Library board confirms Lightfoot’s choice to be permanent library commissioner

A Library Board appointed by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday confirmed Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s choice of career librarian Andrea Telli as Chicago’s new, $172,020-a-year library commissioner.

Telli is one of only a handful of new commissioners whom Lightfoot has chosen to become permanent members of her cabinet.

In a press release, Lightfoot hailed Telli as a “champion” for the library system’s “role in building a strong, vibrant Chicago.”

“Our libraries ... provide free and open access to information and opportunities for Chicagoans to learn and grow,” the mayor, who is on a fundraising trip to California, was quoted as saying.

“With her commitment to operational excellence and responsiveness to community needs, Andrea will build on CPL’s legacy.”

After overseeing operations for the library system’s 81 branches as well as the Harold Washington Library, Telli said she considers it a “tremendous honor” to ascend to the top job.

“I love and respect the work that we do, and the positive impact that our libraries have on our city’s vibrant communities. I look forward to continuing to build CPL’s reputation for innovation and quality programming, and to serve our patrons effectively,” she was quoted as saying.

Telli inherits a library system harshly criticized by Inspector General Joe Ferguson, who said staffing at Chicago’s 80 public libraries was still not aligned with community needs a year after he recommended a “systemwide workload analysis” to better serve patrons.

“By not supporting its staff and not engaging with its communities, CPL is failing in its mission to support the people of Chicago,” Ferguson wrote in a recent follow-up audit.

At first blush, Lightfoot’s choice of Telli seemed to be a resounding rebuke of her predecessor’s stewardship of the library system.

Former Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey, whose 2011 resignation protested Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s draconian cuts to library hours and services, is a close friend, former co-worker, campaign advisor and contributor to Lightfoot.

And Lightfoot’s wife, Amy Eshleman, served as an assistant library commissioner under Dempsey. Eshleman is credited with helping to develop YOUmedia, a digital center tailor-made for teenagers.

But outgoing Library Commissioner Brian Bannon has insisted that his decision to leave Chicago to take a top library job in New York was his own.

In fact, he considers Dempsey a mentor, has the utmost respect for Eshleman and both promoted and recommended Telli to succeed him.

“Andrea is a fantastic choice. She’s been with the organization for 30 years. She’s worked her way up through the ranks. She’s a rock star. She’s beloved by the organization. She’s a career librarian. She will bring the operational know-how to lead the organization to the next level. In terms of continuity, you couldn’t find a better person,” Bannon told the Sun-Times last month.

Bannon acknowledged that staffing remains an issue at Chicago’s 80 libraries — but only because the city hiring process, controlled by the Department of Human Resources, is painfully slow.

“It takes time in any city — and Chicago is not unique — to back-fill and hire positions. At any given time, we have vacancies across the city that we’re working to fill. And those vacancies add to the challenge” of fully staffing all locations, Bannon said.

“I would love hiring to be faster. I would love to be able to have our vacancies filled more quickly. And even though we’ve added a lot of positions over time, it would be great to get more pages. ... [But] it was a little disappointing that the inspector general decided to just throw the hammer down on CPL as opposed to looking at the entire system of which we are a part.”