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J. Joel Edwards Public Library Board of Trustees to Meet in January; Transitioning to a New Normal
By Editor Becky Watts

ZEBULON - The J. Joel Edwards Public Library Board of Trustees meets at 4:30 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month at the J. Joel Edwards Public Library to discuss business and make decisions that are necessary to take care of business at the J. Joel Edwards Public Library. There have been a lot of changes over the past year with the library board.

It has changed from a governing board to an advisory board first of all. Library personnel are now county personnel. Bookkeeping will soon be changing from QuickBooks to the same system that the county uses as well. And hiring and firing is now done by the county.

It has not been an easy process, but a large amount of time has been put into this process. The county, library board, and library manager are working to find a new normal and learn what is expected of them.

Transitioning to a New Normal

A few months ago, board members were encouraged to attend training that was offered from the Regional Library in order to obtain the knowledge needed to work together effectively as a board as well as know what items are handled on the different levels: Library Board, County level, and Regional level. Training was offered on October 19 and 20, 2018.

According to open records, those who attended included Tina Venus, Patty Talley, Joy Walker, Susan Goodwin, Curtis Ward, and Rhonda Morgan. Vice Chair Gillian Appleton was in an automobile accident that week and could not attend. There is no mention of attendance or a reason for lack of attendance by Audrey Lanier, Chair of the Library Board, according to open records obtained from the library.

Dr. Rhonda Morgan attended the training and wrote up some notes from the training that she sent to all of the board members. [Note from the Editor: These notes were very informative even though they were not official minutes. This section of the article will come from these notes.] Included in it was the duties of the library board which consist of working together to make decisions and working as a group, making sure that funding is adequate and aligning the budget with the county government’s vision for the county, setting policy for the library with the library staff being responsible for procedures like the day to day work items, advocating for the library, and setting policy, creating vision, and having oversight of the library.

Other important duties include ensuring that the constitution is up to date, posting meetings up to two weeks ahead of time as well as posting board meeting minutes for the public, and updating the by laws as needed. [Note from the Editor: The constitution and by laws are in the process of being updated and approved meeting minutes are available to the public in the foyer of the library.]

Attendance at board meetings is mandatory and missing three consecutive meetings can result in a board member being removed for cause. Ethics were also stressed at this training with notes reading as follows: “All board members should avoid conflicts of interest. Board members must present a united front to the public.”

Minimizing liability was important with an emphasis on sound policies including following Open Meetings Law and rules concerning Open Records Requests, addressing sensitive issues quickly, and having proper insurance. [Note from the Editor: Insurance is provided through participation in the Flint River Regional Library System from what I have read.] Continuing education was stressed for the board as well as providing additional resources for board members about Open Meetings, Open Records, etc. There was an emphasis on the Library Board and the Library Manager working as a team with communication and support for the Library Manager as well as communicating well with the Board of Education and Board of Commissioners to say thank you for their support.

The list of what not to do was short with not talking about library business outside of the J. Joel Edwards Public Library Board of Trustees with other members or non-members at the top of the list and not speaking out against the board when a decision is made that a member does not agree with as second on the list.

According to these notes, many questions were asked that pertained directly to the J. Joel Edwards Library. The State Librarian advised those in that discussion that the Library Board serves in an advisory capacity to the library manager who now has two “bosses” with the library board being one and the county manager being the other. A new normal for the library manager as well as the library board will be establishing what is governed by the county manager and/or county government, what is governed by the library board, and what is governed by the library manager in day to day activities.

The chain of command on the library side of the equation is (from top to bottom): the Flint River Regional Library System Board, the J. Joel Edwards Library Board of Trustees, and the Library Manager. The chain of command from the county side of the equation is (from top to bottom): The Pike County Board of Commissioners, the County Manager, and the Library Manager. Thus, the comment about “two bosses” is explained though it will take time to work through which entity has final control of what issues.

They learned in this training that an annual evaluation should be sent to the county manager from the library board whether the county manager uses it or not. It was also noted that individual board members should accompany the library manager to meetings with the county when they are asked because “an extra set of eyes and ears at a meeting is always good and will be a show of support for the library manager.”

Dr. Morgan advised library board members at the end of her email that these notes were simply her notes of the meeting and not an official document. She ended her notes by saying, “I thought they might be helpful as a recap for those of us who attended the training meeting and for those on the board who could not attend.”

According to the Draft Constitution of the J. Joel Edwards Public Library Board of Trustees, the purpose of this board is the same of that adopted in January of 2013: “The purpose of the Library Board shall be to offer a full program of public library services to all citizens, adult, young adult, juvenile, in Pike County; to effectively assemble, use, administer, and disseminate library materials and information to meet the educational, informational, and recreational needs of the citizens of Pike County; to foster public awareness of the Pike County residents of its service area; to be informed of federal, state and local legislation affecting the extension and improvement of libraries; to encourage gifts, donations, endowments, and bequests for the J. Joel Edwards Public Library and to receive all such gifts, donations, endowments, and bequests.” This organization has been existence since it was created by the Board of Commissioners in October of 1980.

Click here to read my write up from the November 14, 2018 meeting. It was a long meeting, but time was needed as the board members went through their by laws line by line in order to update them. [Note from the Editor: I thought that board members worked well together and that everything was pretty efficient. I requested 6 months of board minutes at that time so I could get a handle on what was going on in the meetings because there were some topics mentioned that I didn't know about since I haven’t been to a library board meeting or read the minutes in a long time.]

