LIBERTY LAKE, Wash. — Last month, a majority of Liberty Lake's city council voted to look at amending city law.
"I'm not really sure as I think about this, who we would say the library board is accountable to," councilmember Chris Cargill said during the January 17 meeting.
The move aims to answer that question by giving city council authority over the library's board of trustees.
The proposed change would give Liberty Lake's city council more oversight over the library board's decision-making. It comes down to five little words.
"To add the phrase, 'as approved by city council,'" says city administrator Mark McAvoy.
Right now, McAvoy explains, city ordinance gives council oversight over the library's budgets. The proposed amendment, which has already been drafted, would give council the final say over any changes to the library board's policies.
"We're talking about use of space, we're talking about hours, we're talking about access to certain places in the library, we're talking about collections," McAvoy says of some of the couple dozen or so policies.
He says discussions over getting council more involved in library policy started last summer.
Last May, council voted to keep the book 'Gender Queer' on the shelves after a parent complained about its graphic illustrations.
KREM 2 asked McAvoy if changing the city ordinance would give council more power to approve or ban books.
"So the policy governing collection management isn't focused on specific books or library material," he says.
Council members who called for the change say it's a way to give people more power to appeal, much as they do with decisions for other city departments. Councilmembers Phil Folyer, Chris Cargill, and Wendy Van Orman questioned why the library board isn't held to the same standard of other city departments in terms of oversight.
"It's another form of checks and balances," Folyer said during the discussion.
Mayor Cris Kaminskas, who doesn't have a vote, and other members of council questioned whether their input is even necessary.
"It's not broken, why are we trying to fix it?" the mayor asked at the meeting.
KREM 2 wasn't able to speak with any council members or members of the library board Tuesday.
The possible change will be up for another discussion, McAvoy says, sometime later this month. It hasn't yet been put on any council agenda.
"So the next step would not be to vote on a change," McAvoy says. "I think the plan for this point forward is to have at least one more workshop discussion on the proposed change. A workshop discussion is just city council talking amongst itself and getting input from various other citizens and groups in the community. Beyond that, they'd have the option to add it to another agenda for action."
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