Two trustees of the Cook Memorial Public Library in Libertyville, Illinois, are disputing the board’s ethics policy, calling it a gag order. Jack L. Martin and Tom Forester, who unsuccessfully voted against renewing the policy January 20, claim the document could serve to penalize trustees who disagree with board decisions. “It’s a tyranny of the majority,” Forester said in the January 24 Libertyville Daily Herald. “A library is supposed to stand for free speech. This denigrates it.”
The three-page policy, enacted in 1998 and renewable every two years, spells out rules for trustee behavior. Forester disagrees with language that requires board members to abide by majority decisions if they disagree with them. Martin, who was censured by the board in September 2003 for removing copies of a newspaper with a controversial cover, objects to wording that singles out the library’s collection development policy as one for trustees to uphold.
Board President Ed Abderholden denied that the policy suppresses anyone’s rights. “Nowhere in this resolution does it limit trustees’ right to free speech,” he said. “It is the hope of the ethics statement that all trustees will act with civility to fellow trustees and respect the board’s decisions.”
Forester and Martin were also the only board members voting against the latter’s censure, which occurred at a contentious meeting attended by about 100 visitors. The minutes for that meeting have been delayed, according to the January 22 Daily Herald, because of Forester’s insistence on adding some clarifications to the official record. Abderholden has been reviewing the comments, and the board is expected to vote on the minutes at its February 3 meeting.
Posted January 30, 2004.