Nienburg’s future on Downers Grove Library Board in Village Council’s hands

Bill Nienburg’s tenure on the Downers Grove Library Board remains uncertain although the Village Council last week approved a resolution to discuss his removal.

The council passed the resolution March 5 by a 4-3 vote with commissioners Leslie Sadowski-Fugitt, Greg Hose, Chris Gilmartin and Mike Davenport supporting the measure. Mayor Bob Barnett was joined by commissioners Martin Tully and Danny Glover in opposing the move.

Library trustees voted 5-0 Feb. 28 to recommend Nienburg’s removal from the board, a move that requires the approval of the Village Council. Nienburg did not attend the library board meeting.

“My focus is due diligence and due process and I’m not ready to support this because while the library’s process, as Martin [Tully] said, is theirs, not ours, I think it’s lacking. That’s my opinion,” Barnett said.

“It would not be my choice,” Barnett added. “I think it’s an error. I think we deserve more out of the library, but here we are.”

Tully said that although the library board approved a resolution to remove Nienburg from his seat, it is the Village Council that ultimately is accountable for the decision and accountable to the community. He added the library board is not a recommending board to the Village Council.

“This is very serious stuff and deserves serious attention,” Tully said. “There have been some serious accusations made.”

The library board initially planned to only censure Nienburg for “leaking or attempting to leak on Feb. 17 a draft policy document to a resident,” according to a resolution to censure. The draft document was presumed confidential as it was sent only to trustees for review.

Nienburg also failed to “separate personal opinion from his position as trustee on at least one occasion while identifying himself as a library trustee,” according to the resolution.

Nienburg made those comments on X, formerly Twitter, on Dec. 28 regarding Illinois’ new law on book bans.

But before the vote to censure, Library Trustee David Humphries called for Neinburg’s removal from the board.

“I don’t believe he ought to continue to represent the community as a member of this board,” Humphries said.

Sadowski-Fugitt, who introduced the library board resolution to the Village Council, laid out several reasons for supporting the measure.

“I have several reasons for putting this motion forward in addition to the statements [made] by the library trustees,” Sadowski-Fugitt said.

She said she is “particularly concerned” that Nienburg has refused to speak to Library Trustee Barnali Khuntia or refer to her by name.

“As those of us up here understand, work grinds to a halt when people cannot behave as respectful adults and our community deserves better,” Sadowski-Fugitt said.

Gilmartin said it is the council’s obligation to consider the library board resolution.

“I believe it is our responsibility to heed that request in order to demonstrate to our village whether we are a do-something or a do-nothing council,” Gilmartin said.

Supporters and opponents of the resolution addressed the council. Those who back Nienburg believe he is being singled out for questioning Library Director Julie Milavec as well as the library budget and policies. They also believe his conservative points of view are unacceptable to his fellow trustees.

“Other than Bill Nienburg, no one questions Julie Milavec,” Ilene Briner said. “There’s a sense of cult worship of the director and of the library as if it’s a place of worship. They love diversity unless it’s diversity of thought. That is never allowed.”

“We need Bill on the board and more like him to question the budget, patron policies and personnel matters at the library,” Briner said.

Noel Manley, a Darien resident, urged the council to dismiss the resolution calling for Nienburg’s removal.

“I urge the Village Council to see this for what it is: political theater and dismiss this resolution,” Manley said. “Sadly, the current board is using an email with a Downers Grove resident as a pretext to cancel him. To be clear, using this email as a means to remove Bill sets an exceedingly low bar for removing a board member.”

Manley singled out Library Trustee Carissa Dougherty for pointing out at the Feb. 27 meeting that Nienburg does not have a library card.

“This action raises several troubling questions,” Manley said. “How did Miss Dougherty know this? Did someone provide her this information? Did she have special access to library systems to query and, if so, who granted her that authority?”

Dougherty said information about Nienburg’s library card is a matter of public record.

“The fact that Trustee Nienburg did not have a Downers Grove Library card is a matter of public record and does not require any special access to library systems or conversations with library staff,” Dougherty said in an email.

She also said that making the information public does not violate the Library Records Confidentiality Act, which she reviewed before speaking at the meeting.

The act states that “registration and circulation records of a library are to be confidential and cannot be published or made available to the public.”

“[The act] further defines registration records as ‘any information a library requires a person to provide in order for that person to become eligible to borrow books.’ In the case of the Downers Grove Public Library, that information includes one form of proof of residency, like a drivers license or state ID, a current utility bill, a piece of first-class mail or a mortgage or lease. None of which I shared nor do I have access to,” Dougherty said in the email.

Norm Sidler, Nienburg’s brother-in-law, also criticized the attempt to remove Nienburg from the library board.

“Did he break a law? And if the answer is ‘no,’ then why are we here?” Sidler said.

He said removing Nienburg could set a bad precedent and lead to unintended consequences. For example, future appointees to village boards and commissions may be hesitant to speak out for fear of reprisal, he said.

Sidler also said Humphries’ call to remove Nienburg from the board rather than just censure him may have been discussed among library trustees ahead of the time.

“To me, it’s amazing how quickly it’s come together and it almost seems like it’s been orchestrated,” Sidler said, adding any such discussion would be a violation of the Open Meetings Act.

Jim Wool summarized the portion of the February library board meeting where he was asked to leave and police were summoned when he refused.

“I refused to leave. What was my sin? Criticizing the director,” Wool said.

“The library board and Julie [Milavec] attempted to deny me my First Amendment right of freedom of speech by attempting to remove me during my address to the board,” Wool said. “Next, the library board called the police in an attempt to remove me from the meeting because they said I was disrupting the board meeting. I explained to the police officer that I was speaking during the public comment portion of the meeting, thus I was not disrupting the meeting. So, Julie and the board lied to the police.”

At that meeting, Wool repeatedly was asked to follow the rules for public comment and address the library board, but not the director. When he continued to address the director, police were called.

“The library board is requesting that you remove a board member,” Wool said. “What this Village Council needs to do is remove the other library board members for lying to police, not holding the director of the library accountable for her actions and attempting to deny citizens their First Amendment rights.”

Those who support Nienburg’s ouster said he not only violated library bylaws, but is partly responsible for a divisive environment on the board.

Robin Tryloff said Nienburg “colludes with people who bring vitriol, hate and outright lies to public meetings and make personal attacks on library staff and trustees on the streets, at their homes and at every public meeting.”

Hilary Denk, who like Tryloff attends most library board meetings, said opponents of the library board employ a strategy to disrupt the meetings.

“It’s painful to go to these meetings,” Denk said. “Questions that are asked are irrelevant, make no sense. They’re meant to frustrate. They’re meant to create chaos.”

“I hear the harassers becoming the victims. This is straight up abuse type of behavior that we see. It’s very typical behavior when you are the abuser to take on ‘I am the victim.’ That is not the case here. [Nienburg] is not a victim,” Denk said. “This gentleman comes to these meetings. He’s not prepared when he does come to these meetings and he asks questions that are not relevant or helpful when it comes to the operation of the library.”

The Village Council did not set a time frame to further discuss the resolution.