Malia Riggs
Elmore Autauga News
The Autauga-Prattville Library Board met for their regularly scheduled meeting Thursday morning at the Autauga Prattville Public Library where attendees on both sides of the on-going Prattville Library debacle could be heard loudly arguing with one another during executive session as well as making remarks to one another before and during the meeting.
Many members of Read Freely Alabama were present and many members opposing the Read Freely group were present, where members of both parties were extremely vocal. Prattville City Councilman Marcus Jackson and Michael Whaley were also present for the duration of the meeting.
After the executive session, the Board voted unanimously to enter into a representative agreement with attorney Brian Taylor of Bachus, Brom & Taylor, LLC Business Litigation Lawyers out of Birmingham. Taylor addressed the Board and the public regarding a federal lawsuit that was served as recently as this week.
Taylor confirmed the Board had a complaint served on them by Read Freely Alabama and other individual plaintiffs challenging the constitutionality reports and the library’s selection policy.
The nature of the allegations essentially state that the Board has adopted policies that are overly broad and too vague to be implemented and therefore discriminates based on content, Taylor confirmed.
“The complaint was filed by local lawyers as well as in a group called Democracy Forward, which is a large legal interest group in Washington, D .C. chaired by Mark Elias, the former General Counsel for Hillary Clinton. I say that to say this is a lawsuit, it’s backed by folks outside the state, who are serious folks who handle serious lawsuits. I look forward to working with the Board, and please give me your confidence that you will do everything you can to defend the Board policy,” Taylor said.
The Board approved the minutes from previous meetings dating back to February of this year. Vice chair Rachel Daniels had two corrections for the February 8th meeting and the April meeting. In the February meeting edits, Daniels asked for a wording change and for the April meeting she clarified timing that was allegedly out of order, that was reflected in the minutes.
The Board made a motion to accept the minutes with verbal corrections, and edits to follow.
During the financial report, the Summer Reading Program’s recent fundraiser raised around $1,500 after the final donation was made, Chairman Ray Boles confirmed. Boles also confirmed that they raised the money through local businesses in Prattville that graciously donated to the library.
The Board’s treasurer Logan Strock was not present for Thursday morning’s meeting, the Board unanimously approved moving forward with the same funding from the City of Prattville and Autauga County as last year.
“The finance committee wants the same amount of money this year as last year. That’ll give us another year to go through the whole year and see what we actually need from the city and the county,” Boles said.
During the director’s report, interim library director Tammy Bear addressed the Board with concerns over library staff pay, stating that the staff makes $9 an hour but the McDonalds down the road starts at $12 an hour.
“That’s $3 more than our employees make here starting out. There’s an urgent need to look at the staffing and our budget to see where we could remedy this issue,” Bear said.
Bear confirmed that the library has applied for the LSTA grants, requesting $20,000, up $5,000 from the library’s previous application. The LSTA or Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds are provided to the Alabama Public Library Service (APLS) by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), according to the Alabama Public Library Service website.
These funds will go towards outdated, worn out, falling apart and popular titles throughout the library. These funds will also be used to add titles to the library’s collection where Bear stated there are gaps, and to add new titles to the library’s selection.
“We have an increased use from a growing population in Autauga County, which I’m not sure everyone can see. And our objective is to add these titles that are relevant to our community and support our library’s programs,” Bear said.
Bear went on to highlight the status of programs, and upcoming programs and events for the summer months. Bear stated that in March, there were a few programs that were lost due to staff shortage and cancellation without authorization. Bear stated that the library is making their way back and she’s excited for what is to come.
Baby time, toddler time and story time will be continuing, Bear confirmed. Kids crafts on Tuesdays, Lego club, and a new chess club will be starting soon. Bear confirmed the Summer Reading Program’s theme this year “adventure begins at your library,” with the kickoff on June 4th in partnership with the Alabama Nature Center. Bear confirmed that activities Tuesday through Friday will continue during the summer.
During Bear’s report, Bear also touched on the budget for the library, where she stated the enactment of new policy requiring pre approval to the director prior to any purchases being made due to being over budget by February.
Another policy change is that all deposits from the register, donations and other monies are deposited immediately instead of weekly. Bear stated that upon her appointment as interim director, the former director had almost two months worth of undeposited and unrecorded monies totaling to over $1,000.
Library Board attorney Laura Clark also gave an attorney report to the Board, where she touched on recent legislative changes to APLS, and stated that the Board’s policies are already in compliance.
After the executive session, the APLS voted to have libraries across the state change their policies to “leave out inappropriate materials.”
“They passed something that incorporated the governor’s changes, but also the amendments that strengthen the policies of the libraries across the state. It says, to shape your curriculum in a way that leaves out inappropriate materials. There’s a memo that will come out shortly that will define what inappropriate materials mean. So we’ll be able to look out for those changes from the APLS and have our policies drafted accordingly. I believe we are already in line with it, but be advised that the APLS is strongly on Prattville’s side,” Clark said.
Clark touched on an incident that happened where a child found a sexually explicit book, that was allegedly three books over into the adult section from the children’s section, Clark confirmed to the Board.
Clark asked the board to take action against the book in question My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness by Kabi Nagata as well as another book titled Ruined by Sarah Vaughn.
Clark also reiterated that the Board and the library social media platforms should continue, off of police recommendation, that comments are to be unavailable on the social media pages.
“This is because of several death threats made in the comments section. Several of them reported to the police, and that was their recommendation by the police and the city attorney, that is a good practice. There is not a First Amendment right to commenting on social media,” Clark said.
Clark confirmed that a background check policy is now in place. Background checks will be done on everybody working with minors within the library facility, including volunteers.
“It is my understanding that this was not in place in any previous administration. I am very proud to say that it is now in place with any volunteer that is working with minors,” Clark said.
Around 10 members of the public spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting, where both members in support and opposition of the Board spoke. Two individuals that spoke claimed to be a former employee of the Autauga-Prattville Public Library, and the other allegedly a former librarian in a surrounding town. Both spoke in opposition of the board, stating their actions are appalling.
Another two members stood and thanked the Board for their continued efforts in keeping the library clean and praised the Board for sticking to their principles.
The next Library Board will be held August 1st at 4:30 p.m.
