Pat O’Donnell and John “Sean” Kelly are running for seats on the Oak Lawn Public Library Trustee Board. The pair put out a joint campaign flier asking if we know that the library spent $25 million of taxpayer money in the last 4 years. Well yes I did, because the Village budgets are public information. The library portion of the budget averaged slightly under $6 million per year over the last four years, a very small percentage of the total Village budget. O’Donnell and Kelly don’t think it was money well-spent-not enough changes, improvements, or advancements. The biggest change was re-configuring the entrance to the children’s department and re-configuring the washrooms to open into the children’s department instead of the lobby greatly improving the safety of kids. I guess safety of the kids who use the library isn't important to them. O’Donnell and Kelly say they have ideas for better use of technology and interactive programs. Find another local library with better technology and more programs than OLPL. You’ll have to look far. Better and more frequent communication with residents-I guess these two don’t read the quarterly, multi-page newsletter that gets mailed to their homes. 60% of Oak Lawn residents have library cards - that’s 3% above the national average. Do O’Donnell and Kelly have library cards? Frankly, if you’re looking for value from your tax dollars, look no further than your library. Let’s talk about the transparency of the candidates. O’Donnell is a former Village treasurer appointed by Sandra Bury after hefty donations to her campaign by his wife who resigned in the middle of his term with no explanation. Kelly is on the OL Police Department Pension Fund Board. His wife is the HR Benefits Coordinator for the Village. Color me cynical, but it seems that there’s an effort to try to load the Library Board with people the Village administration can control. The Board already has two Village-controlled members, Joe Skibinski, also on the pension board and Vern Zumhagen on Planning and Development. In my opinion, O’Donnell and Kelly aren’t running because they have the best interest of the library in mind. I’m voting for Rosanne Spoto, an incumbent, and Kim Brightmore, a library patron with, surprise, no ties to Village government! Full disclosure: I’m a lifelong resident, a library patron, and a library employee.
