LIBRARY CANDIDATE TIRED OF CATERING TO "EXCLUSIVE FEW"

DIANE SAPP, Candidate for Library Trustee - Calls Library Board President and his Leadership:  "INADEQUATE,  OUT OF TOUCH and OUT OF STEP WITH OUR COMMUNITY"

Diane Sapp- Candidate Library Trustee

To the Residents of Sauk Village: 

As a resident of Sauk Village, I take exception to the public and racist post by our Village Library Board President, Mr. Gary Holcomb. 

First, your attempt to ascribe our local government to having a psychological problem is disrespectful to all residents of Sauk Village. And if that were true, Sir, then you would have to say that this community has been suffering from this syndrome for the past 63 years. How this Village has come to the way it is, Sir, started way before now and certainly has had this same problem when you yourself decided to move here 32 years ago. To criticize the residents for living “in their own little world inside their homes” and not being engaged is just wrong. We are not stupid, sir. We see the corruption, the lies and misdirection going on by the very people you support and claim as your friends. To throw aspersions to this administration while ignoring this Village’s ugly history is just plain arrogant and reeks of entitlement. So, while you allude to the incompetence of our current Mayor, Sir, let me give you my opinion about the incompetence I see that exists on the Library Board on which you serve. 

While you point out that the “village government” has changed. What has changed? We have a black mayor now and you disagree and yearn for the time when the “good ole boys” ran the Village? Your assertions are nothing more than pure racism and I am calling it what it is! You are correct when you say that the same people have been running this village for 20-25 years but you forgot to include the Village’s Library as well. It’s funny how The Nancy L. McConathy Public Library District, does not identify itself as being “Sauk Village”. In my short time of living here, I have observed The Village Library is being used as the personal playground and meeting place of a very “select“ few and you and your friends wonder why the children of Sauk Village don’t come there. From what I see and what other residents have told me, the Library has not evolved into an extension learning center for the youth of Sauk Village. It is antiquated, out of touch and out of step with our community. 

Gary Holcomb, you are so concerned about the finances of “the Village” but do not care about the finances of the Village’s Library District where you sit as president? Have you gone through the cost for all the “free food” the Library has paid for? Yet, have you asked yourself why does the Library charge young black kids $1 per hour to use a computer when they cannot even afford a computer? 

Mr. Holcomb, you state there has been an “unwillingness” for residents to get involved. Really? Have you observed the attitudes of your fellow long-term residents toward the people who do not look like you or are not a member of your select group? There are other entities in the Village as well who also cater to your exclusive club of a “select” few; that’s a whole other story. Who in their right mind wants to deal with that mess? I know the Mayor is trying to go at it alone and I assure you, that is about to change! I see what he’s trying to do to save this community from your backward thinking. Now if you believe that the Village Hall is the only “battleground”, you better think again. There is going to be a new movement to “battle“ over your suppression and lack of leadership for Village Library and we’re bringing that battle right to your “exclusive“ hold over it. 

I’ve done my homework, Mr. Holcomb, by talking to the very people that live here, know you and know what’s going on. And I’m going to address your poignant and racist remarks. 

1. When you served on the Village’s Housing Commission which was supposed to address Fair Housing matters, you and your “friends” attempted to run it as if it were a Housing Authority, which was illegal to do. Now you openly criticize the people who rent homes here in Sauk Village, who are predominantly black, but remain silent on the corrupt landlords/investors who rent to them and your “back-in-the-day” friends and neighbors who abandoned their homes “illegally”. 

2. You criticize this “black mayor” but you never once in 4 years criticized David Hanks with all the bubbling buffoonery and corruption that he and his administration did over that time. Not a single time. 

3. “... (Village) Trustees fail to address critical issues because those that due (yes, you spelled it “due” this is verbatim) are labeled racist or their name is dragged through the mud by outside entities on Facebook or other publications...” So you defend your “friends”, those five village trustees who sit on the Village Board giving them a pass for NOT addressing what you call “critical issues” of the Village because they might be criticized? Really? But you openly attack the “black” mayor for all the woes in Sauk Village? How long did it take the Village to get in the condition we find it today? This mayor has been in office 40 months. What about the previous 40 years? In fact you played the “race card” as you and your friends say. 

