Library Officials and Patrons Review Publicly Unstated Consequences of Proposed County-Controlled Library Board

At 6 p.m., Wednesday, December 4, 2024, 225 years after 1799 becoming the second library in the Commonwealth of Virginia to receive state certification as a public library, supporters and users of Samuels Public Library gathered with Samuels Library staff and Board of Trustee members to review exactly what is implied operationally and organizationally if the Warren County Board of Supervisors proceeds with approval of an ordinance amendment that will facilitate the creation of a supervisor-appointed Warren County Library Board (WCLB). Royal Examiner was on the scene with exclusive video of the entire meeting as library officials and patrons grapple with potentially catastrophic consequences of the existing Board of Supervisors initiative on multiple fronts.

Samuels Public Library Board of Trustee President Melody Hotek chaired the first of two Public Information, Public Q&A meetings Wednesday evening at the Library. The second is Saturday at 11 a.m. Below, an opening graphic summarizing the subject matter surrounding a county elected official initiative to alter the fundamental nature of the County’s relationship with its award-winning contracted public library. – Royal Examiner Still Photos Roger Bianchini, Video Mark Williams (Thank you, Mark)

The proposed supervisors-appointed library board idea forwarded by Finance Subcommittee members Richard Jamieson and Vicky Cook is headed to an enabling Code Amendment Public Hearing at this Tuesday, December 10, supervisors meeting at the Warren County Government Center.

The proposed municipally-controlled board appears to give the five sitting supervisors operational board appointment authority with no term limits and the financial direction of the contracted independent non-profit entity’s assets gathered in the future. That financial direction appears to include control of future public donations made by library supporters. And as several people observed during the the two-plus hour meeting at the library, citizens rarely donate to municipal governments for services because they are already paying taxes to the municipality for those services supplied by the local government.

The meeting was chaired by Samuels Library Board of Trustees President Melody Hotek, with assistance from Library Director of Operations Eileen Grady and Library Director Erin Rooney, as well as input from Virginia’s “Library of the Year 2024” Board of Trustees members, and Virginia Library Association Executive Director Lisa Varga, who is also “2024 National Librarian of the Year”.

It was a full house in the Library’s Public Meeting Room for what is scheduled to be the first of two Public Question and Answer sessions with the presented overview of aspects of the proposed County-controlled Library Board thus far not publicly discussed by the supervisors, including Finance Sub-committee member Jamieson during his 37-minute December 3rd work session rebuttal to public questions raised about his sub-committee’s financial analysis and recommendations in a Letter to the Royal Examiner editor by Dr. Tim Francis.

It was a full house in the library public meeting room at the 6 p.m. starting time. Below, Dr. Tim Francis, whom Dr. Jamieson has debated at distance publicly, poses a question on processes as a consequence of the proposed new County-appointed library board. Might the two engage face-to-face before this debate is concluded?

In fact, Dr. Francis was among those present for Wednesday’s meeting, elaborating a bit on his library operational debate at distance with fellow doctorate holder Jamieson. Meeting Chairman and Trustee President Hotek noted toward the meeting’s end that she had invited all five county supervisors to Wednesday’s meeting.

None showed up, though Hotek noted that sitting Supervisors Chairman and County rep on the Library Board of Trustees Cheryl Cullers would have been present if she was not home sick with the COVID virus. Thus far from public comments made, Cullers appears to be the only supervisor opposed to the creation of the new library board, which with discussion heard Wednesday at the library, certainly does seem to be a Samuels Library takeover, or perhaps takedown, effort.

Library Board of Trustee member Scott Jenkins with a projected graphic citing the lack of clarity on who might be appointed to the proposed County-controlled ‘WC Library Board’.

For if it actually is fiduciary due diligence that will save the County and its citizens money without the loss of valued services provided to both adults and children by the library, could Finance Subcommittee members Jamieson and Cook  publicly respond to the operational and financial questions raised Wednesday, and sure to be reintroduced Saturday morning, December 7, at the second Library-sponsored Public Q&A meeting at 11 a.m.?

Transparency or True Motive cover-up?

In fact, that Saturday morning meeting several hours prior to the Christmas Parade activities downtown, would be the perfect opportunity to display the “transparency” Supervisor Cook says she ran for County office on; as well as an opportunity for Supervisor Jamieson to explain why the apparent majority impression of what is currently occuring regarding this community’s public library operations and funding are wrong as to its presenting an imminent, potentially final threat to the operational and financial future of Samuels Public Library.

Trustee Jenkins, who once chaired the post-financial scandal EDA Board of Directors as it dealt with consequences of ill-advised or unauthorized movement of EDA assets, with more graphics on questions and potential issues created by the existing supervisors subcommittee proposal to fix something that does not appear to be broken, financially, operationally, or service-wise.

Among the questions raised about the implications of the gaps and unusual circumstances in the proposed supervisor-appointed board, as the enabling vote looms December 10, are no term limits or residency requirements for appointees to the proposed County Library Board. Then there are the myriad cash flow and cash use authority changes that seem poised to be instituted.

See the Samuels Library staff and Trustees presentations and discussions, and public question-and-answers in the exclusive Royal Examiner video below. The questions raised with answers not yet provided by County officials, and series of coming votes on the enabling code amendment and eventual move to create the supervisor-controlled Warren County Library Board will determine the future of public library operations in this community.

It was a standing ovation at the meeting’s end, just over two hours after its 6 p.m. convening. We might see an earlier ovation if any supervisors, particularly Jamieson or Cook, show up Saturday to answer some of the questions thus far posed about their suggested future course with the county’s historic and award-winning Samuels Public Library.

Will that future be dictated in the dark without answers to legitimate questions, and manipulated to a long-term minority group control of publicly presented reading materials and library services in the Town of Front Royal and Warren County?

It would seem a strange question to be directed at Virginia’s current Library of the Year 2024. And the above cited discussion included questions about possible ways to halt the march toward the proposed changes, including legal filings, the circulation of Recall Petitions against supporting supervisors, and Petitions of Opposition or a voter referendum to halt the process.

Click here to watch the Samuels Public Library Q&A Forum from December 4, 2024, on this exclusive Royal Examiner video.

Is it Too Soon for a Vote on Library Governance Issues With Unresolved Financial and Operational Impacts?