This is shameful behavior. Decisions made before the board meeting? Why is the forensic audit NOT being done? It was one of the major reasons B-PAC ran on for the election, now it has been delayed for the last two months. Why would Mr. Peters approach a woman over a difference of opinion! Shameful.

Good luck to the B-PAC in finding another director who can maintain an outdated building, keep the patrons and staff happy, and still stay within budget. Ben Schapiro, you will be missed dearly.

(Ade, good job on summarizing a difficult board meeting.)

It was my good fortune to serve on the Morton Grove Public Library Board for a little over a year. And it was a privilege and a pleasure to work with Ben Schapiro. He is a man of great intelligence, heartfelt compassion and unimpeachable integrity, as well as a passionate believer in the future of the Morton Grove Public Library (although I suspect that view may have been somewhat compromised by the actions of the 4 recently elected members of the board). I know that all of us who truly love our Library appreciate all that Ben and his staff have done for us, and we wish only the best for Ben in his future endeavors.

Ben Schapiro was one of the best things to happen to the Morton Grove Public Library. I had the good fortune to serve on the board under two excellent directors, both of whom worked to advance the services of the library. When Sharron retired and Ben took over he was pretty much an unknown quantity. He proceeded to take a wonderfully run library and continue to make it one of the best libraries on the North Shore. In fact, under his leadership, we were voted the best library in the North Suburban Library system.
Firing Ben in a spiteful, somewhat unintelligent move on the part of the new board. They think in the 12th century and believe that libraries should have only books. Libraries are much more than books in the 21st century and Ben had much to do with making our antiquated building produce usefulness by using every possible inch of space that could safely be used by the public. With the help of an amazing library staff, the library moved rapidly into the new century in all areas of technology as well as keeping it stocked with books for those who still prefer that medium.
Firing Ben was not a smart move, but then the new members of the board do not come across showing a great deal of intelligence in library matters. Most of them had never even been in the library until they suddenly began appearing at board meetings late in 2010 at which time they began making untrue accusations based on information that was obtained from someone who did not follow the proper ethics.

This is absolutely sickening! My children and I have been regular library patrons for the past 8 years and it was obvious when Ben Shapiro took the helm in that the library just really began to soar to a whole new, amazing level. He is intelligent, approachable, visionary and Morton Grove was lucky to have him. If these new board members really were operating with the best of intentions for our library then the last thing they should have done was vote to remove Ben Shapiro. There is absolutely no valid reason for why he should have been removed. Truly shameful!

"Shocking...sickening...unethical." There are many words that can and should be used to describe the actions of the new BPAC library board majority. But "surprising" cannot be one of them. These individuals showed their true colors during the campaign--from working to get the dedicated, hard-working incumbent trustees kicked off the ballot to their almost weekly inventions of made-up accusations that worked brilliantly to bring out the 8% of Morton Grove residents (a pathetic percentage when one considers that was enough to sweep them in) who were scared into voting for them.

This is what happens when the majority of residents -- especially the 11,000+ library card holders--sit out of local elections. I fear Ben Schapiro's unfortunate resignation is only the beginning of the dismantling of the Morton grove public library by the BPAC majority. Upset residents should-at the very least- show up the the upcoming board meeting to register their disapproval and outrage.

This is a sad day for the Morton Grove library and our community. The library has become a community center, in large part thanks to Ben Schapiro and the fantastic staff at the library. Although this was done in executive session, all board meetings and committee meetings are open to the public and fall under the open meetings act. Please be an informed citizen and attend the next Board meeting and see for yourself what Albers, Berg, Calimag and Peters are doing to OUR library. Feel free to speak and make your comments known at the start of the meeting at 7am on this Thursday. You may want to get there early, bring coffee and a notepad. One of the 19 promises from the Bpac was to move the board meeting to the Baxter Room, let's see if they can fulfill at least that one.

Pardon me, that would 7pm and they do tend to last for several hours, if you can not get there early.

Thank you, Patch.com, for covering the tone of this meeting as well as the content.

I'm sorry it came to this point for Mr. Schapiro. His leadership helped our library flourish and I will miss his presence greatly. I hope he finds a job with people who appreciate his talents and vision.

This story and what I have heard from fellow citizens about this meeting makes me wonder what BPAC stands FOR.

It is clear that they are *against* Ben Schapiro; *against* progressive uses of a library, which apparently should be only for books & learning to use computers, certainly not for hands-on learning through something as engaging of young minds as gardening; *against* separate 501(c)3 volunteer organizations such as the Friends supporting the activities of the library because they can't control them. I am concerned that they are not for our library. Time will tell.

Best wishes to Ben Schapiro, who has worked hard to invigorate our aging library.

B-PAC has been in the majority of the board for only a few months and already the library is getting flushed down the toilet. First almost nixing a donated garden, now this?!? Ben Schapiro has made the library an accomodating and welcoming place to visit and learn. I am sickened to hear this and what future this B-PAC group has in store for the residents of Morton Grove. I am thoroughly disgusted!!! As my kids would say, how about a 'do-over' on election day? I wonder if the people who voted for B-PAC even go to the library or care about it's future. GEESH!

