SWAN Board:
I had an interesting discussion yesterday with the SWAN attorney Kathie Henn with Klein Thorpe Jenkins (KTJ). There is some background to this discussion that I will detail for you, but the gist of this is that Kathie would like to contact consortia which formed as an Illinois Intergovernmental Instrumentality (let me abbreviate this as an "I3" as we have taken to doing within RAILS). She is seeking clarification from the Illinois Attorney General Office if the Open Meetings Act applies to I3. The implications of this are important as Kathie noted it will determine how FOIA works for us.
Background:
This question came up when LIMRiCC was forming as a new entity. I believe it was determined that OMA applied to that entity.
Then recently this question arose from a new group that was formed as an insurance pool for libraries, called LIRA (Libraries of Illinois Risk Agency). During the incorporation of this group, the law office Ancel Glink gave the opinion that OMA does not apply to I3.
This is LIRA.
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs122/1102339694985/archive/111542681797…
CCS also had received some affirmation of this *non-OMA* status from Jerry Dempsey at KTJ, but this was some time back. News to me. I had heard from Su Bochenski (CCS Treasurer) recently that CCS had difficulty with its executive committee achieving a quorum and the revelation of CCS and OMA came to light. She emailed me asking if SWAN followed OMA, to which my answer was "of course, we were told we had to!"
Kathie has noted that the Attorney General Office, "Public Access Counselor" (PAC) was approached to assist with providing clarification for LIRA, but has not received a response. Kathie believes that if several I3 organizations other than LIRA were to lend their support for seeking this clarification, the PAC would respond in a more timely manner (months, rather than not at all).
I gave Kathie the go ahead for SWAN. I suggested she reach out to Carol Dawe at LINC, but that I would let Don Myers (MAGIC) and Judy Hutchinson (PrairieCat) know first of the situation, which I have done.
Aaron Skog
SWAN Executive Director
125 Tower Drive
Burr Ridge, IL 60527
Phone: 630.734.5122
Fax: 630.734.5056
aaron.skog(a)railslibraries.info<mailto:aaron.skog@railslibraries.info>
http://support.swanlibraries.net
SWAN Board,
The email below is for you as an update on the list of SWAN libraries we discussed at the SWAN Board meeting on Friday. I followed up with the RAILS Leadership Team as I noted.
Aaron Skog
SWAN Executive Director
125 Tower Drive
Burr Ridge, IL 60527
Phone: 630.734.5122
Fax: 630.734.5056
aaron.skog(a)railslibraries.info<mailto:aaron.skog@railslibraries.info>
http://support.swanlibraries.net
From: Aaron Skog
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 12:21 PM
Subject: Library Tumult Discussion at LT Meeting
RAILS Leadership,
I would like to have a discussion at our next LT meeting to review some of the recent "tumult" that has been taking place. Within SWAN, there are a number of libraries that have lost their directors and are in some sort of gray area.
1. Chicago Heights: its board fired Mike Davis (great guy, former SWAN Board member), now has Xavier Menzies as the acting (?) director, who is also the library director of Markham; we never see Xavier at meetings anymore
2. Grand Prairie & University Park: for several years now Tracy Ducksworth has been the library director for both of these libraries; we never see Tracy at meetings anymore
3. Harvey: board fired its director Jay Kalman, then let go a number of its staff; acting director is now staff member Sandra Flowers
4. Calumet City: its board seems to like firing its library director (Doug Losey was hired then fired after 6 months, then had its reference head as acting, then permanent, then departed mysteriously), and now has put its board president Jane Rowland as the library director (who at least stepped down as board president); Jane showed up to one meeting and purposely did not introduce herself
5. Justice: no longer has Jean McGuire as library director; we have no idea what happened
6. Hodgkins: Lisa Waskin was there for a year and her departure about a week ago was quite sudden, meaning she either resigned or was let go
7. Bellwood: library director Jimmi Wooten is gone; we have no idea what happened but I heard she retired with only a few weeks' notice
8. Bridgeview: about 1 year ago Rose Taylor was let go, and its board of trustees has put its circulation manager Lori Kinzel as director and does not seem to have any plans to hire a library professional; Lori has been trying very hard to deal with the situation she has been throw into
9. Westmont: now has an acting director Julia Coen after Christine Kuhn resigned
10. North Riverside: Bob Lifka is retiring
11. Blue Island: Sarah Cottonaro is has left to take over as director of Alsip-Merrionette Park PLD
12. Dolton: coincidentally Jay Kalman was at Burr Ridge today for the webinar. Afterwards I found out that he has been contracted by Dolton Public Library to assist with their leadership, as surprise! that board has let go its library director Allison Heard (we updated L2 for Dolton and Jay)
During a conversation I had with our attorney Kathie Henn, I shared that there seems to be a lot of turmoil, and Kathie agreed with me. She noted that there is a lot more politics with board of trustees than there used to be, less civility within board of trustees and with their library director, and there is more micromanaging from trustees. She noted that this is also part of a more general backlash against public employees (think about the pension reform news, changes in Wisconsin, etc.).
