Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Libraries topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Residents demand transparency as commissioners approve library trustee appointments
Summary
Residents criticized the county’s process for naming new library trustees and urged open criteria and disclosure; the board approved the revised slate on the consent agenda after removing one appointment for a district mismatch.
Several residents pressed the Randolph County Board of Commissioners on July 6 to disclose how it selected new members of the county library board of trustees, saying the replacements followed last month’s dismissal of the previous trustees and lacked transparency.
At the start of the meeting, the board read rules for public comment and then heard sustained criticism from multiple speakers. Judith West told commissioners she wanted ‘‘specific criteria for appointing the new library board of trustee members’’ and said many qualified applicants received no acknowledgement. Christie Overcash, a school librarian, urged the board to protect libraries and cited the Island Trees v. Pico Supreme Court decision as a reminder that library selection must not impose a single political orthodoxy. Charlie White said the public ‘‘deserve[s] a library system guided by intellectual freedom’’ and called the recent removals and appointments ‘‘anything but routine.’’ Other residents asked how many applied, whether candidates were interviewed and whether commissioners recruited nominees.
Chairman Daryl Fry responded that the slate presented included a mix of community members — a community college vice president, a retired public health director, a teacher and a former local library board member — and that one nominee had to be removed because that person resided in the wrong district. After that revision, the board placed the appointments on the consent agenda and approved the consent agenda unanimously.
The board did not detail the number of applicants, interview notes or written selection criteria during the meeting. Several speakers urged the commission to remove the library appointments from a consent vote and consider each nominee publicly; Charlie White and others said bundling the appointments with routine items deprives the public of informed deliberation.
The practical outcome of the meeting: the adjusted slate of trustees was approved as part of the consent agenda. The board also nominated a commissioner to serve as a one-year liaison to the library board; the chair was approved to serve in that role.
Next steps: Commissioners did not schedule additional public hearings on the library trustees at the meeting. Several public speakers said they will continue to press the board for documentation of the selection process and the names of applicants.
Sources: public comments and the commissioners’ statements at the July 6 Randolph County Board of Commissioners meeting.
