Motions about First Amendment rights, remaining politically and socially neutral and supporting the county commissioners’ proposed Fontana Regional Library contract changes all passed the Macon County Public Library’s Board of Trustees during its Dec. 5 meeting.
Board member Justin Bohner proposed an overture to the Fontana Regional Library’s Board of Trustees, supporting the 10-year FRL contract the Macon County Board of Commissioners unanimously endorsed at its November meeting.
The overture states the contract would “promote unity” after “issue after issue caused a rift in our community.”
“No one is getting everything they want in this new contract,” Bohner said. “There’s positives for people on both sides of the aisle.”
Board member Debbie Tallent said she agreed and disagreed with different parts of the motion, hence her “nay” vote. Board member Wood Lovell said the tone of the motion “sounds a lot more harsh than I would agree with.” Bohner said the suspension of verbal public comment back in February shows how divisive things have gotten.
Board member Linda Tyler said the county commissioners discussing a new contract without any library board input doesn’t show unity. FRL Librarian Tracy Fitzmaurice said the Macon County commissioners have yet to send their recommended changes to her. Neither commissioner liaison to the library board, Paul Higdon or Danny Antoine, were at the meeting.
Bohner’s overture passed 4-3 with himself, Leah Gaston, Ed Trask and Diann Catlin in favor, and Tallent, Tyler and Lovell against. Board Chair Bill Dyar did not vote, later saying that as chair, he believes he should only vote in the event of a tie in keeping with Robert’s Rules of Order.
Collection Policy
and Code of Ethics
Trask reported the FRL board of trustees’ planned vote on the Collection Development Policy was tabled until January. Trask, who is on both boards, said there were several references to the American Library Association’s Bill of Rights in the policy as well as gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation.
Trask said the new Collection Development Policy “basically shuts down” book challenges, saying the policy “is so liberal” because it’s taken from the ALA’s Bill of Rights. Trask believes the ALA is a Marxist organization.
Previously, the FRL trustees unanimously tabled a vote on a Code of Ethics after Trask raised objections about it, saying it was taken “word for word from the ALA Code of Ethics for library trustees.” Trask said Dec. 5 that one of the code’s points about board members supporting a board’s position even if you disagree with it was “an affront” to his First Amendment rights.
Lovell said that something from the ALA “doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s evil,” which drew laughs from some of the anti-ALA audience members.
After a back and forth by various board members, the board unanimously approved an overture to the FRL board requesting they “scrutinize and revise the code of ethics proposed document so that trustees’ First Amendment rights are not suppressed.”
In other actions:
• Board member Leah Gaston proposed a recommendation for the FRL board to add to the Collection Development Policy the following statement: “the library will neither promote nor censor any particular religious, moral, philosophical, political or social conviction or opinion.” Gaston said it will help the library remain “politically and socially neutral.” The vote was unanimous.
• Lovell read a statement approved by the FRL board at its Nov. 14 meeting that supports the FRL executive director, county librarians, branch librarians and all library staff members. Lovell said the FRL “has taken some hits, some unfair, some fair” in recent years.
“The FRL Board commends the FRL Executive Director and her staff for their commitment to effectively operating libraries that represent vital resources for our varied communities, their professionalism, and their creative energy that produces a wealth of programming for all our constituencies,” the statement reads. “We thank them for their service through these challenging times for libraries in the United States and assure them that the FRL Board supports their efforts to serve our mission of “providing the public of Jackson, Macon, and Swain counties with excellent service and convenient access to resources for their educational, informational, and recreational needs.”
• Macon County Librarian Abby Hardison’s report explained that FRL started doing background checks after a recommendation by the county library board in October. The library is utilizing Safe-T-Works, which also does background checks for Macon, Jackson and Swain counties. Hardison said checks of all 69 FRL employees are complete, finding eight traffic violations and nothing else.
• Hardison reported the FRL board approved its new Safe Child Policy at its November meeting. This requires kids aged 9-12 to have a parent or guardian in the library and kids 8 and under to be directly supervised at all times.
• Video recordings of FRL board meetings from July onward are now on the FRL’s website.
• Work at the Nantahala Community Library likely won’t be finished this month, Hardison said.
• A request from Catlin, a Highlands resident, resulted in the October 2024 board meeting being moved from Franklin to Highlands, giving the Hudson Library two meetings in 2024. The Macon County Public Library will have three meetings and the Nantahala Public Library will have one.
• Trask’s second term will expire in February 2024, necessitating a replacement appointed by the Board of County Commissioners. Even though it’s not required, the board agreed that Trask’s replacement should come from the Nantahala community. Trask said he’s talking to potential replacements.
The next Macon County Public Library Board of Trustees meeting will be on Tuesday, Feb. 6 in Franklin. The next FRL trustees meeting is on Tuesday, Jan. 9, in Sylva.