act.
Wilson stated that this argument was “unpersuasive.”
“Plaintiffs fail to offer any authority supporting their remaining proposition that, in order to satisfy section 2.02(c) of the Open Meetings Act, the April 21, 2021 meeting agenda needed to include explicit reference to any specific Board vacancies, a reference to the resignation of any trustees by name, exhibits or attachments linked to the agenda that might provide notice of the meeting’s relevant events, or all of the above,” he wrote.
Keane was appointed to the board in April 2021 to fill the seat vacated by now-Maine Township Supervisor Karen Dimond, according to previous reporting. Prior to that, she had been appointed in October 2020 to fill the seat of former trustee Sue Wilsey.
Makula also made another attempt to unseat Keane in early 2022 when he filed for a temporary restraining order against her that argued the “actions and repeated violations of Illinois statutes by [Keane] have caused and will continue to cause immediate and irreparable injury to the Plaintiffs, specifically, and the residents and taxpayers of the Niles-Maine Library District.”
The restraining order was not granted and Keane has continued working on the board as a vocal opponent of Makula, President Carolyn Drblik and Secretary Suzanne Schoenfeldt as they seek to make drastic cuts to library spending, including preventive maintenance of the building.
Earlier this year, Makula also filed for and was granted a restraining order against Secretary of State Jesse White, who appointed attorney Umair Qadeer to the seat vacated more than a year prior by former Trustee Olivia Hanusiak. The Illinois General Assembly passed legislation this fall that will clear the way for Qadeer to soon be appointed to the board.
Makula and Keane each filed to run for another term on the library board Monday morning.
Makula did not respond to a request for comment from Pioneer Press.
