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JCPL board gives thumbs-up to public comments Nov. 18

November 04, 2009|Jonathan Kleppinger

In a special-called meeting of the Jessamine County Public Library Board of Trustees Wednesday morning, the group voted to allow public comments during its regular meeting on Nov. 18. More than 50 members of the public attended the board's October meeting in apparent protest of controversial illustrated novels in the library, but they were not allowed to address the board, in accordance with its long-standing policy that public comments must go through the executive director.

The board laid out some temporary guidelines for public comments at the November meeting, and board President Billie Goodwill said the board needs to establish a permanent set of guidelines.

Members of the public who wish to speak at the Nov. 18 meeting will have to sign up on a "speaker list" prior to the meeting.

On the list, they will have to record their names, addresses and topics of their comments, as well as designating whether or not they hold a JCPL library card.

The list will be available for sign-up Thursday morning until 3:15 p.m. on Nov. 18 — 15 minutes before the board meeting. In addition to signing up on the list, speakers will have to sign in at the meeting as present.

The board decided to allot one hour of time for public comments at the November meeting and to divide that time equally by the number of registered speakers. Individual speakers will have no more than 15 minutes unless the board president grants an extension.

Priority will be given to speakers who are residents of Jessamine County or hold a JCPL library card.

Board Vice President Dwight Hitch made the motion to adopt the guidelines, and Secretary Terry Morgan seconded it.

The motion passed unanimously.

Goodwill also addressed concerns from library patrons about children's access to controversial material in the library.

She said she met with JCPL Executive Director Ron Critchfield and the library's senior staff about the matter and determined that the library already has guidelines in place for parents to monitor their children's use of the library but that the primary concern is education — that parents might not know what kind of material their children have access to in the library.

Drafts of fliers to inform parents about the library's policies on the issue were distributed to the board, and Goodwill said the library staff had discussed multiple ways to distribute the material to library patrons.

The next scheduled board meeting is Nov. 18 at 3:30 p.m. in the JCPL's Meeting Room B.

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