I would also add that the RAILS membership criteria having eliminated the Metropolitan Library System requirement of library MLIS degrees for positions probably has not helped. I would describe that this acted as a bulwark against library trustee shenanigans. Kathie Henn was not aware of this RAILS change but once I mentioned it also thinks this is coming into the toxic mix.
The SWAN Board discussed a lot of this at its last meeting and viewed these changes as a possible risk or threat that new library directors will not understand resource sharing, SWAN, or how anything fits together and decide to cut costs by replacing SWAN with some "cheaper" alternative. The SWAN Board noted however, that this problem I have described for you is much bigger than SWAN and would like to engage in a wider discussion with RAILS on what can be done.
Aaron Skog
SWAN Executive Director
125 Tower Drive
Burr Ridge, IL 60527
Phone: 630.734.5122
Fax: 630.734.5056
aaron.skog(a)railslibraries.info<mailto:aaron.skog@railslibraries.info>
http://support.swanlibraries.net
Greetings,
As I was working with Sheila on the By-Law review, I questioned whether we
needed a formal statement of ethics addressing fiscal, HRM and librarian
issues. Pulling from government, university and ALA sources, I put together
the attached draft.
Perhaps we could add this to our next agenda?
"Caritas Veritas"
Pierre Gregoire
Library Director
Frankfort Public Library District
21119 S. Pfeiffer Rd.
Frankfort, IL 60423
815-469-2423
www.frankfortlibrary.org
Hi all,
I am reformatting our upcoming Outlook meetings in title only. However, it will not allow me to do this without it sending emails to all of you. So, please disregard these emails - I apologize for the inconvenience!
Thank you,
Brande Redfield
SWAN Office Manager
125 Tower Drive
Burr Ridge, IL 60527
Phone: 630.734.5164
Fax: 630.734.5056
brande.redfield(a)railslibraries.info<mailto:brande.redfield@railslibraries.info>
http://support.swanlibraries.net
Hi SWAN Board,
Merilynn and I are beginning the process of obtaining quotes for auditors. I was wondering if you could email me the names of any audit companies that you'd like me to approach for bid. I'll be contacting them all on Monday so that we'll have this info ready in time for the next board meeting.
Thanks so much,
Brande Redfield
SWAN Office Manager
125 Tower Drive
Burr Ridge, IL 60527
Phone: 630.734.5164
Fax: 630.734.5056
brande.redfield(a)railslibraries.info<mailto:brande.redfield@railslibraries.info>
http://support.swanlibraries.net
SWAN Board,
Attached to this email are the following:
1. SWAN Memo outlining the areas for discussion
2. Redlined agreement
3. Clean copy provided by SirsiDynix
Quick note: We were able to incorporate a lower tier pricing for adding all library types. There are a number of areas that will need to be reviewed by Kathie Henn, but she was not available today other than to let me know that she could have a review completed on Monday next week.
Rob McGee suggested that the SWAN Board could approve the agreement "pending attorney review" but this is something we should discuss tomorrow.
Lunch will be provided!
Aaron Skog
SWAN Executive Director
125 Tower Drive
Burr Ridge, IL 60527
Phone: 630.734.5122
Fax: 630.734.5056
aaron.skog(a)railslibraries.info<mailto:aaron.skog@railslibraries.info>
http://support.swanlibraries.net
