Update: Battle Looming Over County Supervisors Initiative to Take Over Library Board of Trustees Appointment Authority

(Writer/Editor’s note: This story has had passages refering to Supervisor Jamieson’s alleged email communication sent to the Front Royal Catholics Civics Education group deleted as Mr. Jamieson has denied sending such an email communication to the group. The Group’s google-group Moderator Tom McFadden Sr. confirmed that the email alleged to be from Jamieson received by the group from an outside source that he forwarded for posting was later discredited and removed from the group chat site.)

Central to the which county citizens do you represent question to county supervisors is the Samuels Library Board of Trustees support of the library’s stocking of books acknowledging the existence and tolerance of alternate sexual identity roles. And while current Pope Francis once famously said “Who am I to judge?” a gay person’s spiritual fate if they have a good heart and spiritually are seeking their maker, many ultra-conservative Catholics continue to believe homosexuality and other LGBTQ lifestyles are soul-damning sins.

The PowerPoint cover sheet for sub-committee report created by Supevisors Jamieson and Cook, pictured below. Royal Examiner File Photos Roger Bianchini

But contrary to the repeated assertions of the anti-LGBTQ+ materials availability-in-the-library contingent who made their then-failed censorship move on that library content last year, such material is not stocked as a “recruitment” effort to point youth in the direction of alternate sexual identification. Rather, it appears to be an effort to alert youth reaching puberty with their own self-generated sexual identity issues that there are people, sometimes represented by cartoon characters, who successfully live their lives from that perspective and lifestyle. Such knowledge can help such youth fight off suicidal thoughts generated by not fitting into the mainstream cultural norm, as well as better resist being bullied about their self-perception once it becomes known to their peers.

North River District Supervisor Richard Jamieson during his Nov. 12 sub-committee report on library ‘Governance Analysis’ and controversial ‘Path Forward’ recommendation.

Here it might be worth reminding readers that Samuels Public Library has been named Virginia’s current 2024 “Library of the Year” by the Virginia Library Association (VLA) from over 400 public libraries statewide. Also acknowledged were the Friends Of Samuels Library (FOSL) as “Friends Group of the Year” and Samuels Board of Trustees President Melody Hotek as “Trustee of the Year” in Virginia.

As previously reported by Royal Examiner: “Samuels Public Library serves more than 41,000 people across Warren County. In the last fiscal year, the library welcomed over 127,000 visitors, facilitated over 400,000 checkouts, and hosted 542 programs attended by nearly 20,000 people.”

Central to Supervisor Jamieson’s stated perception that last year during the library content and operational control dispute between the anti-library “Clean-up Samuels” group and the pro-library “Save Samuels” and FOSL factions is that the library and its supporters missleadingly created a narrative that last year the board of supervisors was threatening to withhold funding for the library in three quarters of the coming Fiscal Year. However, for those paying attention there was little doubt that was exactly what was implied, if not realized perhaps on good legal advice, by the initial board withholding of the bulk of the library budget for the coming year.

And the ongoing effort to reduce County financial support of the library’s Operational Budget that has been in place for years would appear to support that perspective, particularly as long as the library remains a self-appointing, self-regulating independent entity. And we will remind readers that Samuels is the second oldest certified public library in Virginia, its certification dating to 1799, though the Samuels name is more recent, honoring a past director who donated what is now the Heritage Society building on Chester Street to the library for its operations in 1952.

Jamieson and his two-person subcommittee, with support of an apparent board of supervisors majority, are now proposing to seize appointment authority of the Samuels Library Board of Trustees as a means to get their way with operational control of the library.

North River District Supervisor Richard Jamieson during his Nov. 12 sub-committee report on library ‘Governance Analysis’ and controversial ‘Path Forward’ recommendation.

With both sides of the ongoing library content and financing dispute becoming increasingly aware of a looming vote on creation of the above referenced County-overseen Warren County Library Board to gain appointment control of the library’s Board of Trustees, likely at a December meeting with authorization to advertise for a public hearing on creation of the necessary enabling ordinance on the November 19th agenda, things may begin to heat up tomorrow shortly after 7 p.m. at the Warren County Government Center.

Don’t forget the popcorn, sports fans.