Dupage Policy Journal

The Downers Grove Village Board and the Downers Grove Library Board are currently investigating whether to have an elected or appointed library board. 

Under the current unelected board appointment process, the Library Board is granted tremendous authority over library operations with no accountability to the taxpayers of Downers Grove.

The public is subject to the decisions of the Library Board and its empowered bureaucrats. However, an elected Library Board will create greater accountability to the public by holding elected board members accountable for any and all decisions made regarding library operations and spending. As an example of lack of accountability in the current Library Board appointment structure.  I want to share my personal experience regarding how this system affected me.

While employed at the Downers Grove Library, I experienced harassment, death threats, lies, and a hostile work environment from library administration. For example, after a sexual harassment incident by a patron known for this behavior, I was told by Library Director Julie Milavec, “Trouble always seems to find her.” This comment left a lasting and hurtful impact on me.

In another incident involving a homeless man well known by library staff, I was threatened by this individual with physical violence. After reporting this incident, this individual was not removed, nor were the police contacted. In fact, this man continues to hang around the library to this day. After these incidents, I never felt safe again in the library.

I followed the chain of command regarding the reporting and handling of these incidents. After receiving no constructive assistance from the library administration, I took it upon myself to seek help. According to the Downers Grove Library Employee Handbook, section 3.42.6, “Employees have the right to make a complaint outside of the organization.” In line with this policy, I spoke privately with a guest speaker from the Downers Grove Police Department regarding the aforementioned incidents. Two weeks later, I was placed on an employee improvement plan by library administration. This action was the direct result of my advocacy for my safety in the workplace. Given the retaliatory nature of the employee improvement plan, I was left with no other choice but to resign.

This is why it is important to have an elected Library Board. I appealed to the Downers Grove Library Board to investigate this matter. My request resulted in the Board hiring a law firm to investigate my claim of unsafe work environment and workplace retaliation. This law firm, with which the Board had a prior relationship, concluded its investigation asserting that, “your claims of workplace retaliation and hostile work environment concluded no laws, policies, or procedures were violated.” I was shocked at this conclusion and how it clearly ignored the truth. My efforts to review the investigation materials were thwarted by the Library Board claiming that these materials were subject to attorney-client privilege and not subject to disclosure. My three-year effort to secure this information was without success, thanks to the unelected Library Board and its unaccountable library administration.

A copy of the report has been made available to me. The Library Director, along with two other current staff members, have expressed in this report that they were well aware that library staff was “uncomfortable, they felt anxious, how off-color jokes about penis size were said to female staff, verbal and physical abuse to staff, talks of weapons, threats to the library.”

Witnesses were questioned about an in-service day where the Library Director accused me of being disruptive. Interestingly, all three had very different accounts of the event according to the report. For example, one witness who sat near me stated that she “did not recall a disruption, saw others got up, went to the bathroom, did not see Hartnett being disruptive, others were louder.”

Other witnesses stated that staff felt unsafe and that I was a target.

If this report was read or seen by the Village Board, I believe that my allegations regarding an unsafe and hostile work environment would have been clearly supported. But since Downers Grove has an appointed Library Board, this board is subject to the Library Director’s final decision per the Employee Handbook, section 2.9.

This is how our library operates: an unaccountable library administration supported by an unaccountable Library Board. For the sake of transparency and accountability, we need an elected Library Board.

– Regina Hartnett is a former employee of the Downers Grove Public Library