Wheaton mayor, library president spar over trustees

It seems only fitting that a battle about library trustees would come down to a war of words.

A spat between Wheaton Mayor Mike Gresk and outgoing library board President Colleen McLaughlin escalated Thursday after Gresk told McLaughlin comments she made in a plea to save a trustee's post “showed no grace or class.”

At the same time, Gresk took umbrage with McLaughlin saying the library board would have to “muddle through” the mayor's next round of appointments.

In a 3½-page letter to Gresk and the city council, McLaughlin urged the mayor to reconsider his decision not to reappoint Carol Honeywell when he nominates three new library board members Monday.

In her letter, McLaughlin said “unless those applicants have library experience, they cannot possibly bring as much to the table as Carol Honeywell.”

“The inner workings of a public library,” she wrote, “are simply not something that can be learned overnight.”

Gresk took offense and called McLaughlin on Wednesday afternoon to express his displeasure.

“She comes forward and says the mayor is going to appoint three people that are not competent,” Gresk said.

The mayor said he interviewed six applicants and will make his three nominations Monday to replace McLaughlin, Honeywell and Don Armstrong, who withdrew his name from consideration. The mayor said he has been looking for candidates who are familiar with running a business.

McLaughlin said she did not mean to imply Gresk's nominees would be incompetent, noting in a follow-up email to Gresk that his appointments last summer of Bruce Fogerty and Barb Wosner were “certainly proof that you are conscientious about the selection process.”

In that email she said those appointments “are great people and they both have jumped right into the process of learning about library operations.”

The initial letter lists several statutes and laws that appear to back the library board's stance that it is not just another department of the city.

That issue was at the center of a hotly debated budget battle last summer, during which the city council threatened to legislate hours when the library board announced it would close on Fridays to make up for budget cuts. Gresk voted against that legislation, which never went into effect.

It was that debate that spurred Gresk not to reappoint the three board members this time around.

“We were being made to look like we had no legal basis to do what we did and I have to defend that,” McLaughlin said.

The letter then goes into some of the financial shortfalls the library has had to face, including last year's $300,000 in budget cuts that chopped its budget to $3.1 million.

Finally, McLaughlin makes a final plea for Honeywell's reappointment but not before pointing out that, along with two new appointees last year, the nine-member board will have five of its “more experienced members” replaced in the span of 12 months.

McLaughlin and Armstrong each have been on the board 12 years.

Gresk rejected McLaughlin's plea.

“All three members are to be commended for their service,” he said. “But there will be no reconsideration. I think the board needs a new and better direction and we are going to do it.

“I'm very excited about this opportunity to positively impact the future of our facility. I'm not arguing the points of law other than it's the mayor's prerogative to appoint.”

In her follow-up letter, McLaughlin tried to explain her use of the term “muddle through” by saying she meant nothing more than the library would move forward and the conflict is just another bump in the road.

“I'm just sick of it,” she said of the dispute. “I'm trying to make sure there is a decent balance on the board between newer and more experienced trustees and the mayor is dead set on making the changes. He does have that power and that authority and I accept that. I thought I'd make the pitch and it backfired.

“I just hope my actions have not made things worse for the library board in terms of cooperating with the city council moving forward.”