“This change will help ensure that our wonderful library system is managed professionally, managed well and using precious tax dollars as efficiently as possible,” Ragsdale said. “We will still have a library board of trustees, chosen as they are now. But their role will be more advisory.”
Most of the commissioners have signed on to the proposal, but library trustee Millie McBride said that, although she likes and respects Ragsdale, a less able county executive might subject the library to political whims.
Ragsdale told the News-Sentinel that his proposal was not the result of a months-long search for a new library director, now narrowed down to seven candidates. Controversial Interim Director Charles Davenport, who took over in August after serving as president of the library board for 15 years, was not a finalist.
Posted April 28, 2003.