Posted June 11, 2004.

In Face of Public Outcry, Board Backs Down on Firing Director

A public outcry appears to have allowed a popular library director to hold on to her job despite the trustees’ plans to fire her. The board of the Nippersink District Public Library in Richmond, Illinois, had voted last fall to fire Director Kathryn Hausman after 18 years at the library, but let her remain in the job until June 30 or until a new director was hired, whichever came first. However, after more than 40 local residents testified on her behalf at a May 11 board meeting, all the trustees except board President Mike Champion voted to allow Hausman to stay until her scheduled retirement in November 2005, the Crystal Lake Northwest Herald reported May 12.

After the meeting, the trustees refused to explain why they had wanted to fire Hausman, nor would they comment on why they changed their minds. According to the Herald, Hausman has charged Champion with holding a vendetta against her ever since he quit his job as a Nippersink librarian in 2002, and that the trustees wanted to remove her over her opposition to its decision to install Internet filters. Champion became board president at his first meeting as a trustee in May 2003.

In early June, Champion resigned as board president, saying he didn’t want to subject the library to a possible lawsuit by Hausman, the Herald reported June 4. He said he will now focus on his job as director of information technology services at the nearby Lake Villa District Library.

As the controversy over Hausman simmered, the McHenry County state’s attorney’s office warned the trustees that their e-mails to one another might violate the Illinois Open Meetings Act, which requires that any communication among a majority of a quorum of officials be public; for the library board that would be three members. Roy Fiske, chief investigator for the state’s attorney’s office, said in the June 4 Herald that trustees would send one-on-one e-mails to each other and cc the messages to the rest of the board, which could constitute a violation.

The investigation was sparked by Freedom of Information Act requests submitted to the library in April by former trustee Sue Rekenthaler, a supporter of Hausman, and the Herald. The board’s attorney, Robert Smith, denied the requests for copies of trustees’ e-mails, saying they were no longer in the library’s records.

Posted June 11, 2004.