Niles Library’s 16-month logjam broken as Trustee Qadeer sworn in; board will consider hiring freeze Dec. 27

In a significant development for the Niles-Maine District Library, Trustee Umair Qadeer joined the Board of Trustees Wednesday night, breaking a 3-3 deadlock among trustees on the board that has caused consternation for 16 months, and taking the first step toward lifting a hiring freeze that’s been in place at the library since May 2021.

Qadeer replaces former Trustee Olivia Hanusiak, who resigned from the board in August 2021. His swearing-in signals the possibility of an end to a protracted battle for control of a bitterly divided library board that’s been punctuated by multiple legal skirmishes, shouting matches at board meetings and accusations of lying and bad faith among the six sitting trustees.

Thirteen candidates applied to fill Hanusiak’s seat after she resigned, but the remaining six trustees were unable to agree on a replacement.

That entrenched disagreement has been the defining feature of board activities over the last 18 months. Trustees Becky Keane, Diane Olson and Vice President Patti Rozanski have put up a vocal opposition to President Carolyn Drblik, Secretary Suzanne Schoenfeldt and Treasurer Joe Makula’s push to keep the hiring freeze and make deep cuts to spending on the library collection and preventive building maintenance, among other line items.

Several public commenters welcomed Qadeer to the board and expressed their hopes that his joining the board would mean the end of the hiring freeze.

Under the hiring freeze, about a third of library staff have departed and not been replaced.

Commenter Steven Sanders congratulated Qadeer on his appointment “in spite of continued obstruction by other members of this board.”

Sanders was citing current Treasurer Joe Makula’s legal pursuit of a restraining order against Secretary of State Jesse White in September 2022 that blocked White’s initial appointment of Qadeer to the board.

The Illinois General Assembly passed a law in May 2022 empowering White to make appointments to library board seats that had been vacant for more than three months. Makula’s motion for a temporary restraining order, which became permanent a few weeks after it was granted, argued that the new law did not apply retroactively.

The General Assembly then passed trailer legislation during its November veto session clarifying the original law to apply to vacancies that existed prior to its passage. Gov. JB Pritzker signed that law Dec. 14 and White re-appointed Qadeer to the board the next day.

Librarian and union member Cate Levinson used her public comment to welcome Qadeer to the board and called for a new style of leadership.

“This workforce [is] tired of the drama,” Levinson said. “We deserve leadership that practices sober deliberation, professional decision making and transparency.”

Levinson also called on the board to push for a contract with the staff union, which formed late in 2021, and to lift the hiring freeze.

During the new business portion of the meeting, Qadeer took apotential first step toward ending the hiring freeze by calling for a special board meeting to discuss the matter.

“We need to address staffing issues right away,” he said. “And I’m going to request that we do that before the next board meeting, that we have a special meeting to address the situation of this hiring freeze because that needs to be gone as soon as possible.”

“You don’t have the authority to schedule a special meeting,” Drblik said.

Qadeer replied that a special meeting may be scheduled if four trustees of the board agree to it.

Executive Director Cyndi Rademacher echoed Qadeer’s point in the rules for board officers, which state that “special meetings may be called by the President, the Secretary or by any four trustees.”

“You can authorize a meeting, but you’re not the only one who can authorize a meeting,” Rademacher said to Drblik.

The board agreed to set the meeting for Dec. 27 at 6:30 p.m.

The trustees also had an extended disagreement over whether and how Keane’s request for an agenda item had been submitted correctly.

Keane said she had submitted her request for a discussion of the library’s book challenge policy before the Dec. 14 deadline, a week before the meeting was scheduled, and objected to Drblik’s not having placed the item on the agenda.

Drblik said the item had not been put on the agenda because she had stopped reading Keane’s emails due to their tone.

“Trustee Keane, just so you’re aware, after you sent me that rude email, I was finished reading your emails,” Drblik said.

“You don’t get to do that!” Keane said.

Keane continued to insist that she did send her email with a request for an agenda item on Dec. 14, under the deadline.

“I have it right here! Would you like me to read it?” she asked Drblik.

“Once you sent me that derogatory email, I was done,” Drblik said. “I will not take this abuse.”

“If you’re not going to fulfill your duty as president, then do what I asked and step down,” Keane said.

Qadeer asked Drblik to not make public characterizations of communications among trustees and said the board members didn’t need to like each other, but needed to work together to accomplish the business of the board.

“It’s not that I am not fulfilling my duty,” Drblik said. “It’s that I can only take so many emails that are not getting me anywhere, they’re just abusive.”

“If there is a deadline on the 14th, then you should be checking on the morning of the 15th to see what came in,” Qadeer responded.

Rozanski echoed Keane’s request, which comes on the heels of a book challenge to a picture book about drag queens available in the Lincolnwood Public Library that has produced a series of tense board meetings — including one where trustees called police — just a few miles away from Niles.

“Let’s face it, community libraries not far from us have been dealing with this situation, so the likelihood of this coming to us someday; it might,” Rozanski said. “We don’t want to go walking around with blinders.”

Makula said the library should follow Illinois law’s guidance on book challenges and that Qadeer should look up the statute on the internet. Drblik then suggested that the library board consider the book challenge policy once elections took place in April.

“It would probably be a good time, around the time that this board changes, that all of these things are done, because the new board will be responsible for going forward with all the decisions that are made,” she said.