Three trustees who Tuesday night voted against a motion that equally split the La Grange Public Library board said they believed drafting and adopting a resolution in support of efforts by the Park District of La Grange to sell a portion of Gordon Park was inappropriate because it would inject the library into a "political situation" that has divided the community also nearly in half.
On the other side, three trustees supported the idea of a resolution backing the park district, in part because it would affirm the decision of the district's voters, who in November approved the sale by a margin of 55 to 45 percent. But as no resolution had been drafted prior to Tuesday's meeting, it was unclear exactly how their support would be expressed.
Trustee Caroline Coryell, who attended Tuesday's meeting via telephone from her bed at the Manor Care nursing home, where she is recuperating from back surgery, opposed taking any stance on the park sale because she believed it would be construed as "a political statement."
If any of her fellow trustees had concerns about a conflict of interest resulting from the fact that Coryell's husband, Orlando, has stymied the sale of the park land with a lawsuit he filed in December, it was not mentioned. No one suggested Mrs. Coryell recuse herself from voting.
While the lawsuit was referenced obliquely by Tim Kelpsas, president of the park district, in his personal appeal for the library board's support, he said a resolution would be useful primarily in a separate court action undertaken earlier this month by attorneys for the park district: an application asking the circuit court to directly approve sale of the parkland under a statute different than the one at issue in the lawsuit.
Kelpsas also noted that resolutions supporting the sale already have been adopted by village trustees and the District 102 school board.
"I don't know that it is appropriate for us, regardless of the fact that the village board, which is more political, and the schools, which could care less, may have passed resolutions," Coryell said.
Trustee Mary Nelson agreed with Coryell. "We have constituents here in the library who may not be in favor of this resolution and we do represent all members of the public, so I personally feel that we should not make this resolution," she said.
Trustee Steve Wolf also opposed taking a position on the sale. "The public's vote should stand [on its own]," Wolf said. "We are a library board. We should be making decisions based upon our patrons who come here. It's not our mission to make resolutions for other boards."
On the other side, board vice president Jane Byczek voiced support for a resolution, saying it would affirm the November referendum.
"What [the park district is] asking us to say is that we support what the people of La Grange have already voted for," Byczek said. "I think we have gotten to the point in this community that what is going on with the park district is affecting all of our tax dollars. So we can say it's political or it's not political—it's all semantics."
Trustee Bill Coffee agreed with Byczek. "I do not see it as a political decision or a political issue," he said. "I think it is an issue that has already been resolved by the public. They voted on the referendum and there is no reason this should be held up. I think we as a library board should support it."
After consulting the board's bylaws to confirm that her eligibility, president Becky Spratford cast her vote for a resolution, resulting in the 3-to-3 deadlock.
Spratford explained her support in visceral terms. She compared the park district's difficulties in getting approval for its sale to the challenges faced by her board a few years ago when seeking approval for construction of the new library.
"We had similar things happen to us," she said. "I'm feeling it again. Remember when we went before the Plan Commission and [those who opposed them] tried to take away everything that we had done and worked so hard for? It made me so angry. We could have been derailed very easily from building this library—we almost were—and I am feeling it very much."
Because of the vote was deadlocked, Spratford said the board would reconsider a resolution at its next regular meeting on April 16, when she hopes all seven trustees will be in attendance. That would make Rose Taylor, who was absent Tuesday night, a potential tiebreaker.
Tom Beyer, a village resident and one of two attorneys representing Orlando Coryell in his lawsuit, addressed the board following Tuesday's vote. He cautioned the trustees about "imposing yourself into a court proceeding where at least three counts [allege] that the park district didn't follow the law" in conducting its referendum and a subsequent public auction in which developer Atlantic Realty Partners was the sole bidder for the parkland.
"Without making any determination on whether they followed the law, you're going to support them anyway," Beyer said to those trustees who favored a resolution.
If the library board violated the law during its efforts to build the new facility, Beyer said, it too "should have been derailed." He was quick however to point out that he was making no such allegation.
