Angel Diaz (L) and Dan O'Connell (R) are challenging incumbents for the Helen M. Plum Memorial Library Board, which serves Lombard. | Angel Diaz/Dan O'Connell
Angel Diaz (L) and Dan O'Connell (R) are challenging incumbents for the Helen M. Plum Memorial Library Board, which serves Lombard. | Angel Diaz/Dan O'Connell
Two Lombard library board candidates want the Helen M. Plum Memorial Public Library to be a place to go for books, not political sermonizing.
Daniel O'Connell and Angel Diaz say the existing board majority has transformed Lombard's only public library, replacing "community-centered literary enrichment" with polarizing, sometimes sexualized programming pushing a "political agenda."
"They promoted a kids display that featured depictions of naked adults and children and explanations of physical, romantic love," said O'Connell, a 35 year-old facilities manager with a background in poetry and creative writing. "And they ignored hundreds of parents who petitioned the library to take down the sexual display that their kids could not avoid since it was at the entry to the children’s section of the library."
"Libraries should be a place to that provide an opportunity for people to become educated and informed, not a place that imposes a political agenda especially on kids," he said.
O'Connell also says the current board has "completely mismanaged" the library's finances and the development of a new library building, set to open this year, "botching negotiations for a land swap with Lombard Park District" and costing taxpayers millions of dollars when it had to buy land for a new library location.
The Lombard Park District had offered the board land to build a new library for free. It passed and instead spent $2.295 million for a shuttered supermarket.
The 50,000 square foot library cost Lombard taxpayers $27.7 million, or about $1,393 per Lombard household.
All told, seven candidates are vying for three open spots on the seven-person board in the April 4 election.
That includes O'Connell and Diaz, who owns Dominion Lighting and Solar in Elmhurst, as well as incumbent board members Allison Pinkett-Floyd, Kristin Aasmundstad-Walsh and Ken Marshall, all Democrats, who are running for re-election.
Also on the ballot are Democrats Ginger Kearney and Bijal Patel.
"Pride Month"-- But no Christmas.
Books in the Helen M. Plum library's "teen" section now include comic book pornography titles Flamer and Gender Queer as well as All Boys Aren't Blue, which features sexually graphic passages.
The library's blog and events calendar feature special youth reading lists for "Pride Month" ("we’ve put together a list of some of our favorite LGBTQIA+ fiction and nonfiction books"), Earth Day ("The significance of Earth Day grows each year as our global climate crisis worsens"), and "Afrofuturism" ("celebrate Black innovation and strength"), but nothing for Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Veterans Day or Independence Day.
In response to complaints over its highlighting of pornographic library materials, the board issued a statement in Sept. 2021 that "the library places the responsibility with the parent or guardian for the use of Library materials for or by their children."
"Materials in the collection are selected to reflect the diverse needs of the residents of Lombard," the board statement said.
Pinkett-Floyd defended the board's decisions, saying the displays are "opportunities to be educated in a diverse range of ideas and views."
In 2022, the Helen M. Plum Memorial Public Library District spent $14,325,794, according to the Illinois State Comptroller. It has 53 employeees and $13,665,000 in debt, or about $687 per Lombard household.
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Who's running for the Helen M. Plum Memorial Public Library Board?
Source: DuPage County Clerk
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