MATTHEW FRUTH

candidate for 2025 OAK PARK LIBRARY board

1. What motivates you to seek this office? What skills do you bring to the office? What sets you apart from other candidates? What does success look like for you after four years in the position?

I am motivated by my belief that public libraries are essential institution in our communities. I have spent most of my adult life working in public service in a variety of roles. My time on the Oak Park Library Board has been some of my most rewarding and at times most stressful. We have an incredibly strong library that can do its work thanks to the dedicated staff.

I bring with me the experience of currently serving on the board and working with a broad array of past fellow board members. I think that regardless of our differences of opinions that I have always worked with them in a respectful and professional manner taking each of their opinions with the seriousness of a fellow trustee. On the other hand I have had little trouble standing up for the library to other organizations and boards when needed. 

At the end of this term I hope that we will have emerged from the current federal administration and its associated activities even stronger and bolder in our vision and mission to be enabling the aspirations of Oak Park while being a leader among public libraries in programming and innovation. I want our budget to be responsibly balanced while also planning for the major capital projects that are on the horizon.

2. What do you see as the three biggest challenges or opportunities facing the Library  and what role do you see the Board playing to address them over the next four years?

A major challenge I see now is teaching information literacy. This need presents the library with the opportunity to engage with our schools, both public and private, to develop tools and lessons for the students to help them discern credible sources of information. The board can help facilitate those discussions and possible intergovernmental agreements (IGA) with outside organizations. 

The library is almost entirely reliant on property tax dollars for its budget. This can limit the ability to introduce new technologies and innovative programs. The board can help identify additional funding sources via grants or donations.

Public libraries are centers for lifelong learning and the board should be a key channel for community feedback on how that can be facilitated by staff. Certain fundamental services like children’s story times, adult literacy, learning languages, and technology workshops will not go anywhere but the format may evolve. New ideas may be introduced via community suggestions and the board can help make sure those ideas are shared with staff.

3. What is your decision making process? What are steps the Board can take to ensure transparency, clear communication, and community engagement to ensure the Board is hearing from the full range of the Library’s constituents?.

I try to rely on an evidence-based process. I look at the materials presented, examine their merits, look for negative impacts of the proposal, and then look at the argument against it as well. There have been very few decisions at the board table where I did not start with an open mind. I listen to the experienced professionals for how it will impact their work as well as take into consideration how it may impact the public. While I have been chair I try to make sure that every board member has a chance to voice their thoughts because I know they bring perspectives that I have not considered.In the end I also ask if the decision will make the library better for my daughters and their friends as they grow up.

Currently all board meetings are streamed and uploaded to YouTube. These steps beyond the required posting notices makes the public portions of meetings much more accessible than many other libraries. The board could consider an email message similar to what is sent by D97 following their board meetings to help summarize discussions and decisions.

Board members should consider holding townhall events while also staying compliant with the Open Meetings Act and participate in staffing library presence at community events.

4. Please share your thoughts about the Library’s current financial picture.What’s your understanding of the Board role in the budgeting process and the allocation of resources? Do you have organizational finance experience?

The library passed a balanced budget for 2025 and has a strong fund balance policy in place to help ensure that expenses can be paid in the event of delayed property tax bills. The organization is on strong fiscal footing at this time. The board works with the Executive Director to establish an annual budget and property tax levy request. Throughout the year the board receives financial reports on the status of the budget at each meeting.

I have served the board as Finance Officer and as a member of the Budget Committee in the past. Those roles along with discussions with the whole board have granted me a great deal of familiarity with the budget development and management process.

5. What would you say to voters who are worried about Oak Park’s overall tax burden?

I would say that the Library Board has been very responsible with its levy authority over the years and as a taxpayer I am aware that I am also impacted by every budgeting decision we make. Our board is often the first in the village governments to adopt a budget so it can be hard to get a clear picture of what the whole of the property tax impact will be for the village. We have worked hard to maintain controlled budget growth while also providing the level of service our community has come to expect from the library.

6. How do you define equity? Have recent discussions in the larger community and or at the national level informed or changed your thinking? 

For me equity begins with an effort to identify disparities and then proceeding to address the disparities with goals of fairness and justice. It is not about uniform solutions and that is part of what makes the work so difficult. Looking at the root causes and systemic issues are required when dealing with governmental policies and practices. A relevant example is late fee elimination. When it was first proposed I was reluctant as I saw them as a way encourage the return of materials, however the staff was able to explain to me that late fees create a barrier for folks who happen to only have few items that came back very late but due to embarrassment would stop coming to the library. The staff was able to show that late fees had a very minimal impact on the return of books but eliminating them would return many people to frequent library users. The fees may have originated with one purpose but had become something else and needed an open discussion of who they were truly impacting.

I recently wrote a letter to the Wednesday Journal where I intended to lay out how I see the importance of the work of equity, diversity, and inclusion in the work of local government. Recent events have reinforced in me the idea that work on equity by be done on every level possible. Since we have the most direct interaction and influence on local and regional government, we must make sure that the work in those levels is not pushed aside.

7. What do you see as the role of the Library in responding to the ever-changing ways in which people find and consume information? 

