On Thursday, November 10, 2022 at 5:05 p.m. in the Community Room of the Phillips Public Library, a special board meeting will be held. This board meeting was called by Becky Steinbach, library board vice-president, on October 28th, the day after the last board meeting, which covered challenged books and staff pay increases.
The agenda is as follows:
1. Call to order
2. Establish a quorum
3. Certification of compliance with Open Meeting Law
4. Discussion/Action on Public Comment Policy and Procedure
5. Discussion/action on a statement from the Board in response to social media post regarding the Library Director
6. Discussion/action on Board Member conduct, responsibilities, and removal
Members of the community reached out to My Price County regarding Items 4 through 6. To get answers from the person who called the meeting, we sent Becky Steinbach the follow questions.
1. What social media post is the agenda referring to?
2. Why are conduct, responsibilities, and removal of board members on the agenda?
3. Aside from the fact that it is not required by law, why is public comment not being allowed?
Becky responded with, "Individual board members do not act alone to make decisions on library matters. This meeting will allow us to discuss recent reactions to library board decisions in an open and unbiased forum."
My Price County asked if she could specifically reply to the questions, but Becky stated this was the only response she wanted to provide before the meeting, stating, "I firmly believe these matters need to be discussed with the full board in a public meeting setting."
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Some members of the community are speculating on which social media post is on the agenda given one post from a community member got a lot of attention the day after the last regular board meeting. The post primarily addressed the pay increase of the library director and the cut in the budget to the books. We will update this story after the meeting once the social media post is confirmed.
Since members of the public also had questions about the bylaws and how people are hired or removed from the board, we asked Becky Steinbach and Becky Puhl, the library director, along with all other board members, if they could provide us with a copy of the bylaws. Becky Steinbach replied that the bylaws are in a paper copy housed at the library and Becky Puhl is in the process of getting them together and scanning them in. Jenny Markle, another board member, stated the library director said she is in the process of looking for the records in her office.
The public can attend this meeting in person or via Zoom. However, public comment will not be allowed. The Zoom meeting link is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84734249750?pw...V2bXA5UT09 Meeting ID: 847 3424 9750 Passcode: 299759
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You can read the update regarding what happened at the special meeting at this link.