The Pierce County Library Board no longer has a chairman as a result of the school board decision to discontinue funding for the facility earlier this year.
Sandra Parrish, Chairman of the Pierce County Library Board and the Board of Education’s (BOE) selected appointee to the group, is no longer chairman, leaving Pierce BOE with no voice on the local or regional library board. Thursday night’s shakeup of the board’s organization was a long-delayed aftershock of the August 8 refusal of the BOE to fund their share of the Pierce County Public Library’s yearly budget.
Pat Herndon, Interim Director of the Three Rivers Library System, said state law governing libraries is quite clear. “Refusal to fund means they do not get to appoint to the local or regional boards.”
The decision was effective immediately and Parrish seemed somewhat at a loss as to if she should stay or go. With library board meetings open to the public, she was welcome to remain and view the proceedings, but could no longer take part.
Herndon recommended the board take immediate action to elect a new chairperson, but this raised certain procedural questions. The sudden loss of a chairperson necessitated Mandy Williams, vice chair and one of the two members appointed by the City of Blackshear, assume responsibility for conducting the rest of the meeting.
It had been suggested by some present that Williams would be a natural choice for chairperson, but the Blackshear Elementary School principal waved away the idea. “I was still an assistant principal when I came on and now I’m the principal.” Citing the responsibilities of her new position and family concerns, Williams agreed to run things only until a new chair was chosen.
Board member Malayna Weatherington nominated Lana Blankenship for the position, but Blankenship was already treasurer, though her name was not yet on the necessary bank documents.
It was also questioned if a new chairperson could even be elected with the numbers present. With the elimination of the BOE appointed seat to the library board there was still a sufficient quorum of those present to conduct the regular business of the meeting, but not enough to nominate, second and vote for a new chair. The motion dying at the table for lack of a second.
Ultimately, it was decided to postpone selecting a new chair until absent board members, and potentially a new board member entirely, could be present.
Those gathered felt this would also give those public entities still funding their share of the library time to agree upon suitable new appointments, which would bring the board back up to its usual numbers and possibly provide other candidates for the now vacant position.
The remainder of the meeting passed uneventfully with a significant block of time spent reviewing the perilous state of the library’s finances in the wake of the BOE abdicating their obligations.
The next two meetings of Pierce County Library Board have been set for January 28 and February 19, which will bring the library board back in line with a quarterly meeting schedule.
