Bartlett Library temporarily rescinds director’s raise due to lack of required public notice

The Bartlett Public Library director’s pay raise has been rescinded and deferred to the Aug. 27 board meeting after a recently censured trustee alerted the Illinois Attorney General’s office the board didn’t give proper public notification before the vote.

At the June 25 meeting, the majority of the board approved Library Director Karolyn Wessel’s total compensation, including insurance, to increase from $149,110.97 to $160,955.17.

This was the first time a Bartlett library director’s total compensation exceeded $150,000, which carries a requirement for public bodies participating in the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund to post the compensation on their websites six days in advance.

Trustee Joseph A.J. Olsen, who was being censured on the same night for alleged threatening behavior toward Wessel and the assistant director at the May 28 meeting, pointed out the rule and wrote to the attorney general’s office after his warning was disregarded.

“I, Joseph Olsen, Trustee, abstained and stated, ‘I won’t participate in an illegal act,’” his letter to the office reads.

On July 2, Joshua M. Jones, bureau chief of the attorney general’s public access bureau in Chicago, wrote to Bartlett Public Library Board President Peggy Deyne seeking clarification and resolution of the apparent Open Meetings Act violation.

While discussion of the increase occurred during a closed session, approval took place in open session. Deyne said deferring the action to a date later would have allowed the time necessary for the information to be posted.

“That was my error,” Deyne said Thursday as the board rescinded the compensation increase, which had not taken effect yet. “It was not willfully done. I’m willing to admit that was my error.”

She emphasized this was the first time the Bartlett Public Library has been affected by the notification rule.

However, Olsen believes Wessel’s compensation actually exceeded $150,000 when the board changed the share of employee health insurance costs in March.

Olsen wanted his June warning to the board added to minutes of that meeting, but was denied.

“This board will not acknowledge the facts that they are given and that’s unfortunate,” he said.

Staff members suggested Olsen could’ve warned his colleagues of the potential violation earlier. Trustee Lynn DeSmidt called such a move characteristic of her censured colleague.

“He saved it for the meeting because he wanted to be the hero,” she said.

Deyne denied the censure imposed on Olsen the same night would have blinded the board to the possibility his warning was correct.

Olsen was accused of rushing toward Wessel and the assistant director in apparent anger on May 28. He was cited for disorderly conduct. That citation was dismissed at an adjudication hearing, but he was also barred from visiting the library for six months other than for meetings and then only with a police escort.

Trustees raised the possibility of extending Olsen’s ban from the library on Thursday, but he pointed out they couldn’t because it wasn’t on that night’s agenda.