Eagle city leaders won’t say why they fired 2 on library board who voted to relocate books
BOISE – Eagle City Council members emerged from closed-door deliberations Oct. 8 with unanimous agreement to remove two of the four remaining members of the city’s public library board. City leaders won’t say why.
The decision came weeks after another closed-door decision regarding the library: the board’s 3-1 vote to relocate 23 books in the library considered “harmful to minors,” most from the young-adult section to the adult section, and three to the circulation desk where an adult must request them.
Whether these decisions are related is a City Council secret. For some members of the public, that might be part of the problem. And for the moment, the library no longer has enough board members for a quorum.
Here’s what we know.
Closed-door session
on personnel, litigation
As BoiseDev reported, the council deliberated for an hour in executive session with two stated purposes: to discuss personnel matters and to discuss pending or threatened litigation.
Then the council reconvened in open session, which Idaho law says it must do to vote. According to minutes of the meeting approved by Mayor Brad Pike, the board in a single vote removed board members Sarah Hayes and Kelsey Taylor. No action was taken on pending or threatened litigation.
The two members remaining on the board are Brian Almon and Candice Hopkins, the chair. Board member Kristen Lewis’s five-year term ended in September, and her seat has not been filled.
Along with Hayes and Taylor, Almon voted Sept. 18 to relocate 23 books within the library following a series of requests for reconsideration that the library received after a new state law went into effect July 1. The law governs how libraries must respond to material deemed “harmful to minors.” In the last meeting of her term, Lewis cast the lone opposing vote. Hopkins was not present.
Under the new law, HB 710, if a minor obtains materials considered “obscene,” the minor’s parent or legal guardian can submit a Request for Reconsideration form. If the material is not relocated within 30 days, the parent or guardian can sue the library.
After receiving 25 requests in July, the board voted to move the books. One title requested for reconsideration was not in the library’s collection. Another was blank. All 23 titles moved are listed at the end of this article.
An Eagle woman, Angela Russell, took credit in a Nextdoor post for filing the 25 requests on July 24, Idaho Education News reported. Russell’s post indicates she hoped the books would be moved to the adult section and cited “sexual activities with minors, nudity, profanity, racial slurs, sex change operation info, violence, child abuse, alternate gender ideologies” as reasons.
Almon told the Idaho Statesman that he does not believe the dismissals of Hayes and Taylor were related to the book relocations, noting that he voted in favor of the relocations and remains on the board.
Almon said he was “surprised” by the dismissals and that he wasn’t informed until the day after the council’s decision. He said he wasn’t aware of any complaints brought against Hayes, Taylor or himself.
With the dismissals, Almon said the board no longer has a quorum and cannot meet until an additional member is added.
In the meantime, Library Director Steve Bumgarner told the Statesman that the dismissals “have not affected library staff” or day-to-day operations.
Bumgarner said he has not seen any board removals before in his 12 years working for the Eagle library. “It hasn’t happened here,” he said.
What city leaders say
In an email to the Statesman, Mayor Pike declined to comment on the dismissals of Hayes and Taylor.
Dana Biberston, public information officer for the city, likewise told the Statesman via email she is “not privy” to what is discussed in executive session and that “the city cannot comment” on the reasoning behind the dismissals. Biberston did not confirm or deny if the council decision was related to the book relocations.
Council member Melissa Gindlesperger, the council’s liaison to the library board, also declined to comment on the decision and whether it related to the book relocations. She said she didn’t believe the removals have had an impact on the library or its patrons.
Council member Mary May told the Statesman via email that her vote was “not related in any way to the issue of relocating books.”
“Beyond that, I cannot comment on matters discussed in executive session,” May wrote.
Asked how she might respond to a library patron confused by the decision, May responded, “No decision is made lightly or in a vacuum. It was the unanimous vote of the City Council in the best interest of the residents of Eagle.”
May also pointed out that the library service has continued without any impact. “In fact, the library has been extremely busy the last few weeks as it served as an early voting location,” she wrote, which she hopes is “an opportunity for our residents to see everything they have to offer.”
Council President Helen Russell and member Craig Kvamme did not respond to the Statesman’s email request for comment on the decision or its impacts.
Neither Pike nor Biberston commented on any impacts the decision has had.
The Statesman asked Almon if he would forward the Statesman’s request for comment to other library board members, including dismissed members Hayes and Taylor, for whom the Statesman had no reliable contact information. Almon agreed. Later, he told the Statesman via text message that he did not receive any response.
Public-records requests
Members of the public have taken an interest in the book relocations and board removals.
From Sept. 10 to Oct. 2, six public-records requests were filed with the city regarding the library board. The Statesman filed one Oct. 7.
Asked if he thinks the private nature of these decisions might have an impact on public trust – whether or not they were related – Almon told the Statesman, “I think it probably would be valuable in the future to have those discussions in open meeting.”
Almon said that would be up to the city attorney, and that the board is stilling “figuring out” how to comply with HB 710.
“Members of the public are always invited to come to meetings and talk to us,” Almon said.
He said that considering and responding to the Requests for Reconsideration was a part of building trust with the community.
“The whole process we went through in September, I think, is part of community members bringing up concerns,” Almon said.
The board, he said, strives to be “as open and transparent with the community as possible.”
Almon said in a text message to the Statesman, “I’ll be happy when our library makes the news for its wide range of programs for all ages and selection of fun and useful materials.”
What’s next
The library board’s October meeting was originally scheduled for Oct. 16 but was canceled. An agenda for the meeting was not posted online, but outstanding items from the board’s previous meeting in September included discussions of rearranging the location of the young adult collection within the library and establishing a tiered library card system by age group. Both topics were raised by Hayes.
The board’s next meeting is scheduled for Nov. 20. Almon said he hopes the board will be able to meet. Mayor Pike would have to appoint at least one new member and the council would have to confirm his choice. The City Council’s next scheduled meeting is Tuesday, Nov. 12.
Biberston, the public information officer, said the city removed its job posting for the board positions Oct. 31 and is no longer accepting applications.
The 23 titles relocated
These 20 books were moved from the young-adult section to the adult section:
- “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” by Jesse Andrews
- “Allegedly” by Tiffany D. Jackson
- “Lady Midnight” by Cassandra Clare
- “The Poet X” by Elizabeth Acevedo
- “Super Mutant Magic Academy” by Jillian Tamaki
- “Spinning” by Tillie Walden
- “Shiver” by Maggie Stiefvater
- “The What’s Happening to My Body? Book for Girls” by Lynda Madaras
- “This One Summer” by Mariko Tamaki
- “Wait, What?” by Heather Corinna
- “We Know It Was You: A Strange Truth Novel” by Maggie Thrash
- “I’ll Give You the Sun” by Jandy Nelson
- “Concrete Rose” by Angie Thomas
- “Damsel” by Elana K. Arnold
- “Last Night at the Telegraph Club” by Malinda Lo
- “Queen of the Shadows” by Sarah J. Maas
- “Court of Frost and Starlight” by Sarah J. Maas
- “Court of Thorns and Roses” by Sarah J. Maas
- “Eleanor and Park” by Rainbow Rowell
- “Monday’s Not Coming” by Tiffany D. Jackson
These three books were moved to the circulation desk, where an adult must request them:
- “The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman’s Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay, and Disaster” by Sarah Krasnostein
- “Portnoy’s Complaint” by Philip Roth
- “What Girls Are Made Of” by Elana K. Arnold
The three books were replaced on the shelves by foam “dummy books,” according to Library Director Steve Bumgarner.