Garfield County Commission Chair ProTem Tom Jankovsky told everyone at Thursday’s public meeting with the Garfield County Library District Board of Trustees to stick to the topic at hand: an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) between the library board of trustees and the commissioners.
“I know there is a disagreement and it’s probably between members of the community on what we would consider to be items that are adult-oriented and how they are displayed within the library, but that’s not what this discussion is about today,” he said. “So if we start going into that discussion, I may gavel you and say, ‘Please just keep it to the items that we’re talking about today.’”
Thus began a three-hour meeting, which was ostensibly called to discuss and sign the IGA. There are two IGAs: one written by the Garfield County commissioners (BOCC) and another written by the library board. Both parties have had the documents since March; nothing has been signed.
Attendees included library board members John Mallonee, Michelle Foster, Myrna Fletchall and Susan Use as well as library Executive Director Jamie LaRue. Commissioner Mike Samson, County Manager Fred Jarman, and County Attorney Heather Beattie were also present. Commission Chair John Martin is on medical leave.
For the first 90 minutes of the meeting, the library board discussed why the BOCC shouldn’t take charge of trustee appointments while the BOCC talked about why they should. Michelle Foster, a nine-year trustee whose term is up next year, said that continuity is important for the board.
“It’s why we have staggered terms,” she explained. “When you have high turnover on a board, it lessens board effectiveness.” She added that the interview process focuses on candidate board experience, familiarity of meeting procedure and community involvement.
“We don’t ask their political affiliation, their philosophy of life or even what kind of books they like to read,” she said. “I think our process has worked well, and it’s really perplexing to me why we want to change that process and why it needs to be changed.”
Jankovsky brought up “groupthink,” expressing his distaste for how the library board makes decisions. Trustee Susan Use disagreed. “The groupthink you’re talking about is the library board following their code of ethics,” she countered. “When people approach us with public comment, it’s our policy not to respond. We listen and let them speak, but I think that’s been misconstrued as groupspeak. We do stand together as a library board.”
Later in the meeting, Myrna Fletchall, the newest library trustee, seemed to take the BOCC’s side, stating that she agreed that the library board was engaging in groupthink. “It’s been really hard for me, having a different point of view,” she said, adding that every board needs checks and balances.
Commissioner Mike Samson had a pot-calling-the-kettle-black moment after saying that he thought boards need new blood from time to time.
“For example, when someone has served on a board forever, sometimes they get in a rut,” he said. Some in the crowd were shocked, pointing to Samson, who has been on the BOCC for 16 years. Martin is finishing up his 28th and final year and Jankovsky is in his fourth term. One person walked out of the meeting for a few minutes and let out a scream of frustration in the hallway. “I’ve never been so angry,” she later told KDNK.
The discussion remained this way with no meeting of the minds on the IGA. In fact, Samson, ignoring Jankovsky’s gavel warning, went off-topic, stating that those who originally requested the relocation of certain Japanese manga books had a point.
“The people came before this board and they had a very reasonable request,” he began. “Please remove these offending books from the access of children. But somebody dug in their heels and now we’ve made a mountain out of a molehill.”
That “somebody” appears to be both the library board and the BOCC.
When it came time for public comments, no gaveling occurred despite plenty of off-topic remarks. Consequently, library board members were subjected to 90 minutes of insults and haranguing from Garfield County residents who seemed to know little about the First Amendment, let alone courtesy.
No consensus was reached between the two boards, and the IGA is far from being signed. In fact, County Attorney Heather Beattie told The Sopris Sun that another meeting between the boards is in the offing.
“The board of trustees made some recommendations as far as what they wanted to see in [the IGA]. Specifically, they wanted to see who would be doing the advertising,” she told KDNK Community Access Radio. “So we will add that the board of county commissioners would be doing the advertising. We will also add that the entire [library] board can come to the interviews and that we will provide the interview packet and work with them on the questions.”
Another change involves a sentence in the commissioners’ proposed IGA. Right now, commissioners cannot decline the reappointment of a current trustee without good cause, as outlined by the library district’s bylaws. That sentence was deleted — for now, said Beattie — which means current trustees who are up for term renewal will have to put their hat in the ring with everyone else and take their chances. Commissioners also said they want Chairman Martin’s input, which will have to wait until December.
The entire meeting is available at the Garfield County website, www.garfield-county.com