The president of the Community Library Board told the Twin Lakes Village Board Monday that the makeup of the library’s board may be up for changes again.
Kevin Fitzgerald, who is president of the library board as well as a Twin Lakes trustee, said the state is seeking to have the library’s agreement among its five municipal members changed to bring the representation on the board into accordance with current state statutes.
When the Community Library was created in 1980 it was OK for the board to have equal numbers of representatives from each member municipality. Each municipality in the Community Library system has two members on the board currently.
But current state law calls for joint library districts to have their board representation based on municipal population. In the Community Library system, that would give Salem the most board members, maybe four, and the smaller municipalities with less. So far, the municipalities have resisted the change — and re-opening the agreement that could force the change to be adopted. Fitzgerald said he feels the member municipalities still want to maintain the status quo.
But the state still has one angle for leverage — state funding.
The library gets about $200,000 in state funding. While the state probably can’t force the re-opening of the contract, it could withhold that funding, which Fitzgerald said is a threat that has already been made.
The library also derives funds from a tax on property owners in the five-member municipalities. If those municipalities did not belong to the Community Library, property owners would still have to pay the same library tax to the county library system.
To present a united front to this latest push from the state, Fitzgerald said he is looking to get representatives of Paddock Lake, Randall, Salem, Silver Lake and Twin Lakes together to discuss the issue. No date has been set for the meeting yet.
When the Community Library was created it was okay….blah blah blah.
But when the last contract was signed, it was already statute that the representation was to be by population and the 5 municipalities proceeded to break the law anyway.
What is with the municipalities around here that they do whatever they want to do unless someone files a law suit against them?
Do what the law states and get the funding. If you don’t, we shouldn’t get it because getting the funding would then be fraud those not being well represented.
It sounds like Fitzgerald likes to violate statutes. He is the President of the board. He, of all people, should be protecting the board and taxpayers and honoring the statutes of the state.
Fitzgerald could address the issue alternating high school representatives on the board as well. That has never been a statutory issue and though at the time, the High Schools may not have had decent libraries, now they do and should have no say in what the library district is doing outside of the school district.
Can anyone advise how this will impact our library here in Silver Lake?
silver lake 1, not 2
Well, if the state cuts off $200,000 in library funding, maybe Mike & Sue could explain where THAT lost funding is going to come from? The “pot of gold” at the “end of the rainbow”?