Unethical behavior and micromanagement drove Harvey library trustee to resign

Nepotism, micromanagement, and exclusivity ultimately led one Harvey library trustee to resign.

In November 2024, Monique Williams abruptly left the role, her resignation letter citing a slew of concerns, including behavior she deemed “inherently corrupt.” 

She was one of two trustees to resign within a year-and-a-half time span. In June 2023, Yadira Garcia abruptly resigned from the board. 

In her only interview to date about the ordeal, Williams peeled back the veil of government bureaucracy, detailing how transparency issues, back room conversations, and actions that undercut the library’s local impact caused her to resign. While issues persisted, she didn’t address them publicly.

She wanted to present a professional image for the community — one that’s notoriously plagued by government dysfunction. But she grew tired of the library leadership. Resigning wasn’t a decision made lightly. “I had a very hard time coming to this decision and cried a lot of hard tears around this,” Williams said.

Conflicting interests

Elected in 2019, Williams sought change, including finance and policy reform. While the library ran payroll, she said, it never paid the employment taxes on its wages in 2019. 

The policies, including bylaws, were grossly inconsistent, she noticed. The library needed a policy review committee, she said, which never occurred for the majority of the time she was on the board. The policy committee was created the month prior to her resignation. 

Harvey’s library is historically volatile: Struggles to finance new construction. Failing to meet payroll. Near closures. The library didn’t need additional organizational stress, Williams said. While she eyed bringing in resources, however, “it seemed like others’ intentions were trying to figure out how to benefit from sitting on the board.”

In Illinois, library trustees are unpaid. “I had a problem with the contract of one of the trustees and their spouse,” Williams said.

In October 2023, the library board approved a six-and-a-half month paid consulting contract for Kisha McCaskill, wife of board member Anthony McCaskill. Williams reluctantly voted yes. “I was told we really didn’t have anybody else at the time, but that was a bad taste in my mouth,” she said. “I can’t speak to the legality of it,” she continued, but ultimately called it “unethical.” It didn’t appear as though there was an “exit strategy” beyond Kisha McCaskill.

To date, the newly appointed county commissioner’s contract ended and was not extended. Kisha McCaskill is still being paid as a consultant, bringing in tens of thousands of dollars.

Anthony McCaskill did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

Exclusivity

Cook County’s digital equity score measures a municipality’s access to broadband, on a scale of 1 to 100. The higher, the better. According to county data, Harvey’s score is 12. 

“That means most of the community doesn’t have internet at home, and we’re charging them $1 to use a computer at the library,” Williams lamented.

Harvey is a largely Black and Brown community, but the incongruity of the library’s racial politics wasn’t lost on Williams. “Black people, we have fought for access, a very long time,” she said. “To be in a predominantly Black place where Black people block access is an oxymoron to me.”

The board’s supposed to be a watchdog, but micromanaged duties, even frivolous matters like “who gets to use a room,” Williams said. According to Williams, Tamika Price and Anthony McCaskill themselves oversaw many key decisions, even without other board members’ consideration. It was all antithetical to the vision of a public library: inclusivity. “We started to shift to being exclusive.”

Tamika Price did not respond to requests for comment.

During a reorganization in October 2024, Williams was removed from her vice president board role, replaced by Keith Price. 

Williams had no clue the move was coming. Upon receiving her agenda for the meeting, she said, “I just looked at it and thought maybe it had something to do with Ms. Nesbitt passing away, or something.”

Recently, Chapelle Hooks, a former McCaskill ally, was bounced from her treasurer role. She also did not know it would happen, she revealed to the HWH.

Botched efforts to bring resources

Williams served as president of the Illinois Library Association trustee forum and attempted to support an effort to tackle Harvey’s food desert crisis.

Harvey does not have a full-scale grocer. Chicago-based Entrepreneurship Academy, providing entrepreneurship training in low-income and underserved communities, pitched the board an urban farm inside of a hydroponic shipping container, situated on the vacant lot across the street. 

The group already runs a drone program at the library and brought a 3-D printer. Financially backed by a federal grant from the United States Department of Agriculture, they were even slated to pay for security expenses during hours of operation for the farm. 

Cook County leadership like president Toni Preckwinkle and former commissioner Monica Gordon submitted support letters, according to Williams, who personally loved the endeavor. 

Home-grown food. Potential field trips for local kids. The possibilities for the urban farm were plentiful. But after board confusion over contracts and deliverables and poor communication, the initiative fell through.

“These folks are serving the community. What is it [that] you don’t like about them? I never understood that. It just didn’t make sense to me.”

Still serving Harvey

For what it’s worth, Williams was able to look past her own personal contentions while on the board. She previously ran the Harvey Colts football league, which unsuccessfully attempted to work with the Harvey Park District — largely run by the McCaskill family.

Anthony McCaskill was previously a commissioner; Kisha McCaskill is the executive director; son Aaron McCaskill is a commissioner; daughter Amari McCaskill was a commissioner for two years, and was recently appointed to the library board.

“Everybody thinks being a public servant means that you’re controlling someone and playing on the ignorance of the community,” Williams complained. 

She however, “was advocating for these things [that] are sustainable beyond any trustee,” and aiming to create change irrespective of leadership.

In spite of the political woes she experienced at the library — a drama that continues to plague the embattled entity — Williams remains hopeful. 

Williams unsuccessfully ran for city clerk in 2023 and holds an executive appointment to a statewide task force dedicated to tackling homelessness. She is a drama teacher at Thornton, and runs a nonprofit that purchases prom dresses for youth who can’t afford them.

She’s done with the library, yes, but she’s not done with Harvey, she said. “I have to regroup on how to serve my own city.”