Apparently it’s hard to find people who want to serve on the Brookfield Library Board of Trustees. With four seats on the library board up for election in April, only two candidates filed nominating petitions to get on the ballot.
Library board President Dianne Duner was the only one of the four incumbents whose terms expire in May to run for another four-year term. The only other candidate on the ballot will be Jennifer Mack Perry.
Perry, 39, is the president of the Hollywood School PTA. She has served as a member of the library advisory committee and has been involved with the library’s Taste of Brookfield event. She said that she saw serving on the library board as the logical next step in her involvement with the library.
“It’s kind of become a more natural progression to get more involved in the day-to-day operations of the library,” Perry said.
Duner has served on the library board for 11 years.
“I’ve always been a fan of public libraries,” Duner said. “I’ve been in Brookfield 40 years now and have had lots of connections with the library and enjoyed serving the community through my love of public libraries.”
Duner said that she was disappointed that only two candidates filed to run.
“In the 11 years I’ve been on the board it’s never happened that we haven’t had candidates, so that elected candidates fill the whole board at election time,” Duner said. “The board actively tries to get people interested in running, and I guess we didn’t do enough this year. I feel kind of badly that people don’t feel committed enough to do something like that for the library and the town.”
Anyone interested in running for the library board as a write-in candidate must file a declaration of intent with Cook County Clerk’s Office by Feb. 3.
If only two candidates are elected in April, the library board will appoint two more people to fill the remaining open seats on the board.
“We announce vacancies, we ask people to submit a resume and then the board interviews each person who applies; then the whole board chooses among those people willing to serve,” Duner said.
Incumbents Barbara Garvey, Jonathan Platt and Jennifer Oberhauser all decided not to run again.
Garvey, a kindergarten teacher at a River Forest school and wife of Brookfield Village President Michael Garvey, has served on the library board nine years.
She said that she decided not to run for another term because her school may be switching to full-time kindergarten and she would like to spend more time with her family.
“My job at school is likely to be changing next year, going to full time from part time,” Garvey said. “My kids are bigger.”
Platt, a social worker in the burn unit at Stroger Hospital, has been on the library board for six years and served as the library board president from 2007 to 2009.
“It’s time to move on,” Platt said. “My work is becoming much more demanding because of all the cutbacks at the hospital.”
Platt said that he is proud of the recent remodeling of the library and acknowledged missteps on the library’s failed plans to build a new library that have left it owing a home in the Hollywood section of Brookfield.
“I do really feel good about the remodeling that we did,” Platt said. “It’s unfortunate we made some mistakes in terms of tying to do a new library. On the other hand, there were pros and cons with fixing up an old building and possibly saving some money that way. It didn’t work out [trying to build a new library]. We’ve tried to be mindful of not putting too much money into the old building.”
Oberhauser, who works as an associate registrar at the Art Institute of Chicago, is stepping down after one term on the library board. She sometimes has to travel for her job and occasionally has had to miss library board meetings because of that.
“It just feels time for somebody else to step in who might be more available than I am,” Oberhauser said. “You know we only meet once a month as a full board, so it’s really hard if I do end up having to miss a meeting.”
Uncontested races elsewhere
In Riverside and North Riverside there won’t be contested elections for the public library board races next April.
Three incumbents and a newcomer are running for the four open four-year terms at stake on the Riverside Public Library board. Incumbents Chester Grenda, Lia Brillhart and Kristine Gaustad will be joined on the ballot by Jacquelyn Paine, a former member of the Riverside Landscape Advisory Commission.
Grenda is the library board’s current vice president, while Gaustad is the treasurer. Martha Heine, whose term is up in 2011, will not run for re-election.
In North Riverside, both incumbents whose terms expire in 2011 – Annette Corgiat and Mary E. Lee – will run on April 5 for the two six-year terms available.