Best wishes to Ben Schapiro and his future endeavors.

Wow, such strong opinions being expressed based on no facts. Nobody knows why the board requested Shapiro's resignation, or why Shapiro submitted his resignation. Nobody knows what happed, except the board and Shapiro. It is not known publicly if there were drastically conflicting goals and vision for the future of the library, or a demonstrated inability to work together, or if anything inappropriate had been done in the past, or if Shapiro just didn't want to work under new leadership and resigned. Maybe he even found a new job and just resigned. Such accusations only serve to continue to divide the residents of this village and the whole community, and it is such a shame because it is only assumptions and fear that is driving this gossip, not any facts. We have a wonderful village, and a wonderful library, but making assumptions about what happened in those meetings or why Shaprio resigned is inappropriate at this time. Maybe we'll eventually learn that there was "shameful" and "unethical" behavior by to other side, not the new board. We need to wait for more facts to come to light. In the meantime, put aside the fear, the emotion, the assumptions and be calm, be adults, be respectful of your neighbords and those trying to do the best they can in a tough situation.

Daniel, nice to hear someone who can think for himself and is not intimidated by others who wouldn't know a fact if it bit them on the nose!

Are we back at this again? I had quite enough of this during the election, everyone to act like adults please. One group won the election fair and square, sometimes hard to accept for those who did not persuade enough people to vote for them but that's what happened. This isn't grammar school, do-overs will occur during the next election. Let's watch what this Board does, but also give them time to accomplish what they promised the people too? This story said two completely things different things, one was "prepare a separation agreement" (whatever that is) then later said "ousted" which seems more opinion since nobody has confirmed anything to the contrary? Accusations of dismantling the library, unethical-shameful behavior do seem most inflamatory in tone. I rarely agree with Mr. Kansoer's viewpoints, but here he seems to be correct. Besides, I thought the Board approved the garden? And when did the story mention anything about the Friend of the Library? It may be summer when everyone is hot, but I hope everyone takes time to cool down and look, look at the facts and stop all this negative commentary until then.

As Mr. Poders said, the truth will come out in due time. In the meantime, what we are getting here is idle gossip, speculation and vitriol... much heat and little light... entertaining though.

Mr. Kansoer is very fast to dismiss this as news and mocks the firing of a Library Director and the concerned residents who have made their voice heard in this forum. This is the future of our library at stake, one of the important community centers for our village. I wonder why Mr. Kansoer is trying to bury this story and stop any further discussion in this open forum? Every resident should have the right to be heard and Patch.com offers this forum to our community at no cost to the tax payers. How much did Albers, Peters, Berg and Calimag, the four library trustees who voted to hire two additional attorneys, cost the tax payers of Morton Grove this past week alone?

Actually Ms. Frisch, Mr. Kansoer waited a few days and re-read the story. I still don't have any evidence that the director was fired, (I was at that meeting as were you and the board voted 4-3 to authorize a separation agreement). Since the decision was made in executive session, unless a board member is giving you information about what happened, in violation of their legal duties, you are speculating as to the nature and motive behind the board's action.

Regarding "burying" this "story", I have no power to do that. I do, however, as a concerned resident also have the same right to express my opinion on this forum as do you... and I will continue to do so.

As someone who is close to an attorney, you of all people should understand the value of legal counsel. You are certainly entitled to opine that these actions were unnecessary... a stopped clock is accurate twice daily.

In the meantime I will also continue to follow this unfolding drama with as much interest as some others follow "reality programming" on television. I see many similarities between the two.

I am not sure exactly what happened in the executive session, but do know that attorneys were hired by only 4 of the trustees and I know what a "separation agreement" means. Yes, I see four trustees voting a separation agreement with the library director as "firing" him, and I think many other residents see it as that as well. According to Audry H. "Nobody knows why the board requested Shapiro's resignation, or why Shapiro submitted his resignation" I didn't even know they requested his resignation or that Ben Schapiro submitted a resignation, maybe she has the information we, the public, are looking for? Maybe she has been talking with board members about these issues outside of the executive session, and which trustee might she have spoken with about this? You are right, Mr. Kansoer, we should all "continue to follow this."

It is also illegal and unethical for board members to discuss things outside of a board meeting. Based on Mr. Goldstein's comment for the record at the start of the meeting, some board members had ALREADY made decision about what was going to happen in the closed sessions. He implied that the new board members are behaving in unethical ways, not unusual for this group at all. A previous board member, who is one of their minions, often did the same thing causing the board to pass an amendment to the by-laws based on ALA rules that it is unethical to speak about board business outside of meetings or for two or more board members to discuss board business outside the board meetings. Seems like BPAC can't follow any rules unless they make them to suit their own needs.