4. Then you attack the Mayor again for “overpaying” village employees for months. How could he “overpay” employees when your friends have control of the Village Board and brought in their own personal Village Administrator as well? So, let’s ask the same question about our Library, Mr. Holcomb. You, Mr. President of the Library Board, voted to “dumb down“ the qualifications of the Head Librarian; tailoring it to fit the one and only preferred candidate you all picked, added a residency requirement for which the previous Librarian did not have to comply nor anyone else and then wrote a letter of recommendation for her as well. Then you voted to hire your handpicked candidate without so much as properly posting or performing a proper search for a qualified candidate for the position on Reaching Across Illinois Library Systems (R.A.I.L.S.) and the fact that your candidate did not meet the minimum industry standards for a Head Librarian! 

5. I would add that Sauk Village has NOT become a “joke” in 63 years as you say. What you and your friends have been doing has become the “joke” to the residents and surrounding communities. Our residents see this and we are united in our resolve to get rid of this nonsense as the “current” terms end.

So good people of Sauk Village: 

No longer is it acceptable to me as a taxpayer, a resident and an extremely concerned citizen to take this man’s and his so called “progressive” friends’ verbal abuse and open racist rants on Facebook. The fact is it should not be about race, yet this man and his friends keep bringing it up, so I guess it is about race. I am willing to put myself out there to get more for my Library, for our youth and for our community. Arrogance and self-entitlement is not what I want for the tax dollars I pay. When I am seated as a member of the Nancy L. McConathy Public Library Board which serves all the residents of Sauk Village, I will see to it that we, as board members take the lead to plan for our Village Library’s future for which you and your friends have failed to do (or due as you say). 

Diane Sapp 

Candidate for Library Trustee 

Nancy L. McConathy Public Library District 

Sauk Village

EDITOR'S NOTE:  Sauk Village residents have not had a fully contested election for Library Trustees since like 1991.  Generally Sauk Village Library's election (oops I'm sorry the Nancy L. McConathy Public Library District---- what a mouth full) have been "beauty contests" with no competition for years.  2021 may break that cycle as Diane Sapp appears to be leading the Charge for Change.  The Library District Board consist of seven (7) board members elected at-large for 6 year terms.  This year up for grabs are four (4) seats on the board, two are full six year terms, the other two are for two-year unexpired terms.      

For decades Nan Wargo the now former Library Director, retained her position until her retirement in 2019, after 30 plus years, while having moved out of the Village many years before into nearby Dyer, Indiana.  Candidates, generally handpicked by Wargo ran unopposed and quietly the library ran their little Fiefdom controlling Sauk Village library district tax dollars without any transparency.  

The Library has in fact, been run by a Board of Trustees that has been anything but transparent that they fought a Freedom of Information Act request in June of 2019.  Back in 2005, the Library Board decided to build their own building and break a lease and was sued by the landlord.  The library quietly entered into a settlement agreement and shelled out $45,000 for breaching their lease agreement (Bank Financial, et al v Nancy L. McConathy Public Library District- #2006L012033 Cook County Circuit Court).  In fact Roger Strasemeier whose term expires in 2023 and Suzanne Downing, the Board's current Vice President whose term is up this election cycle along with ex-Village Clerk, ex-Library Board Trustee and current Village Trustee Debbie Williams voted to squander and payout the taxpayers money for breaching the lease.    

The $45,000 library scandal never made it to public knowledge, until a Freedom of Information Act request made last year.

Oh there's alot going on at the Library, but we agree with Diane Sapp, their current leadership is lacking, "inadequate, out of touch and out of step with the community" with an unqualified and inexperienced Library Director who was handpicked for a position that the Library Board created just for her.