Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White’s office has reappointed Umair Qadeer as the seventh, tie-breaking trustee on the Niles-Maine District Library Board after a protracted legislative and legal process.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed House Bill 4073 into law Wednesday.
White officially moved to reappoint Qadeer to the vacancy Thursday, just days after the filing period opened for candidates in municipal elections to submit their petitions, and the same morning that Qadeer submitted 159 signatures to officially become a candidate.
Qadeer is running with current Trustee Becky Keane and residents Jason Trunco and Roberto Botello as the “Reclaim Our Library Slate,” the candidates announced last month.
“We think he’s an excellent candidate,” said Dave Druker, a spokesman for White’s office.
White’s office has previously stood by its appointment of Qadeer despite legal battles over the law that enabled his appointment.
Qadeer confirmed to Pioneer Press he had gotten a letter re-appointing him Thursday afternoon.
The Secretary of State’s office has directed the library board to swear Qadeer in at the next board meeting, set for Dec. 21.
The letter thanks Qadeer for his willingness to serve and advocate for the library as a representative of his community.
“I’m very appreciative that the Secretary of State has continued to show confidence in me to serve in this role and I’m appreciative of the reappointment,” Qadeer said. “I look forward to serving as a trustee of the Niles Maine District Library.”
Qadeer joining the board will mark a sea change for the dynamic among the trustees, who have been bitterly split in a 3-3 deadlock over everything from staffing levels to building maintenance to the attorneys who work for the board and the library.
White, empowered by a law passed in May, originally appointed Qadeer to the seat in September. The seat, which used to be occupied by former Trustee Olivia Hanusiak, was open for more than a year after Hanusiak resigned in August 2021 and the remaining six trustees were unable to agree on a replacement.
A senate staff briefing on the follow-up legislation, which clarifies the original law to make it apply to preexisting vacancies, states that “this measure is the result of political loggerheads on the Niles-Maine District Library Board.”
For more than a year, Vice President Patti Rozanski and Trustees Becky Keane and Diane Olson have vociferously opposed attempts by Board President Carolyn Drblik, Secretary Suzanne Schoenfeldt and Treasurer Joe Makula to cut spending on library maintenance and staff, among other line items. The same chasm between the two factions of board members has prevented them from being able to appoint a seventh trustee and has led to marathon meetings characterized by open acrimony and the occasional shouting match.
The original law empowered the Secretary of State to appoint replacement trustees to library board vacancies over three months old. It took effect in May, starting a 90-day clock that expired in August. White announced that Qadeer would take the seat Sept. 16. Qadeer was one of several applicants for the seat and has served on the Des Plaines Library Board and, for a short period, on the Niles Library Board before Drblik pointed out he had not lived in the district for a year and was therefore ineligible to serve as trustee.
Hours before Qadeer was set to be sworn in, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Alison Conlon granted a temporary restraining order to Makula blocking the appointment.
Makula and his attorney Dan Kelley argued that the law as written would have required White to make an appointment in February 2022 — two months after the same three-month waiting period from when Hanusiak resigned.
Conlon made the restraining order permanent in October. White’s staff said they felt they had acted in the spirit required by the law and would work to pass clarifying legislation in the General Assembly’s late fall veto session.
State Sen. Laura Murphy, D-Des Plaines, told Pioneer Press last month that the trailer legislation clarified the intent behind the original measure to make the law apply retroactively.
The delay in appointing a seventh trustee has had significant consequences for the library board and its plans in the near term. Most recently, the board approved a $5 million tax levy, down another 15% from the previous year’s levy of $5.88 million.
Keane, Rozanski and Olson objected that to levy less than the library had budgeted to spend was a financially imprudent decision.
Makula, for his part, replied the library was hoarding cash and should return that money to taxpayers rather than keeping it in reserve.
Before that, the board approved a budget for the coming fiscal year of $6.6 million with Rozanski remarking that she felt Makula, Drblik and Schoenfeldt had bullied the other half of the board into passing a spending plan that did not account for the nearly 30% of open positions on staff that existed at the time the budget passed.
Earlier this week, Makula lost a lawsuit that sought Keane’s removal from the board on the grounds that her appointment violated the open meetings act.
Qadeer has previously told Pioneer Press he will not vote reflexively with one bloc of trustees or the other.
“I definitely have ideas about what I’d like to see done,” he said. “I’m open to any reasonable arguments and if people want to present those arguments I’m happy to consider them.”
He plans to support initiatives that are recommended by staff, he said: “I defer to expertise.”
The next meeting of the board of trustees is set for Dec. 21.