The response from public libraries must be multifaceted and nimble. Libraries have always been evolving with how they engage and serve their communities; it is just happening faster now than ever. The staff, from circulation staff up the Leadership Team, must be given the resources to stay current of trends and technologies that people are using. This also applies to the board. We must all work to ensure that the library remains viewed as a trusted source in helping people access and identify credible information. 

By providing equitable access to a variety of digital resources we can help put information into the hands of the people who may not have even known where to start looking. At the same time the library can hold events that bring people together to encounter differing perspectives and opinions. This kind of exposure and dialogue will contribute to a stronger community allowing disagreements to exist without becoming hostilities and segmentation.

8. In recent years, the Library has replaced security guards with social workers, increased salaries for its lower-waged workers, and eliminated late fees for borrowers. Please share your thoughts about these initiatives. Are there ways in which you would anticipate expanding or rolling back this work?  

The library eliminated late fees in 2016, while we did eliminate the outside security guard contract we do have a Director of Social Services and Public Safety who manages a team of public safety internal staff, and the salaries were raised for all staff with the goal of bringing them closer to the mid-range for their respective positions. 

I expect that our Director will continue his tireless work to partner with a variety of outside resources and professionals to help connect those in need with the help they are open to receiving. I hope that the board will continue to examine the pay ranges for all employees as part of the budget process. I cannot imagine rolling back the decision on late fees as it has been extremely successful in my opinion. The library should continue to examine ways to reduce or eliminate barriers to access our materials and programs.

9. What approach should the Library take towards intergovernmental cooperation initiatives such as the Collaboration for Early Childhood? Are there other specific initiatives that you would like to implement or expand upon? 

The library is currently a supporter of the Collaboration as well as a signer of an IGA for the Township’s youth services. The library must be strategic in its partnerships. Over the years several different groups have approached the library, but they do not always align with our mission or would be too costly to engage long term. We should select opportunities that align with our mission and allow us to leverage our resources, such as staff expertise, to further our shared goals.

10. What approach should the Library take towards intermunicipal cooperation with neighboring communities? Are there specific initiatives that you would like to implement or expand upon?

In the past library staff have collaborated with other libraries on large scale programs to secure grants and other funds. There was also a time that the Oak Park Library established an IGA with the River Forest Library to offer IT support to their staff while they reorganized their IT department. The board should be ready to listen and evaluate future opportunities as they come to the table. 

Despite my experience on the board I find it hard to imagine what the nature of the next cooperative opportunity will be. I do know that I will weigh the potential benefits to our community members against the various costs of time and resources. We cannot do everything but if we can leverage our assets to multiple benefits across multiple communities those opportunities deserve a fair hearing.

11. How do you see services and supports for homeless patrons fitting within the mission of the Library?

Those who are experiencing homelessness are deserving of access to our services, resources, and programs the same as anyone else who walks through our doors. We should be in a place to help connect them to a variety of public and private resources that may help address their current needs. 

12. How should the Library handle the question around the removal of books, subscriptions, and materials from the shelves if community members deem the content to be inappropriate, too controversial or objectionable? 

The library has a Collection Strategy Statement which was just revised in November 2024. Part of this policy includes a link where someone may submit a Patron Statement of Concern Form, the submissions of this form are reviewed by our professional staff in order to make a determination. Our librarians have worked hard to attain their professional degrees and are keenly aware of the issues at hand through their ongoing professional development. I believe that these decisions are best made by those who are in the building every day, know our community, and have the established credentials to assess each case before them. 

13. Knowing that the Board cannot share certain information related to employment matters, what measures do you believe are needed to restore confidence in the Board and the executive level management in the wake of the controversy around the executive director last year? 

The decision the board made was incredibly difficult and was not made without serious deliberation. Unfortunately, the public was only privy to a part of the process and many people have made assumptions based on an incomplete picture of events.

The next iteration of the board and the new executive director have an opportunity to establish a new strategic plan for the library and open communication with both the staff and the community. This work can begin with introductory town halls for both the organization and the community. The board will soon be receiving the results of an anonymous staff survey. The board should work with the new Executive Director to share findings and plans to address points of concern. These plans should have measurable outcomes so that all involved can be confident in the intent to address identified items.

14. The Library Board’s primary responsibility is oversight of the Executive Director. What criteria do you believe the Board should use to evaluate the performance of the Executive Director?

The Board and the Executive Director should work together to establish the evaluation criteria at the beginning of each year. The first year should be based largely on the job description under which they will be hired. Some of these criteria should change from year to year based on a variety of internal and external factors. A consistent set of criteria that I think could be valuable would be: budget management, responsiveness to board inquiries and directives, and achieving action items associated with our strategic priorities. Other criteria can be adjusted at the beginning of each evaluation period based on the annual priorities and events. 

15. Last November, Oak Park voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative that proposed that voters be able to approve ordinances and policies through a direct vote. At this point, the vote on the ballot initiative was advisory or non-binding. The next step is for the Village or any other taxing body in Oak Park (as reported by the Wednesday Journal November 7, 2024) to decide whether or not to place the issue on the ballot as a binding referendum. Please share your views on this initiative. 

As the Oak Park Public Library Board does not have authority to enact ordinances, I do not think this matter pertains to the office to which I am seeking election.