Police called to Harvey Park District following brief board meeting
The brief meeting sparked criticism from Waynemond Cotton and Lakeisha Brown-O’Neal, who are jointly suing the park board for preventing them from performing commissioner duties.
Harvey Park District officials called police to the Gloria Taylor Center on April 14 following the board’s meeting.
A Harvey Park District board meeting on April 14 lasted just over six minutes, but tensions surrounding governance, transparency, and an ongoing lawsuit flowing beyond the meeting room at the Gloria Taylor Center.
Alongside president Floyd Coleman, officers quickly escorted meeting attendees out of the facility following adjournment.
Coleman declined to comment when approached.
Legal dispute and government contention
The board moved briskly through six agenda items: a prayer, minutes approval, a park update, and a motion to adjourn.
During the public comment section, Waynemond Cotton raised his hand to speak and board members dismissed him, stating that he did not sign the sheet for public comment. “That is illegal,” Cotton said when ignored. “That’s another lawsuit.”
Cotton is currently in a joint lawsuit with commissioner Lakeisha Brown-O’Neal to resume duties after the board voted to vacate his seat in January 2025. Attorneys for the park district claimed he owed a $500 debt following a conference he did not attend. In a memo to Cotton, attorneys with Del Galdo Law Group claimed a statute in the state law that prohibits an individual from serving if they have an outstanding debt to that entity
“I’m not even sure what the conference is. I don’t even know anything about the conference,” Cotton told the HWH. “My angle is just to get my seat back and to show that the park district is operating completely irresponsibly and just wasting taxpayers dollars.”
The months-long legal battle is becoming a financial burden for him. “All [the board is] doing is costing me more money because I’m paying for an attorney out of pocket,” he said. “However, the residents of Harvey are paying for the park district lawyer.”
The board approved meeting minutes for a special board meeting on Dec. 12, 2025. Brown-O’Neal was absent from that convening. But she claims she was not even made aware of a special meeting.
Brown-O’Neal, who arrived as the meeting was adjourning, claimed the exclusion extends beyond the boardroom. The joint lawsuit claims the board and park district have “failed and refused” to grant Brown-O’Neal access to facilities and records.
“I’m a park district commissioner. Why would [Powell-Johnson] not allow me to come in there? That doesn’t make sense,” she said.
Underlying all of it, Brown-O’Neal alleged, is a single family of McCaskills. Kisha McCaskill serves as the park district’s executive director. Her husband, Anthony McCaskill, is the Harvey Public Library board president and a former park district commissioner.
Their children, Aaron and Amari McCaskill, sit on the park district board as vice president and commissioner, respectively. Amari is also on the Harvey Public Library board.
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