The Friends of the Sulzer Library took the battle to their foes’ home court last week when several members testified before the Chicago Public Library (CPL) Board meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 17, as well as filed a motion for a temporary restraining order against the CPL.
Cook County Circuit Judge Sophia Hall declined to enter the temporary restraining order. “Court relief is an extraordinary maneuver,” she said. “The court cannot intervene at this time.”
The Friends group also filed a complaint for a preliminary injunction against the CPL to try to prevent the removal of large numbers of books from the library at 4455 N. Lincoln Ave., said James Fennerty, attorney for the Friends.
“We understand the legitimate need for ‘weeding’ of a library’s collection,” said Fennerty. “This is not a normal weeding, though. Sulzer’s own staff had already weeded nearly 8,000 titles from their collection this year through July. The local staff has been doing weeding all along.
“Then comes August, and the CPL administration forces the director [Leah Steele] out of the facility, the assistant director is on vacation and they then rush in with a crew of downtown employees—who are unfamiliar with the collection and needs of the community—and haul away 35,000 books. Good books, ones which the local staff would like to keep in circulation give a choice,” he said.
“We’re disappointed,” said Richard Rush, a member of the Friends who was in court. “But we had low expectations coming in as we knew we were in their home court, so to speak. Look, we’re a ‘Friends’ group being forced into being a ‘defense’ group. We were formed to underwrite library programming and help with volunteers; we never thought we would ever have to do something like this.”
A group also showed up Tuesday to testify before the CPL board meeting in the Harold Washington Library, 400 S. State St. Board meetings are usually quick and solemn affairs with little debate or public interest. But this month’s meeting was contentious, lasting over two hours.
Library users and Sulzer Library staff alike leveled several charges against CPL Commissioner Mary Dempsey which contradicted Dempsey’s own testimony before the board.
“We have no bigger fish to fry for our community than a library administration which is jeopardizing our way of life,” said Victoria Khamis, a member of the Friends of Sulzer. “This is all I can do. I cannot go fight in the Mideast, but I can fight for our library. We want some answers to our concerns or this is going to get ugly,” she said.
“I told Mayor [Richard] Daley a month ago I preferred not to air our dirty laundry in public, but they’re leaving us no choice. They think if they just ignore us we’ll go away... and that is how they’ve chosen to deal with us so far,” Khamis said.
The Friends group may be making progress, though, as Khamis and Dempsey had a one-hour off-the-record phone conversation Thursday. “I can’t discuss much of the conversation as it was a private call, other than to say I told her that we didn’t have to be friends to settle this dispute,” said Khamis.
At the CPL board meeting, a variety of Sulzer users and one employee testified that the library was being plundered and that local staff had no say in what was to remain in the collection. They also accused the CPL board of negligence for allowing the Sulzer Library’s roof to leak for 16 years, which has caused bad mold contamination and further damaged the library’s physical plant.
They also called for Leah Steele’s immediate re-instatement to her position as director of the library, and for the public release of the Sulzer Library Feasibility Study, which was completed in March. Dempsey claimed not to have read the study and not to even know the current whereabouts of the document.
One person asked whether there was an inventory of all the items taken out of Sulzer by downtown staff and whether it would be made public. Dempsey suggested there was no inventory and that she was not sure if one would ever be available. The board was then asked to compel her to provide such an inventory at the next month’s board meeting, but no response was forthcoming.
Another person reported that he had first hand knowledge and had witnessed the destruction of perfectly good library books. “I have evidence of this in my possession,” said Ronald Roenigk, a member of the Capital Improvement Advisory Council as well as the Friends.
“I asked for the board’s advice as to what I should do with these items, as I considered them library property and evidence of the criminal destruction of city property,” said Roenigk. “Not one board member offered any advice or even asked one question. I’m not sure what to make of that.
“I know it had to be making an impression on them, though,” Roenigk said. “I’m not sure how honest Dempsey has been to her own board members over the state of the Sulzer Library. I do know now that she doesn’t like to be questioned, and that she does not like dealing with community groups.”
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