An Open Letter to Supervisor Stanmeyer Regarding Library Services in Warren County

Supervisor Stanmeyer, with all due respect, I feel compelled, as a taxpayer of Warren County, Virginia, and one of your constituents, to caution you against approving the 10-year LS&S Library Services contract at tomorrow evening’s meeting.

I have to wonder if LS&S knows the full extent of what a legal and financial hornet’s nest they are walking into with this contract.

Are they aware of the degree of controversy you and three of your fellow five supervisors have stirred up among the community, especially among the thousands of citizens who regularly use and love Samuels Public Library? Do they realize that the claims of financial and administrative mismanagement you’ve leveled against Samuels are widely viewed as unfounded and politically motivated — part of a broader campaign to discredit the library? I can’t help but wonder if LS&S might face the same treatment from you and your fellow supervisors should it one day become politically convenient.

Are they aware that hundreds of members of our community have repeatedly shown up and spoken out to express overwhelming support for our existing library service provider and that most of the county’s library patrons are actually hostile towards the idea of bringing LS&S in to replace Samuels? Are they aware of how reasonable pleas from the community to provide proof of your allegations of mismanagement were ignored? Do they know that residents begged the board to slow down and present a reasonable comparative cost benefit analysis supporting your assertions of “change is needed” before forming a superfluous library oversight board — let alone outsourcing library services to an out-of-state vendor? Have they seen the video footage on the county government’s website of the meetings where citizens pleaded with the board for hours and hours to be reasonable and do further study on the matter before acting against Samuels? Does LS&S really have any idea of how unwelcome their presence in this county will be?

Have you been fully transparent with LS&S about the fact Samuels Public Library legally owns essentially all of the assets that will be needed in order to operate library services in Warren County? Do they understand that the library building is leased to Samuels for another 14 years? Do they know that they will need to purchase almost everything necessary to run a library — books, computers, tables and chairs, and digital infrastructure — adding astronomically to the costs quoted in the contract that you and the other supervisors tried to sell to citizens as “savings”? Of course, the hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for all of that equipment will be no skin off their noses. We, the taxpayers of Warren County, will be on the hook for that bill, which we’ve yet to see.  my husband, my friends and neighbors, the small business owners, and every single taxpayer of the county will have to pay that unknown price, along with the cost of the lawsuits that Samuels must bring to defend its legitimately owned property from you. What’s worse, each and every citizen of Warren County, many of whom can ill afford to have their taxes wasted in such a manner, will owe a share of the $250,000 penalty due to LS&S next year when you lose your majority on the board, and the county terminates the LS&S contract and returns provision of library services back to Samuels. Thanks to your foolishness and hubris, we taxpayers will be stuck with a bill running into hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions. Just add it to the pile of humiliating examples of incompetence and mismanagement by Warren County, all in the name of “transparency” and “fiscal accountability”. I’d say, “What a joke,” but nobody’s laughing.

Most of all, I have to wonder if LS&S is aware of what all of this is really about. Have you told them the actual truth? That this is not about financial or administrative mismanagement by Samuels, but instead about the ongoing attempts of a tiny minority of religious conservatives in our county to dictate the contents of the library collection? Does LS&S know they’re being used as a pawn in an ugly game of censorship? I have to wonder how much they really know about all of this. If I were in their shoes, I’d want to know what I was walking into — which is why I’m making sure LS&S is aware of this Open Letter that I’m submitting to the Royal Examiner’s editorial page.

People of every political and religious persuasion in this county are furious at this unwanted change, this absurd and offensive waste of time, energy and taxpayer money. Does LS&S really want to get burned in the boiling hot mess that you have cooked up here locally? Do they want their name associated with all of this? Do they realize that their library employees are at risk of being labeled “groomers” and “pedophiles” — just as those at Samuels have been — if they refuse to knuckle under to unlawful and unconstitutional demands of book censorship by local conservative activists? Is it really worth it for them to get caught up in all this nonsense? I guess that’s a question only they can answer, but at least now they can’t say the weren’t aware.

I urge you with every fiber of my being to do the sensible thing. Do not commit this county to a duplicative contract for library services tomorrow night, especially one that comes with the added cost of an additional quarter of a million dollars when the inevitable cancellation of their services results from your colleagues’ losses in the November elections. Please consider your vote carefully because your job is to listen to your constituents, something you haven’t done a great job of over this past year. I cannot believe that you want your legacy as a Supervisor to be yet another entry in the annals of scandalous financial mismanagement in Warren County.

NOTE: This letter reflects my personal views as a taxpayer and concerned citizen and is intended to promote transparency and informed decision-making. Its purpose is not to interfere with any lawful contract negotiations.

L.K. Henderson
Warren County VA

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