Harvey library trustee Chapelle Hooks reported paid library consultant and Cook County Commissioner Kisha McCaskill (5th) to county and state lawyers alleging McCaskill paid a library administrator who had already been terminated.
Harvey Public Library District trustee Chapelle Hooks criticized the board for holding two meetings this year that totaled 10 minutes of official business.
Longstanding commissioners and the executive director have blocked La’Keisha Brown-O’Neal, elected in 2025, from accessing facilities, her email, and documents, according to the complaint.
She has a paid library contract that translates to $2,000 a month. She eventually withdrew from the race for a two-year term, but not before daughter Amari McCaskill filed as a write-in candidate for that very seat. As a county commissioner, Kisha McCaskill represents the Southland and Chicago’s Far South Side.
A representative at the headquarters indicated via phone call earlier that day that the meeting would be rescheduled. But since no notice was posted online or in-person, residents still showed up.
Charwana Morgan has been requesting remote participation in board meetings due to her severe medical condition. After numerous rejections by the board, she is now fighting back with an updated lawsuit.
The Harvey Public Library District rejected the release of over a year’s worth of bills lists, documents crucial to examining the public body’s spending behavior.
A law firm connected to the McCaskill family, which now runs the city’s library and park districts, was tapped to investigate the trustee. Pending those findings, the board vacated her seat. Now, she and another trustee are suing.
As the McCaskill family seizes influence over the city’s library, trustees are resorting to filing public records requests, seeking state intervention, and suing the library to fulfill their duties as library fiduciaries.
The Harvey Public Library District board fired its information technology manager at the same meeting in which it reinstated the employment of Carol Morris, an administrator whom he filed a harassment complaint against months earlier.
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