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Bolingbrook Trustee Dismissal InvestigatedThe Will County state attorney’s office is looking into a decision by the board of the Fountaindale Public Library District in Bolingbrook, Illinois, to remove its president and 14-year member Ruth Newell. Acting on the advice of its attorney, Roger Ritzman, the board voted 4–2 in September to declare Newell’s position vacant without a public explanation other than citing “failure to serve.” Newell said in the December 20 Chicago Daily Southtown that a disagreement with district library director Lydia Acosta over plans for libraries in Romeoville and Bolingbrook led to her forced removal. “I have never missed a meeting, and I have not violated any laws or committed any crimes,” she said. “They denied me an attorney, and as an elected official, they violated my constitutional rights.” Board members are not discussing the ouster publicly. However, board secretary Mary Kay Smith said in a December 21 e-mail to the newspaper that there was more to the story. “She was not removed on a ‘whim’ or due to a disagreement with the director,” she wrote. In addition to the state attorney, the Joliet chapter of the social-activism organization Rainbow/PUSH has requested a meeting with the library board to determine whether or not to take up Newell’s case. The vacant seat was filled December 20 by Donna Sample, who will complete the two years remaining. In June, the American Library Association’s Association for Library Trustees and Advocates awarded Newell an ALA Trustee Citation. She served as ALTA president in 1999–2000. Posted December 31, 2001. |
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