The December Meeting and a Rescinded Resignation

A meeting of the J. Joel Edwards Library Board of Trustees was held on Thursday, December 13, 2018. It was a long meeting with a lot of discussion and dissension between some of the members. The write up from Pike County Times and the official minutes will be uploaded together in January after the meeting is conducted and the official minutes of the library board have been approved.

However, an item of importance occurred in discussion after the December meeting which prompted Pike County Times to send Open Records Requests to both Library Manager Rosemary Bunn and County Clerk Jo Ann Wrye. Information requested included emails of past County Manager John Hanson and Interim County Manager Rob Morton as he acted in official capacity as the county manager after John Hanson resigned and prior to Bobby Bickley being hired. Several library members and the Library Manager continued their discussion after the December meeting was over.

At some point during this discussion after the meeting, Chair Audrey Lanier gave a verbal resignation to board members still at this gathering. She then reinforced her verbal resignation with an email later that evening that asked to be removed from the library board email distribution list. [Note from the Editor: This account of events and discussion has been pieced together from emails obtained by open records because I was not present for this discussion.]

On Thursday, December 13, 2018 at 7:54 p.m. (the night of the meeting) Vice Chair Gillian Appleton sent out an email that advised as follows: “I’d like to request a special called meeting of the library board. It’s important that we meet without delay. I’m considering Wednesday or Friday of next week, at the normal time of 4:30 p.m. What is everyone’s availability?” At 10:05 p.m. that same night, the (at that time) former Chair Audrey Lanier sent the following as a reply to Vice Chair Appleton’s request for a special called meeting that advised, “Please remove me from library board email distribution.”

Answers came back by email that night and early Friday to then acting-Chair Appleton who set the meeting for the next Friday according to an email sent to board members at 11:10 a.m. on Friday, December 14. She advised all board members—with the exception of Ms. Lanier at her request—that the meeting would be held on Friday, December 21 at 4:30 p.m. She advised that “…There have been some developments with the library board that you all need to be made aware of.”

By 4:35 p.m. on Friday, Ms. Lanier had changed her mind about stepping down as Chair after speaking to County Manager Bobby Bickley. She sent an email saying, “Board Members, County Manager Bobby Bickley personally asked that I not submit my resignation as the J. Joel Edwards Public Library Board of Trustees Chairman. I have agreed to continue to serve as Chairman of the Board.”

There was further discussion about whether the board would hold the special called meeting that had already been advertised and what the agenda would be since the resumed Chair Lanier said that she needed to know the business of the meeting so she could approve it. A note of explanation went out to all board members from Mrs. Appleton to all members at 7:49 p.m. on Friday night explaining that Audrey’s “unsolicited resignation” made her the interim chair and she was advised to call a special meeting that had been placed at the library and in the Pike Journal Reporter as required by the library's by laws.

The discussion went into Saturday where the resumed Chair Audrey Lanier and board members Rhonda Morgan, and Susan Goodwin were against holding a special called meeting. According to the library by laws, the chair notifies board members of upcoming regular and special meetings. However, it was argued in the absence of a chair that the vice chair presides over the board. Board member Joy Walker also advised that she and the acting interim chair had requested a special called board meeting to discuss recent changes in the board which, according to the by laws, two members of the board can call a meeting in writing or verbally.

By 3:14 p.m. on Saturday, board member Rhonda Morgan advised that since Ms. Lanier stated her resignation in an informal conversation and did not resign at an actual meeting, and since Ms. Lanier stated by email that she was personally asked by the county manager to continue as the board chair, there were no changes to the board and asked members to skip the special meeting and meet on their regularly scheduled day in January.

Ms. Lanier then sent a note to all members at 5:42 p.m. on Saturday that stated the following: “I did not submit my resignation in writing to the board and I will not be resigning as chairman. There have been no recent changes to the board. Therefore, the request for a special called meeting to discuss recent changes to the board is denied and we will not be having a special called meeting next week. Our next scheduled board meeting will be Thursday, January 10, 2019 at 4:30 p.m.”

On Monday, Ms. Lanier sent a notice by email to the Pike Journal Reporter to cancel the meeting in which she thanked the Journal Reporter for running ads for the library and advised that while information "concerning the library or library events may continue to come from the Library Manager, Rosemary Bunn,” notices of meetings or announcements for the J. Joel Edwards Public Library Board of Trustees "shall only be received from the Chairman of the Board, Audrey Lanier, or the Secretary of the Board, Susan Goodwin.”

Closing

The special called meeting did not take place on Friday. The notice for the special called meeting was removed from the foyer of the library, the legal organ was notified of the cancellation, and Pike County Times notified the public that the meeting had been cancelled because “The Chairman of the Library Board has rescinded her resignation…”

Hopefully the library board will be given some guidance from the county on what is expected of them so that members can divide the remaining responsibilities accordingly in order to concentrate on working with the library manager to accomplish its purpose of offering “…a full program of public library services to all citizens, adult, young adult, juvenile, in Pike County; to effectively assemble, use, administer, and disseminate library materials and information to meet the educational, informational, and recreational needs of the citizens of Pike County; to foster public awareness of the Pike County residents of its service area; to be informed of federal, state and local legislation affecting the extension and improvement of libraries; to encourage gifts, donations, endowments, and bequests for the J. Joel Edwards Public Library and to receive all such gifts, donations, endowments, and bequests.”

The public is invited to the next meeting of the J. Joel Edwards Public Library Board of Trustees on Thursday, January 10, 2019 at 4:30 p.m. in the meeting room at the library.

12.27.18
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