Supervisors continue funding of library, at least until September, in County’s FY-2024 budget

After adding, then adjourning to a Closed/Executive Session to open its Special Meeting of Tuesday, June 13, to discuss potential litigation revolving around aspects of its Fiscal Year-2024 budget, specifically public schools and public library funding, the Warren County Board of Supervisors returned to the open portion of its meeting 45 minutes later.

Then at 5:45 p.m. in front of a full house, if not quite as full as a week earlier during the budget public hearing discussion at which over 70 people spoke, the county’s five elected public officials tackled the lone topic of the special meeting, approval of a proposed $153,648,292 FY-2023/24 county budget. Of that total, $92,714,752 is General Fund, including $28,650,000 to public education.

Most prominently at issue for those present, as it was a week earlier, was continued funding of Samuels Public Library while 134 books targeted for removal as “obscene” by an online group “CleanUpSamuels” and supporters, some linked to the congregation of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, remain on library shelves. The proposed County funding of Samuels Public Library was $1,024,000 in the Recreational & Cultural portion of the General Fund Budget.

Now you see them, now you don’t – the supervisors quickly convened into Closed/Executive Session at the Special Meeting’s outset as the public awaited a decision on continued Samuels Public Library funding in the wake of allegations of stocking of pornographic materials, including in youth sections of the library.

Back in open session, in response to Chairman Vicky Cook’s call for comment from the board prior to a vote, Happy Creek District Supervisor Jay Butler took the lead in explaining what the board was about to vote on. He said that while the $1,024,000 in library funding remained in the budget, the “Version 2” budget resolution would appropriate a quarter of that amount, $256,000, to the library, with the balance of $768,000 remaining in the budget, but at this point not appropriated for library use. Appropriation of the remaining portion or portions of the FY-24 library funding would require additional board votes. September was cited as a likely time-frame for such a vote, which is a quarter of the way into the fiscal year, not to mention two months prior to local and state elections.

Butler then made the motion to adopt “Version 2” of the County budget as presented, with the partial library appropriation as described above. His motion was seconded by North River District Supervisor Delores Oates. That motion was then approved by a 4-1 roll-call vote, with South River District Supervisor Cheryl Cullers casting the dissenting vote. And with that mixed message being sent, the board adjourned its special meeting and went into work session on a variety of topics.

Work session, what work session? The crowd, which with the budget public hearing closed a week earlier did not have an opportunity to readdress library issues in the one-topic Special Meeting agenda, quickly thinned out, if perhaps somewhat confused about exactly what had transpired with approval of a public library budget, but appropriation of only a portion of that budget.

While awaiting call backs from several supervisors on the reasoning behind their votes for or against the Version 2 budget resolution appropriating only a portion of the library funding, we came across a Facebook post by Supervisor Oates explaining her perception of what the board accomplished with its Version 2 resolution adoption. Following is her social media post, exclamations and capitalizations in context, in its entirety:

“There seems to be confusion about the county’s budget process and I would like to clear it up!

“The Warren County Board of Supervisors approved the budget tonight.  We completely and fully approved the budget including the library’s budget.

“Appropriations are different from budget approval. We appropriated the first quarter of Samuels Library budget in order to provide what they need to fully operate for the next three months, while we continue to work in good faith on policies that protect our children from sexually explicit material and ensure parents have control over their children’s reading choices.

“This means we deposited the first quarter’s money into their account! The remainder can be appropriated at any time.

“We DID NOT CUT the budget. This action allows the library time to present its proposed policies to their board for approval and provides accountability for all of us to come to a resolution!” Oates concluded.

So, is the balance of the library’s funding simply being held back to allow the supervisors and library officials to “continue to work in good faith” on an objective review of library book content and child checkout and reading material access authorization policies, or are library officials being held financial hostage to accommodate one side’s perspective on content as “pornographic”? Stay tuned as summer turns to autumn and the new school year approaches this September.

Work session topics included the proposed joint effort spearheaded by the local action group “Reaching Out Now” to reopen a Student Union/Community Center at the Santmyers Youth Center location (see related town council story); the controversial Old Oak 4 Revenue Sharing road improvement project in the Shenandoah Farms Sanitary District; and revisions to the County Noise Ordinance. Those, among other topics are expected to come to the board as future action items in coming weeks or months.