Pierce County Library Board now has a full slate of members and was able to meet last week, but issued no public comment on the recent controversy surrounding the firing of Library Manager LaVonnia Moore.
During public participation, resident Belinda Moody asked, “Does anybody plan to address the firing of LaVonnia Moore? People have been asking about that and are being ignored.”
An awkward silence descended upon the board with a few murmuring “no comment”. Some audience members pressed the issue, seeking clarification for the reason Moore was fired and wanted to know if the board’s silence was because they were legally constrained from doing so. “No comment” was again the only reply.
Moore was terminated earlier this summer as a result of a controversy over a transgender book in a display promoting the children’s summer fun reading program The library board is once more fully staffed, but the issues that led to its previous difficulties obviously still linger.
Several matters were discussed by those present, but the primary purpose of the meeting was to nominate officers for the now fully staffed board. This was a procedural necessity if those nominated to the positions of chairman, vice-chair, treasurer and secretary are to be voted into place during the board’s next regular meeting October 15.
The meeting was also something of a meet and greet for current members to meet the two recently appointed members, Austin Burgess and Dawn Thompson. Both Burgess and Thompson were appointed by the county commission at their August meeting. Jeremy Snell, recently appointed director of the Three Rivers Regional Library System was also present, helping provide explanations of various terms and policies, especially in regard to financial matters, and even weighing in on certain points of parliamentary procedure.
There was a rush by the board to nominate and install Burgess as the new chairman, but Snell postponed such a move, citing the need for only a chairman pro-tem for the purposes of the called meeting, noting the actual election of a new chairman would take place in October after nominations were made.
The current membership of the Pierce County Library Board is made up of all unpaid volunteers appointed by the governments funding it, namely, the city of Blackshear and the Pierce County Commission. Current board members are Burgess, Thompson, Lana Blankenship, Jackie Moses, Mandy Williams and Jimmy Thrift. Former acting chair Williams was absent from the meeting with a sick child. Thrift was also not present, though no reason for his absence was noted.
Even with two members absent, the Thursday meeting was the most well-attended by board members in some time. What followed were the financial report, the library manager report, the regional report, old and new business and finally, public comment.
The financial report revealed some lingering issues with the financial trusts for the library. Former treasurer Lacy Gillis was still the name of record on the trusts’ bank accounts, which will need updating as soon as a new treasurer is elected.
Old business involved nominations to fill the positions of officers of the board, something that had been impossible in the past due to a lack of quorum. The lack of quorum was caused by attendance issues and the fact three seats were vacated due to Gillis’ resignation and the vacating of seats appointed by the Board of Education after that body withdrew as a funding agency for the library last year.
Burgess was nominated for chairman. Williams was nominated in absentia to remain vice-chair. Blankenship was nominated for treasurer in spite of expressing a wish to step down from the role. The other board members prevailed upon her to accept the nomination at least until such time as she could sufficiently train a replacement. The position of secretary came down to nominating either Malayna Wetherington or new member Dawn Thompson. Neither was eager to do it. Wetherington joked, “Do you want to rock-paper-scissor for it?” In the end, Wetherington accepted the nomination.
Less than a dozen people were present in the audience, but most had questions or comments once the floor was opened to the public. Linda Herrin asked for the names of each member of the board and which body appointed them to it, so the members went around the table to introduce themselves.
Terry Leach asked, “When it comes to buying new books, who is in charge of picking the new books?” The answer was the manager of the library Kaitlyn Vernon held that responsibility.
Tom Strait wanted to call attention to the idea of Vernon’s proposal of a Google form, allowing members of the public to submit suggestions for new book purchases.
One audience member who wished to remain anonymous addressed a rumor they had heard of a new screening process where the purchase of new books had to be approved by a board or group outside of the library itself.
Regional library system manager Jeremy Snell replied that policy dictates the system manager, in this case himself, has final say on any books. Snell said that while he does handle such matters, he also relies upon subordinates such as branch manager Vernon and his regional collection manager to sometimes assist him. “Nothing I have heard so far will change that,” said Snell.
The next regular meeting of the Pierce County Library Board will be 4 p.m. October 15 in the meeting room of the Pierce County Public Library.
