Open Letter Calling for the Reform in the Structure of the Columbia County Advisory Board
As some of you may know, I am quite concerned with the recent passage of the Age-Based Guidelines for the Columbia County Libraries. In direct communication with Ms. Mary Lin Maner, she has made it clear to me that she is the one making the shelving decisions at the Library given the new guidelines, but information in open records requests seem to tell a different story. It seems that the advisory board is now directly making some of the shelving decisions at the CC Library without an open or transparent process, which is deeply troubling. Not to mention, the recent letter from Julie Walker (Georgia State Librarian) stating that the Board of Commissioners did not have the authority to establish the change in policy and if Columbia County continued to use those guidelines without it being passed at the regional level, it would put funding for the entire region at stake.
While researching this issue, I came to more closely scrutinize the structure and makeup of the Columbia County Library Advisory Board. Currently the advisory board consists of 7 voting members, and 3 officers elected from the voting membership. All of the voting members are appointed by the Columbia County Board of Commissioners and currently consist of 5 residents of Evans and 2 residents of Harlem. The current members serving on the committee are Dr. Sandra Carraway (wife of District 3 Commissioner), Lindsey Brantley (outspoken online on a number of "conservative" issues and who first promoted BookLooks), Windy Bedingfield, Tripp Calloway (works for District 3 Commissioner), Barry Paschal, Bill Speer, and Hillary Millar (husband was the largest donor to Katie Allen's campaign, whose activism on this issue is well known). My concern is that many of these appointments, especially those made in the past year or so, were made in order to further a certain “conservative” political agenda. In email traffic obtained through Open Records Requests, I can’t ascertain if all the Board of Commissioners wanted to further this agenda, but it did seem like it was a priority for Commissioner Couch. More than likely it is also a priority for Mike Carraway, given his personal relationships to members on the advisory committee.
The problem with this type of appointment structure, is that it does lead to sort of “groupthink” within the advisory board and not necessarily an objective body with the full good intentions of a public library system which is representative of the community at large. It appears that most on the advisory board seem to have similar political and religious leanings, not to mention the same racial background. It doesn’t appear that the advisory board is even made up of library volunteers, but rather are appointed as political favors. From many of the patrons and volunteers at our libraries, it’s not lost on us that the advisory board seems to just show up for meetings to seemingly empower a small group of individuals who want to attack the institution and censor books that they personally don't like. My other concern, in reviewing many documents, is that the county is walking a very tight line for a potential lawsuit. I’m not a lawyer, but the sheer anti-LGBTQ sentiment surrounding this issue is alarming. Dr. Carraway herself has a controversial past with book banning during her tenure as Columbia County School Board Superintendent, with many believing that her choice was fueled by racially motivated bias.
Upon further research, I came to the realization that neither Grovetown or Harlem city councils have any voice in the policies at their own libraries located within their own cities. No residents of Grovetown are even included in the advisory board. I began researching how other local counties structure their advisory boards. I came across Burke County which has appointments from their local cities, as well as their school board. This makes logical sense to me, as it gives representation for those city councils. The school board is also an important voice in this conversation as our public libraries are instrumental in supplementing and promoting the literacy goals of our community’s public schools. Also, since much of the controversy is surrounding books located in the children and teen sections of the library, it would make sense to ask someone with knowledge of the current curriculum demands of our schools their opinion. I think it could also help with coordinating various programming elements at the public library.
The way the current appointments are made with the CC library advisory board, has further inflamed divisions within our community rather than working together to find a path forward. I truly believe that making fundamental changes to how the advisory board is appointed, will help to heal these divisions by giving more community stakeholders a seat at the table. I find it hard to believe that the CC Board of Commissioners, as a whole, wants to be so consumed with culture war issues. Of course, I could be completely wrong on that front. Changing the structure would also give the Board of Commissioners some political cover in these issues because, as it sits right now, the commissioners own every controversial action by the advisory board because they are responsible for all of their appointments.
I propose the following change to the structure of the advisory committee:
1 member appointed by the Grovetown City Council,
1 member appointed by the Harlem City Council,
1 Member appointed by the Columbia County School District Board of Education
4 Members appointed by the Columbia County Board of Commissioners, 1 representing each district.
Respectfully,
Karin Parham