A western suburbs library that became a battleground for national culture wars is once again on the defensive.
Two years after Downers Grove Library was forced to cancel a planned drag queen bingo due to right-wing threats, leaders of the western suburb are considering a controversial proposal to replace appointed members of the library board with an elected member.
“This will tear our community apart for no reason,” resident Debbie Anderson Phillips warned during a recent emotionally charged library board meeting. “It’s going to be an ugly, ugly, ugly fight.”
Replacing the library sign is just an idea. But the unrest it has sparked may be the product of the past seven years, during which the six-member library board has weathered the resignations of two trustees and continued pressure from local conservatives over LGBTQ+-related programming and materials. That history has some residents concerned that a library election would attract outside interest groups seeking to influence local politics.
Mayor Bob Barnett — who has supported the facility’s staff and programming in the face of previous attacks — is among the village council members supporting the pitch, which the village must submit or place on the ballot by Jan. 13 must place.
Barnett said residents have wondered for years why the library board is appointed instead of elected, and it wouldn’t hurt to explore the question.
“I believe there is a way this can be done that does not change the operations or finances of the library,” he said. “The only question we ask is, ‘Should the trustee selection process (change)?’”
If voters approve the referendum, the outcome will not have the force of law. Barnett and other supporters say the referendum is a first step and not the last word. He insisted it was not a dig at the library, which has received a five-star rating from the Illinois Library Association and which he considers almost universally loved.
“It’s a long process (and) a lot of work for both the library and the village to make a change, work that none of us have time for unless the community really wants it,” he said.
Opponents, including the entire library board, argue that the referendum is unnecessary. They say asking the question has derailed the library’s efforts to put behind it the conflicts that flared in the wake of the pandemic.
“We have come through these turbulent years and were excited to start over,” said Trustee Barnali Khuntia. “And literally out of nowhere we find out that the village council has put this on their agenda.”
Of all the turbulent moments in recent years, the cancellation of a drag queen-themed bingo activity in September 2022 looms as the biggest in the memories of residents, staff and officials.
The cancellation, which followed violent threats, was part of a wave of politically charged confrontations across the state and country as libraries and school boards became new fronts in a post-pandemic culture war.
Elsewhere in Illinois, controversy over picture books about human anatomy and drag queens forced police to shut down a meeting at the Lincolnwood Library in late 2022, while a slew of candidates ran for school board in suburbs like Barrington, Oswego and Downers Grove in a attempt to pull those people back. to turn to the political right when it comes to issues of race, gender and sexuality.
When Laura Hois, co-chair of Awake Illinois Downers Grove, took the stage for her public comments at the Dec. 11 Library Board meeting, she cited the cancellation of 2022 as one of her reasons for supporting the referendum and the idea of electing the library. board members.
“The reason I’m in favor of electing library board members is because it’s been politicized, and that’s the whole problem,” she said. “It has become so politicized that drag queen bingo has been put on the agenda as a program for children.”
Resident Robin Tryloff said she feared the board election would invite the influence of organizations like Awake Illinois — which has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center — into the library’s board.
“Allowing local politics and voting to influence library services could lead to a situation where the library is used as a tool for party political agendas, undermining its role as an independent and inclusive space,” she said.
For library director Julie Milavec, the entire discussion is a return to an era she hoped to leave behind.
“For the past few months, we thought we were past it,” she said.
‘No one discussed this with us’
Village Commissioner Michael Davenport first raised the prospect of an elected library board in April, after voting to remove a controversial conservative trustee, Bill Nienburg, from the board. Nienburg’s dismissal was the second time since 2017 that the Village Council interfered with the composition of the board.
Before casting his vote, Davenport said he believed the council should “take a more active role and find better ways to support the library board of directors” and listed several possible options to achieve that goal.
But, he continued, he was “most interested in seeing the library’s board of directors become an elected body, directly accountable to the voters.”
Months later, when he was accused of rushing the question on the ballot, Davenport said he had wanted to let the dust of Nienburg’s removal settle. He said the debate over an idea had become overheated in such early stages.
“My request to have a discussion about this is not something that should have put everyone in total defense mode,” Davenport said. “If the voters want to leave us (appointments), then that is arranged for me.”
Should the library need to transition to an elected board, there are two options: the library can become its own taxing body, or it can have an elected board and remain a subsidiary of the Village of Downers Grove. The second option would require a change to the state library law.
In a letter to the village council, the library’s board of trustees warned that turning the library into its own taxing body could require significant tax increases and create a host of administrative problems.
Library board chairman Matt Topic said he, the rest of the board and library staff were not opposed to the idea of elections in principle. But before a packed village board meeting on Dec. 3, he said the referendum had blindsided them.
“No one has discussed this with us,” he said. “I am keeping my mouth shut so as not to be unprofessional about how disappointed I am (with) the way we, as a fellow government entity, have been treated throughout this process.”
Barnett, one of four village council members who support advancing the issue, said the library’s warnings were “a bit of an exaggeration” because he is not in favor of making the library its own taxing body.
“I think there’s a bit of a poor me thing going on,” he said.
The council is expected to vote Jan. 7 to place the question on the ballot. The first voting for the consolidated municipal elections starts on February 20.