At this point I will refrain from commenting on the opinions going back and forth, but I would like to give a heartfelt thanks to Ben Shapiro for his service to the community. I believe that Ben has done a wonderful job with the MG library and I always appreciated his opinions in regards to books and movies. I also appreciated his MBW style (Management by Walking around). I hope that the next Director can fill the shoes.

I think I will do the wait and see what comes of this, maybe there will be a calm after the storm. As I heard that there was as much yelling and screaming inside the closed session as there was out of it. I hope that members of the board can actually agree on something, and that something being actually beneficial to the library patrons.

The agenda for the Morton Grove Public Library's Board of Trustees is up for this Thursday, July 14, 2011:
www.webrary.org/inside/board/agenda/Agenda_July_14_2011.pdf

Morton Grove Public Library's Board of Trustees audio from Thursday, July 14, 2011:
www.northshorevoice.org/mgplmeeting071411a.WMA
www.northshorevoice.org/mgplmeeting071411b.WMA

Interesting Eric thanks for the 411. As a village we have lost businesses to surrounding suburbs and now we 'lose' our library director....geesh. Skokie is calling my name to move back, 10 years as a MG resident and 29 as a Skokie resident, when I was at Niles North, the Morton Grovers always seemed more priviledged, a tighter community, had great places to shop and eat, can't we work together and get that back? I just read my parent's Skokie Review yesterday and about the fantastic Police station, I feel that our police station gets overlooked like the library, necessary improvements need to be made. It makes me irratated that it seems progress has slowed down. Anyway, the library is the center of every town, I'd like to have one that I am proud of.

The truth will set us free. Thank God for tapes. Ellie Davis

I've listened to about 8 minutes of one meeting, and I guess since I'm for a new library anyway, no matter who is on the board, I didn't hear anything that was embarrassing. Since I have children to tend to, I don't have time to rehash old meetings, but if you wouldn't mind by giving me a time on the recording when there was something shocking... I'm probably just missing it, I'd like to hear it. Anyhoo, I need to tend to more laundry from when the lovely MG sewers backed up in the middle of the night, flooding most of my basement....

I took the time to listen to this recording that some of us Grovers are speaking of, I was not upset in any way shape or form. It was comforting to hear a group of eloquent, kind hearted, practical, educated people have a civil conversation about the progress of our library and our village. I hope that one day our current library board can put aside their control issues and work for our community. This is not a contest to see who made mistakes in the past, this is our library and people voted for a board of trustees to run it.

From the tape of November 11, 2010:
{time 31:16.181} (voice of trustee Miller) "...I agree, I think it's important that people feel pain..." {time 31:18.777} (dialogue between trustees Miller and Fahey) "...they need to feel uncomfortable...yeah... they need to be miserable...take the St. Martha's parking away... forget about paying for (unintelligible)...and I think we should give the teens half...{time 31:31.210} (many voices talking over each other agreeing and laughing about ways to make the library patrons uncomfortable) {time 31:39.135} (mostly trustee Fahey and trustee Miller Miller) "...you are going to have people screaming for a new library... ya gotta have 'em feel pain {time 31:45.135}(voice of trustee Miller) ".. you know, you're laughing, but I tutored at Skokie and the teens come to use the computers right outside the four tutor rooms that they have and I can't tell you how many times Polly threw the (garbled) kids out because they were so loud nobody could study... so maybe that's what we need to start doing... I mean really... { time 32:08.750} (voice of Benjamin Shapiro) "...we've already had complaints about noise already..." {time 32:09.884} (voice of trustee Miller) "...well, let's put them right in the front window... I'm serious...{time 32:17.684}

Kind hearted? Civil? "Let 'em eat cake" is more like it. You were flim-flammed and snookered folks. Listen to the tapes and remember that the end doesn't justify the means!

Personally, I like Ben Shapiro, but I do not agree with his image of building a new library
in Morton Grove. His sights have been on getting a new library building from the beginning of his stewardship, so it is no surprise that it came to loggerheads with the
current makeup of the library board. I voted for the BPAC people mainly because they
had the same thoughts as myself, that taxpayers can ill afford to build a new library
building in Morton Grove. Even going beyond that, I think big library buildings in our surrounding suburbs are there mainly for bragging rights. I may be old fashioned, but in
my mind, libraries are for informational and entertainment material, not places to keep our teenagers off the streets. I use the current library often and find it comfortable and
servicable. I'm sure the next director will share these viewpoints, so I don't regret the
loss of Ben. Aside from his visions of a new library, he was an apt administrator and
we will miss his talents in this area.

Elections have consequences! Anyone who thought BPAC would keep the former director was not paying attention. If we don't like the new direction-whatever that will be-there will be elections again. The whole thing would make a great paper for college pol. science majors (grass roots politics, tax revolt, future of library, etc.

Tony not only do elections have consequences, but if you're elected, your actions have consequences also. Perhaps unintended sometimes, but consequences none-the-less