Library Board President Plans To Ratify Elmwood Park Public Library’s Censorship

Elmwood Park Public Library Board President Chris Pesko

By Kevin Gosztola, Editor

In the middle of a prolonged dispute between the Elmwood Park Public Library and the Elmwood Park Advocate, President Chris Pesko has proposed a meeting room policy change that will ratify the library’s censorship and retaliation.

Pesko’s proposal will also ensure that a range of community clubs, groups, and organizations never again have access to meeting rooms without paying a $100 fee.

Library Director Michael Consiglio previously stated, “These people should like to pay a fee of $100, anybody that wants to use [the meeting rooms].”

This proposed change comes as the Elmwood Park Advocate is scheduled to go before the library board policy committee to appeal the library’s decision to charge the newsletter $100 for meeting room use.

The appeal will be presented at 4 p.m. on November 10, and Pesko is seeking to change the meeting room policy. By advancing this proposal during the same meeting, Pesko is effectively conceding that there are valid grounds to the Elmwood Park Advocate’s appeal.

According to the agenda for the library board policy committee, Pesko would like to establish that only “organizations that can provide proof of their formal organization as a non-profit entity” may use library meeting rooms for free. An organization could be formally recognized under Illinois state law or have “federal 501c status.”

“All other groups and organizations are subject to the standard room fee schedule,” Pesko further proposes. “For-profit organizations and groups not having registered non-profit status pay $100.00 per instance to use the room. For-profit use does not require a library card.”

This creates a financial barrier for certain book clubs, religious youth groups, drone hobbyists, support groups for moms or dads, informal charities or animal welfare organizations, and residents working on film or theatre projects. Residents in these groups will not be able to reserve the library meeting rooms for free anymore.

The library board policy committee will vote on Pesko’s proposed change, and then it will be voted on by the full Library Board at 5 p.m.

If adopted, the Elmwood Park Public Library will have one of the most restrictive meeting room policies in the north and northwest suburbs of Chicago.

Around three out of four libraries in the north and northwest suburbs do not charge groups, organizations, or residents to use their meeting rooms. They uphold the First Amendment rights of all without putting a price on community access.

These suburban libraries broadly understand that “nonprofit” covers civic, cultural, and educational groups as well as hobby clubs that have not obtained 501(c) status through the IRS. Plus, the average fee for a meeting room is under $50, much lower than the $100 fee that Pesko is seeking to impose on residents.

Julia Harmon Bell, a resident for 23 years, told the Elmwood Park Advocate, “I am disappointed to see that there is now an official effort in motion to charge Elmwood Park community groups to use the meeting rooms at the library.”

“This effort flies in the face of what the most recently elected trustees said when they ran for office (and won) last spring; that the library should be a vibrant, inclusive, and welcoming space for all; a welcoming space where everyone feels safe, comfortable, valued, and respected; and that the library (should) meet the needs of all residents, from students to lifelong learners.”

“There is no discernible value for this policy change, other than retaliation and censorship,” community lawyer Jack Bentley stated. “The residents of Elmwood Park should be able to enjoy free use of the library’s facilities as they always have.” (Note: The Elmwood Park Advocate has consulted Bentley for advice on dealing with the library.)

The proposed policy change brings a months-long effort to force the newsletter to pay a meeting room fee to a head. This effort is rooted in viewpoint-based censorship.

Library Director Michael Consiglio informed the newsletter back in July that seven or eight people questioned the “process and rationale behind hosting [our “Community Conversations’’] at the Library.” That was when he first said the newsletter would not be allowed to use a meeting room for free anymore.

Pesko is a longtime library board trustee, who was first elected in 2001. He was not a trustee from 2009 to 2013, however, according to Pesko, the library board invited him to fill a vacancy in 2013.

Since that year, Pesko has mostly served as the board’s president, and he is up for reelection in 2027.

As Consiglio shared with the Elmwood Park Advocate, Pesko talked with the library director in June and July about the newsletter and its “Community Conversations.” Pesko apparently raised concerns about how the library would handle the conversations during a village election.

Such concerns about whether the Elmwood Park Advocate would follow the meeting room policy were presumably motivated by the way in which Pesko perceived the newsletter’s supposed editorial stances and associations with particular residents, who had previously run political campaigns.

But the meeting room policy says, as laid out in the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights, “[L]ibraries shall make meeting rooms available to groups regardless of the beliefs and affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.”

All of the reporting that the newsletter has done since July has been genuinely aimed at obtaining a favorable government action. In particular, we have sought a redress of grievances for suppressing the Elmwood Park Advocate’s access to the library meeting room.

In early September, Consiglio unveiled a new meeting room policy that would have unconstitutionally barred “criticism of public officials” and library board trustees. He also implied that the newsletter had tried to avoid fees by “loosely claiming” a “community benefit,” and that the newsletter was “concealing political involvement” and misstating the purpose of the publication.

The proposal contained a provision to require all community clubs, groups, or organizations to pay $100 to use a meeting room, unless they were recognized by the IRS as a 501c organization.

However, the proposed meeting room policy was abandoned after a review by the library’s attorneys at Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins.

The library board’s agenda for November 10 features correspondence from Tom Watchee, a resident who criticized the “Advocate group for using the library to push political agendas and for publicly harassing staff and the director. He stated that the group continues to interfere in Elmwood Park matters despite losing the election.”

It is hecklers like this that the library has elevated over the past months while infringing upon the newsletter’s right to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of the press.

What the library might call harassment or “interference” in “Elmwood Park matters” is journalism, and because the newsletter is guilty of reporting and writing about the library and other matters in the village, the library has retaliated against the newsletter.

Now, library board trustees will most likely join Pesko in solidifying that censorship and retaliation.

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