Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Library Policy topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Board pulls library overdue‑fines discharge from consent calendar after public questions
Summary
Supervisors removed from the consent calendar a recommendation to discharge long‑old library overdue fines after public concern and discussion with the new library director, who explained that many accounts are decades old and the county has moved to a fine‑free model.
A consent calendar item proposing the discharge of long‑outstanding El Dorado County Library overdue fines was pulled for discussion and later removed from the consent calendar on May 20 after public comment raised questions about the size and fairness of the action.
Library Director Bryce (full name not specified in the record) told the board that the list of fines included patron records with line items as small as one cent up to outliers around $344; some accounts date back to 2005, and approximately 146,000 overdue records attached to patron accounts are more than a decade old. The director said the county’s library system adopted a fine‑free policy in 2024: the system no longer charges daily overdue fines, but unreturned items that go long past return thresholds proceed through billing and collections steps.
Bryce said a discharge of accountability is meant to align the county’s accounting records with a modern fine‑free philosophy used by many other large public library systems and to remove access barriers for patrons whose blocked accounts relate to long‑unresolved fines. Some supervisors indicated opposition to the fine‑free policy and said they would register no votes if the item returned; the board recorded that Supervisor Ferrero would register a no vote on item 25. The item was pulled for additional review.
