“After much communication between the city council, the mayor, the community, and the library, we all came to the conclusion that we should offer the program,” SSJCPL Deputy Director Patty Wong told American Libraries. “But we wanted to offer it in such a way that it’s responsive to the community’s needs.” In negotiating the rescheduling with the library, Slage agreed to keep the lecture informational and educational rather than a psychic consultation.
Wong said the controversy was sparked by one newspaper’s characterizing Slage’s lecture as a séance, but the library had invited the psychic to speak about her experiences in helping police in criminal investigations, a topic that had proven popular in previous lectures at the Ripon branch. Slage had spoken at the Tracy and Escalon branches in the spring and generated “only one complaint,” Wong said, and nothing came of it.
The program was discussed during a public comment session at an October 4 city council meeting at which some observers criticized Mayor Winn for bullying the library into the initial cancellation, the Modesto Bee reported October 5.
However, Wong told AL that Rencher “felt she was making the best decision possible given all of the information she had. We are talking about large numbers of people who called about this.” She added that Ripon Branch Librarian Melinda Kopp had offered to give some of the complainers “equal time in a program to offer an opposing viewpoint, but they all refused.”
Posted October 7, 2005.