Badges! Badges! Does a library board need badges?
Crestwood Public Library Board trustees have decided to keep their controversial police-like badges despite outcry from taxpayers who have accused trustees of wasting money on the credentials they rarely use.
In lieu of ditching the badges, the library board on Monday adopted new procedures for using them. Among the rules: Trustees have to keep their badges in a safe place and can't let friends borrow them.
"When we did this, we felt it was a perk," board president Clyde Petersen said, adding that he didn't think spending $600 of district money on the five-pointed stars and leather holders would create such strife. "I don't think it's wasteful."
In March, a friend of trustee Zeno Toscas was arrested for flashing Toscas' library badge to snag a better parking spot at a bar in Merrionette Park.
The friend of a Crestwood Public Library District board member is in hot water after allegedly flashing the board member's police-like badge to snag a parking spot last week at 115 Bourbon Street in Merrionette Park.
Kristopher Bobb, 22, of 12557 Rail Lane, Palos Park, has been charged with impersonating a police officer, according to a Merrionette Park police report.
But Bobb, who is friends with 21-year-old library Trustee Zeno Toscas, said he isn't worried about the charges because he wasn't holding a police badge -- he was holding a library board badge.
"Just somebody who worked (at Bourbon Street) just assumed I was a cop," Bobb said Wednesday.
The Crestwood library board came under fire last year when it spent about $600 on five-pointed gold star badges that look like police badges, as well as leather badge holders, to identify board members.
Board president Clyde Petersen said at the time that trustees would not wear the badges at board meetings. They would only display them in certain situations, such as attending library conferences or other functions outside the Crestwood library. He could not be reached Wednesday for comment.
The incident that led to Bobb's arrest happened at 12:52 a.m. March 4. Toscas parked his car in a way that blocked another patron's vehicle, the police report said. Bourbon Street co-owner Nick DiNovo said Toscas parked behind a vehicle that was in a valet spot.
When a restaurant employee approached Toscas' car, Bobb yelled out that he was a cop and used several profanities, the report said. He allegedly flashed a badge and said he would do whatever he wanted.
On Wednesday, Bobb said he meant to quickly run inside the club to get his girlfriend and her friend. He said he got out of Toscas' car, which was parked in the back of the parking lot near 115th Street and Kedzie Avenue, and he was holding the badge.
"All I did was carry it," Bobb said. "I was playing with it in the car. I didn't realize it, and I walked out" of Toscas' car holding the badge.
Toscas' father, John Toscas, said four witnesses can testify that the charges against Bobb are "not anywhere near the truth." He referred questions to Bobb's attorney, Carl Evans. Evans did not return a phone call.
Toscas was not charged in the incident. He could not be reached for comment.
Crestwood Police Chief Tim Sulikowski said the incident is a "perfect example" of how the library board badges might be abused.
"I'm glad that person was arrested," he said of Bobb.
Sulikowski said it would be up to the library board whether to revoke the badges.
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