Samuels Trustees President Disputes Illegal Meeting, Asset Claims, But Hopes for Mutual Path Forward With Supervisors

As previously reported, on March 4th by a 4-1 margin, Cheryl Cullers dissenting, the Warren County Board of Supervisors voted to end the existing, annually renewable Funding Agreement with Samuels Public Library. Reasons for such a move, also likely to throw negotiations for future library management, operations, and funding out to an open bidding process, were presented by the newly created Warren County Library Board Chairman Eric Belk. North River Supervisor Richard Jamieson also presented a pre-prepared graphic summary report in support of Belk’s presentation.

That presentation continued the new County library oversite board’s forwarded allegations of an illegal Samuels Board of Trustees meeting, as well as financial misrepresentations regarding the purchase of library assets, including furnishings and even it seemed library reading and other operational materials.

And while Belk opened his remarks claiming that no one on the Board of Supervisors, nor on his Warren County Library Board, which he termed the “the Board of Trustees”, is “trying to defund or close the library”, that statement was greeted with murmurs of skepticism by library supporters packing the Warren County Government Center main meeting room.

WC Library Board Chairman Eric Belk presents the case for a cancelled County-Samuels Library Funding Agreement forward on March 4. Below, file photo of North River District Supervisor Richard Jamieson. What could make anyone think either, or their colleagues, are out to replace Samuels as operator of the county’s public library? Royal Examiner Photos Roger Bianchini

A look at the five potential motions forwarded by the Belk-led library board for possible action by the supervisors might explain that skepticism. Those motions as noted in our preview story on the March 4 supervisors meeting agenda were:

“Motion 1, Breach of Contract; Motion 2, Recommendation to Non-Renew the Library Funding Agreement; Motion 3, Recommendation for a Month-to-Month Agreement; Motion 4, Condition for Samuels Library Inc.’s Eligibility to Compete for the Bid (on future public library operations); Motion 5, Open Call for Competitive Bids.”

In the wake of this continuation of what many library supporters believe to be a veiled continuation of the 2023 “Clean Up Samuels” effort to have certain books removed from the library due to LGBTQ themes, Royal Examiner reached out to library officials for a response to the action of non-renewal of the existing Funding Agreement and the associated financial assertions regarding existing library assets. But first, it may be noted that in response to the 2023 book removal effort, library officials moved some of the cited books to older youth or even the adult sections of the library.

We received a response from Samuels Library Board of Trustees President Melody Hotek on the two main threads of the above-referenced supervisors action of March 4. Those threads are, first, the assertion the Samuels Library Board of Trustees held an illegal “secret meeting” December 17, 2024, in the wake of the Board Of Supervisors vote to create the new, supervisors-appointed library board. And second, the assertion that, not only was county tax revenue used to acquire library assets inside the County-owned library building, but that a large amount of money is still owed on those purchases making the County the rightful owner of those inside-the-library assets.

Library Response

“We went into a Special Meeting on December 17 that was open to the public and then convened a closed session to discuss the legal implications of the County’s actions regarding Chapter 7 of the Warren County Code of Ordinances allowing the creation of the County-appointed library board,” Hotek began.

“Coming out of that meeting a motion was made and passed to work with our attorney to take all actions as may be necessary,” Hotek said of the Library legal challenge of the new library board’s input on its operations or funding. And as was pointed out at the March 4 supervisors meeting, that December 17 Samuels Trustees meeting was advertised before noon on December 13, meeting State FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) guidelines for a three-day notice of such meetings.

File photo of Samuels Board of Trustees President Melody Hotek addressing the BOS at a past meeting in response to lingering funding questions. Below, another past meeting, this one of the Samuels Trustees. It must not have been a secret one either, as this reporter was there with a camera hovering near the snacks.

“All assets we have are owned by Samuels Public Library and no taxpayers dollars were used to purchase those assets,” Hotek said of operational assets, including books and computers. “Other points were made in our press release regarding the assets,” Hotek added. Here below are excerpts from that referenced press release issued earlier in the week:

“The Library provides a service to the County. As with other nonprofit service providers the County engages with, we come with our own assets and expertise to get the job done. Samuels Public Library Board of Trustees are well within their rights to make changes to our Articles of Incorporation as they deem necessary. That is a reference to the below item regarding potential distribution of Samuel Library assets were it to discontinue operations.

“The changes to #10 Dissolution paragraph protect the assets purchased by Samuels Library through donations, fundraising and State funding. The changes to the Articles of Incorporation were approved by the Commonwealth of Virginia.

“NO assets were purchased with County taxpayer dollars. The collection and other assets are for EVERYONE in our community and we intend to continue to provide library services to the residents of Warren County for many years to come.”

Responding to a question, Samuels Board of Trustees President Hotek elaborated on the furniture and fixture asset purchase for us:

“As for the furniture & fixtures, when we moved to the new location on Criser Road, the County gave the Library a loan to purchase additional furniture & fixtures as the square footage had more than doubled in size. The Board of Supervisors at that time were invested in seeing that the Library succeed at its new location. All but $256,372 of the loan had been repaid at the time of the purchase of the Villa Avenue building and so the agreed upon purchase price was reduced to forgive the outstanding loan. Therefore with the repayment of the loan, the furniture & fixtures then belonged to the Library.”

Who owns what inside this building seems to be a matter of ongoing confusion for 4 of 5 of the county’s elected officials and their newly appointed WCLB. Perhaps if they’d been at past legally advertised Library Trustees meetings where finances have been explained, as Library Director of Operations Eileen Grady is here, it would be clearer.

Hope for the Future

With the groundwork now set to proceed virtually from Ground Zero on the future of Samuels Public Library here in Front Royal and Warren County, Hotek closed with a hopeful look forward:

“We hope that there may yet be a path forward for a new MOA (Memorandum Of Agreement) with the County Board of Supervisors as partners. In the meantime, we are actively engaged in fundraising activities,” Hotek said with an eye toward the coming Fiscal Year 2026, which begins July 1, 2025.

Hotek’s wish for direct Library-Supervisors communications moving forward echoed Supervisor Cullers March 4th meeting call for her board to “start doing its job” once again regarding the library. That job from Cullers’ perspective not being to rely on a newly created intermediary board to try and interpret the Library’s funding dynamics past, present, and future.

At least one supervisor, pictured here, who spent the past year as a Samuels Library Board of Trustees member during her Board of Supervisors chairmanship, seems to grasp the basics of library finances. But none of her colleagues seem to be listening to her.

But rather to do that job itself as previous boards over decades, if not centuries, have with the enabling oversight tools in place to achieve, not only the operations leading to Samuels designation as Virginia Library of the Year 2024, but that library’s place as one of this community’s most widely valued and loved public service operations reaching a wide range of citizens with a wide range of programs and services both personal and professional.

Didn’t a wise man once say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Emotions have run high with Samuels Library patrons, as shown here by Kelsey Lawrence at a past BOS meeting. Those emotions reflect the importance of Samuels Public Library to many patrons, as the supervisors majority has been perceived by those patrons to favor an end to the County’s thus far highly successful partnership with the 501-C3 non-profit public library contractor. Library supporters point to Samuels past success in fundraising, grant acquisitions, and State funding assistance. Don’t those factors reduce the needed municipal funding assistance, Samuels supporters ask. Is it worth the risk to see if another vendor could do it better than Virginia’s current 2024 Library of the Year?