Oak Park residents who want to address library leadership directly can do so at the Board of Trustees Governance Committee meeting on Monday, Aug. 17, at 6 p.m.
The in-person session will be held in the Second Floor Scoville Room at the main library, 834 Lake St., according to the agenda posted on the library's website. The agenda, published Aug. 10, lists two items: Call to Order and Roll Call, followed by Public Comments. No substantive governance topics are disclosed.
Three ways to comment
Residents can participate through any of the following channels:
- In person at the meeting
- By email to Executive Director Elsworth Carman ([email protected]) or Board President Virginia Bloom ([email protected])
- Online through the library's Public Comment Form on oppl.org
Email and online submissions must arrive by 4 p.m. on Aug. 17. That's two hours before the meeting starts.
The 4 p.m. cutoff is slightly later than the deadline used for the board's June 11 special meeting in the same room, which required written comments by 3:30 p.m.
Public comment policy
The library's public comment policy, approved by the board on Feb. 28, 2023, is grounded in Section 2.06 of the Illinois Open Meetings Act. That section requires public bodies to permit any person an opportunity to address officials under rules the body has established and recorded.
Library trustees are elected to four-year terms and are responsible for setting library policies, hiring the library administrator, securing operating funds and approving expenditures, maintaining facilities and ensuring a representative selection of materials, according to the library's board page.
The Governance Committee's Aug. 17 agenda does not specify which policy areas will be under discussion. Residents with questions can contact Carman or Bloom at the email addresses listed above before the 4 p.m. deadline.
