Supporters of ousted Downers Grove library trustee to rally at board meeting

Supports of former Downers Grove Library Trustee Bill Nienburg are expected to voice their opposition to his ouster from the board at Wednesday’s library board meeting.

The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at Downers Grove Village Hall, 801 Burlington Ave.

The Downers Grove Village Council April 16 voted 4-3 to remove Nienburg from the library board, citing his misconduct or neglect of office.

The vote came about six weeks after library trustees voted 5-0 to censure Nienburg and recommend his removal from the board. Nienburg did not attend that meeting as he was out of the country on business, he said.

The library board initially planned only to 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, in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, 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.

“The library censure was presented and passed at a meeting I’d given three weeks notice that I’d be unable to attend due to a business trip that took me out of the country. It was based on debunked or unproven allegations. The Village Council should have dismissed the matter the moment that was clear,” Nienburg wrote in a Nextdoor post.

He also said he believes that his censure and removal from the board was in retaliation to his opposition in September 2022 to the library’s plans for a drag queen bingo event, which was planned in recognition of National Coming Out Day. The event was canceled after the library received threats, officials said.

Village Commissioners Leslie Sadowski-Fugitt, Mike Davenport, Chris Gilmartin and Greg Hose supported Nienburg’s ouster. Mayor Bob Barnett was joined by Commissioners Danny Glover and Martin Tully in opposing Nienburg’s removal.

Nienburg was out of town and did not attend the April 16 Village Council meeting. He’s expected to address the library board on Wednesday, according to an email from Downers Grove resident Ed Briner, a frequent critic of the library, its administrators and the board.

“Downers Grove residents are incensed and will rally around former Trustee William Nienburg on Wednesday as he addresses the Library Director (Julie) Milavec and the trustees for censuring and dismissing him on trumped up charges all done without due process,” Briner said in the email.

Hose at the April 16 meeting debunked the contention that Nienburg was denied due process.

“If Mr. Nienburg wanted to come address us, that podium is available three times a week between 7 p.m. and whenever we gavel out. ... Folks come and talk to us about any manner of things and he has not taken advantage of it. I can’t speak as to why,” Hose said.

During his remarks at the Village Council meeting, the mayor focused on the process that led to Nienburg’s ouster.

Barnett said he believes library board members failed to discuss their differences and had an inability to get along, adding he would have preferred if the village council had a chance to mediate.

In a post on Nextdoor, Barnett said he “would have expected a collectively determined improvement plan as it relates to the interpersonal relationships within the (library board of trustees) and the governance of their meetings, and I would have tried to give that some time to work.”

He added that no such efforts were made other than a few “undocumented, one-to-one conversations between Trustee Nienburg and a couple of individuals,” adding that many comments in support of Nienburg’s removal amounted to McCarthyism.