Liberty Lake mayor vetoes council’s library ordinance

The mayor of Liberty Lake on Monday vetoed a controversial ordinance that would have given the City Council authority to approve or reject all library policies.

The City Council approved the ordinance in a 4-3 vote May 16 following an ongoing debate about whether certain books were appropriate for children.

Mayor Cris Kaminskas called the ordinance short sighted.

In a statement announcing the veto, she suggested the council change the ordinance so that neither the council nor the mayor can revise or initiate any new library policies. Rather, the council should give feedback to the library board on any proposed policy changes with the intent to come to an agreement, she said.

Kaminskas said that requiring the council to individually approve or reject all policies “sets the Council and Library Board up for a never-ending cycle of submittals and rejections.”

She argued that the library board has much more collective experience and expertise than the City Council to write library policy.

“The board is made up of educated and trained professionals,” she wrote. “Let them do what they were appointed to do.”

Attempts made to reach Wendy Van Orman, Phil Folyer and Chris Cargill, three of the four council members who voted in favor of the ordinance, were unsuccessful Monday afternoon.

At last week’s meeting, responding to concerns that the council would ban books, Cargill stressed that under the ordinance vetoed by Kaminskas the decision to ban books would have to first be made by the library board.

“To me, if you are opposed to banning books, you should be in favor of this ordinance because it says very specifically that the council cannot do it,” Cargill said last week.

Moving forward, the council can decide whether to incorporate the mayor’s feedback. If the council calls another vote on the ordinance, it must pass with at least a five-vote majority to override the mayor’s veto.

“I encourage the Council to select one member from each ‘side’ of this issue to meet with a member of the Library Board to engage in true collaboration on these issues,” Kaminskas wrote.

Supporters of the ordinance have said the council needs to provide “checks and balances” on the library board’s policymaking decisions. Opponents questioned why the ordinance was proposed in the first place because the library has operated well over the years with the library board writing policy and the City Council funding the library.

Many residents have spoken against the amended ordinance, fearing the council’s new authority could lead to banning books. The new ordinance says the council or mayor “will not initiate any book ban,” and the council will “confirm or deny any books banned” by the board.

Kaminskas criticized the wording “book ban” as confusing since the library’s collection policy does not use the word “ban.”

She suggested alternate phrasing, that the council or mayor will not “initiate a book reconsideration or restrict access to the library and its material.”