Sherrie Peif
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April 14, 2014
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Weld commissioners and Fort Lupton school district vote to disband library board


The actions of two founding boards of the High Plains Library District sealed the fate of the organization’s current board of directors.

Weld County Commissioners passed a resolution Monday to disband the current High Plain’s board and appoint new members to finish those terms until the regularly scheduled elections for those seats.

Monday evening, the Fort Lupton Re-8 School District Board of Education unanimously followed suit and, coupled with the Ault and Fort Lupton town boards which have already voted in favor, creates the majority vote needed to dissolve the current board.

The commissioners voted 3-1 on the resolution, with Bill Garcia the dissenting vote. Doug Rademacher recused himself from the vote because his sister-in-law, Karen Rademacher, is on the High Plains board.

Before the vote, Barbara Kirkmeyer spent nearly 15 minutes talking about how frustrated she is with the current HPLD board members.

“For over a year we’ve had these discussions and they’ve done nothing,” she said. “… But when we have five of our member bodies who have had issues for years — it’s not just been a couple of months — it’s been for years with this library district, with this executive director, and with these members of the board, it is drastic that we’re going to remove board members. We don’t take that lightly. But I don’t see any other way to alleviate this.”

According to policies in place, library board members may only be unseated if a simple majority of the founding member libraries — which include the town boards of Ault, Eaton and Hudson, Greeley and Fort Lupton city councils, the Weld County Commissioners and the Fort Lupton Re-8 School District Board of Education, vote in favor of the action.

The votes Monday meet the requirement to unseat the current board from their positions. The Greeley City Council voted against the action last week.

All that is left to vote are the Hudson Town Board, which will meet Wednesday, and the Eaton Town Board, which will meet Thursday. They are also both expected to pass the resolution.

The two boards that met Monday also unanimously passed a ratification to appoint seven new members to the board that include the mayors of the respective towns and a member of the Fort Lupton school board.

Rademacher and Garcia both voted on that issue for the commissioners. The ratification takes two-thirds action by the founding member libraries. However, if a board does not choose to vote for the ratification it is considered an affirmation. It will need either Hudson or Eaton to affirm it.

The High Plains Board met Monday for a work session but did not discuss the issue. At the time, the Fort Lupton school board had not met.

President Lucile Arnusch said after the meeting that the board was waiting to see what the final three library boards did before deciding its next step.

However, a letter dated April 11 from the law firm of Otis & Peters of Greeley, representing the HPLD, threatened legal action against all entities if they did not agree to postpone voting until mediation could occur.

Supporters of the library district called the actions of the commissioners aggressive.

“HPLD has convened several meetings and workshops and has responded to all the member libraries’ stated concerns. ... In spite of this, the member libraries have instigated a hostile takeover of the HPLD Board of Trustees,” wrote Karen Rademacher, HPLD board member, in a letter to town administrators in Firestone and Erie. “... I ask you to consider the propriety of County Commissioners coordinating the hostile takeover of duly appointed boards of autonomous political subdivisions of the state over matters of disputed policy.”

The complaints come from leaders of the Ault, Fort Lupton, Eaton and Hudson boards as well as the Fort Lupton School District that charge the HPLD board is forcing them to adopt practices and regulations the district requires of its branch libraries.

The disagreements heightened last fall over the nomination process for a vacant seat on the library’s board.

Platteville and Johnstown are also member libraries and are operated in the same manner, but they have no voting rights.

All member libraries have their own boards of directors and autonomy over their budgets. The district, which also operates its own branch libraries in Greeley, Kersey, Firestone and Erie, provides information technology services, equipment and other infrastructure to all the libraries.

HPLD officials argue it is important to streamline services and equipment to use tax dollars efficiently and provide a consistent experience for all library patrons.

Arnusch said in a letter to The Tribune that the branch system stands to suffer when it comes to funding and services not deemed important by 11 percent of the library systems users, adding 89 percent of the patrons are represented by branch libraries in Greeley, Kersey, Firestone and Erie.

However, Commissioner Sean Conway said the percentage of users from branch locations is actually 70 percent, and pointed out that 74 percent of High Plains’ revenue is collected from assessed valuations of the member library communities.

“Unfortunately, the High Plains Library Trustees are not doing their job,” Conway said. “They are not listening to these municipalities. … I am really sad that we’ve reached this point. The only way I see a path forward is to bring in new trustees who will listen to the communities.”

Conway said that library patrons will not see any changes in the day-to-day operation.

Some HPLD members and supporters are concerned that a newly seated board will not have continuity while others are concerned seating only those from rural communities would skew the representation for the branch libraries.

In a letter of support of High Plains, Friends of the Kersey Library and Museum said the ratification of new members completely disregards the nomination process.

“This group has named the mayors of these other towns, as well as a Weld School District Re-8 board member to replace the other trustees without regard to the areas they live in and plan to represent,” the letter says. Commissioners have nominated Greeley Mayor Tom Norton to fill the vacant seat to give the branch libraries representation. Norton could not be reached for comment. However, he has said previously he doesn’t know if he could sit on the board.



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The Greeley Tribune Updated Apr 16, 2014 05:59AM Published Apr 17, 2014 06:20AM Copyright 2014 The Greeley Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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