After months of public comments, the county commissioners of Macon, Jackson and Swain could gain direct appointment over the Fontana Regional Library’s regional board, according to a proposal signed by all three counties’ managers.
At the Aug. 8 Macon County Board of Commissioners meeting, County Manager Derek Roland said the commissioners previously recommended reviewing the agreement with FRL every 10 years.
A July 24 letter, signed by the county managers of Jackson, Macon and Swain, agrees that the FRL system “has positively affected all counties within its membership through providing citizens with convenient access to informational and educational resources for over 75 years.” They also agree the FRL and its multi-county collaboration is the “most efficient and effective” way to provide library services.
Roland said the FRL “works well,” and is worth the $1.1 million the county spends on it each year but feels there was one change needed to improve communication.
The one revision in the letter is to “move appointment authority for the Fontana Regional Library Board of Trustees from the local county library boards to the Boards of Commissioners for each county.”
“We believe that this ‘direct connection’ between the local governments who are responsible for creating and funding the multi-county library system and the policymaking body for that system will be more reflective of the elected bodies, improve communications and make the services more responsive to all of our citizens,” the letter states.
Currently, the nine-member FRL board consists of three members from each county. In Macon County, those three regional board members are appointed by an internal vote from the nine-member Macon County Public Library Board of Trustees. The county board is entirely appointed by the county commissioners, with bylaws stipulating at least two trustees on the local board must also be on the Hudson Library Board of Trustees.
Roland said, “There’s no direct connection right now from the fiscal agent, the boards of commissioners, to the policy-setting agent [the regional library board].”
Roland briefly touched on the controversies regarding where certain books are located in the library, expressing a desire for “everybody to be singing off the same sheet of music.”
The proposed change was review-only on Aug. 8, with no vote scheduled.
Roland said the purpose of presenting the revision was to get feedback, saying his colleagues in Jackson and Swain were doing the same thing.
According to FRL Director and Jackson County Librarian Tracy Fitzmaurice, the next FRL Regional Board term expiration is Ed Trask of Macon County in February 2024. The next one after that is Wood Lovell, also of Macon County, in July 2024. After Jackson County’s Boyd Sossamon’s term ends in November 2024, the remaining appointments are up in 2025 and 2026.
The desire to change the FRL system stems from a disagreement over a Pride Month display in June 2021 at the Macon County Public Library that eventually led to some calling for Macon County to leave the FRL system. A group of residents say the FRL regional board has turned a deaf ear to their demands that library books with sexual content they feel are aimed at the young adults/teen section should be moved or labeled, and some have advocated for removal of the books. Many of these books have LGBTQIA topics and are graphic novels with illustrations.
The FRL closed spoken public comments at all its library board meetings in March on advice from its attorney. FRL library boards currently accept written comments submitted before a meeting. A review presented by Macon Library board chair Bill Dyar in April recommended staying in the FRL system but seeing if any changes were needed.
The only commissioners’ comment was made by Danny Antoine, who has spoken against books he feels contain sexual content aimed at children. Antoine expressed incredulity at people who disagree with him and blamed “the media” for blowing some of the issues out of context, saying he’s simply trying to protect children. This led to a brief back and forth with public commenter Scott Baste on a book discussed at the previous week’s Macon County Public Library’s Board of Trustees meeting. Board Chair Paul Higdon then ended the discussion and moved on to the next agenda item. No vote was taken.
Multiple public commenters supported the library system at the beginning of the Aug. 8 meeting. Baste talked about a recent Macon County Public Library meeting and said he hopes board members won’t get riled up over books that aren’t in the local libraries. His wife, Betsy Baste, said while she’s in favor of provisions to give parents the ability to regulate what their kids consume at the library, she was against moving regional board appointment power to the commissioners, saying they already appoint the county library boards, who in turn vote for their own for the regional board.
“If you already appoint the county board, why do it twice,” Betsy Baste stated.
Macon County Public Library board member Linda Tyler, saying she was speaking for herself, said that while the commissioners rely on department heads to appoint many other boards, they didn’t rely on library board recommendations in their county board appointments in July, rather voting against their two or three recommendations made back in February.
“I hope you will remember you were elected to serve all the people,” Tyler said.
Olga Painter said the Macon County Public Library should remain local and “shouldn’t join the national trend” of trying to change local libraries or the content in it. Painter said that the staff care about children and wouldn’t do wrong to our children and said the hoopla about books in the library is about nothing.
“If it’s not broke, why fix it?”
On Aug. 15, the proposed changes went in front of the Jackson and Swain Board of Commissioners, with one of the boards seemingly not interested in the changes.
At the Aug. 15 Jackson County Commissioners’ meeting, Jackson County Manager Don Adams presented the FRL review to his commissioners, saying it came up “due to conversations in other counties.” Adams said the three managers did an initial review, but said all three counties plus the FRL will have to talk about the review.
“It’s a good, solid agreement that has been working for years,” Adams said.
Additionally, Adams said it would require local amendments in Jackson County due to the current structure of how they appoint board members. Jackson County leases two facilities to the FRL, the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva and the Albert Carlton-Cashiers Community Library in Cashiers.
After Adams’ presentation, the Jackson County Commissioners voted to table the agenda item until a future meeting.
At the Aug. 15 Swain County Commissioners’ meeting, local library board members there spoke against the proposed changes. Swain County local library board president Ellen Snodgrass said it would be best to keep the directions coming from fellow board members, rather than the county commissioners appointing someone completely outside the library system.
“The letter says you’ll be making appointments, but it does not say they have to come from the local board,” she said, adding that appointing people with no experience to the regional board could have dire consequences.
Swain Commissioners seemed baffled as to why they’d need to change a thing, with Commissioner Roger Parsons saying he “believed in keeping it simple,” and asked, “If it’s not broke, why fix it?”
Parsons said if other counties wanted to change how the Board of Trustees appointments work, “they can initiate change by appointing people to the library board over time.”
Swain Commissioner Phillip Carson said he thought it would likely be better to keep their board appointments to people who “have some experience,” while fellow Swain Commissioner Kevin Seagle said he thought the local board was doing “a great job” as is.
Macon library board sees one change
In recent weeks, there has been a change on the Macon County Public Library Board of Trustees. Macon County Librarian Abby Hardison confirmed that it was discovered that county library board member Bill Trotter’s residence is on the Jackson County side of Highlands. Hardison said when Trotter was approached about his residence, he resigned from the county board immediately, but stayed on the Hudson Library Board of Trustees since he still lives in Highlands.
Hardison said that the Hudson Library board will recommend Trotter’s replacement, which must come from their own board to meet the two-person Hudson Library minimum on the county board. Trotter’s term expired Aug. 13, 2024.
Larry Griffin of the Smoky Mountain Times contributed to this story.