SEND AN EMAIL: Amend HB89 in Alabama- A Poorly Written Grab for Power Over Libraries
There are serious problems with HB 89: denial of residents voting rights, imprecise terminology and major contradictions between Section 9 and the rest of Act 88-258.
In 1988, Shelby County residents voted to establish a library district, which created the North Shelby Library (NSL) enabling act (Act 88-258). The voters established three important things through that election:
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District residents directly fund North Shelby Library through library dues, and not indirectly by a local government body through sales, property, or other taxes.
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District residents have the right to appoint their library board members through special elections, as detailed in Sections 4, 5 & 6.
- MOST IMPORTANTLY - District residents have the right to vote to change the method of selecting board members, if they so choose.
Through their haphazard gutting of Act 88-258’s Section 9, Rep. Arnold Mooney, Susan Dubose and Jim Carns propose changes to the library board selection method. As written, library board elections would still occur with only 3-5 state legislators permitted to vote. The Delegation does not fund NSL and some of them don’t even live in the library district.
HB 89 needs to be amended immediately. If not, its passage will likely cause serious financial and legal ramifications by politicizing the board and removing many years of institutional knowledge and library experience represented by the current board members. This will create major divisions in the entire Shelby County community.