The culture wars raging across the country took center stage during Kootenai’s last election cycle for library trustees. Two seats on the board of trustees for the Community Library Network (CLN) were up for election last May, pitting two incumbents against two political newbies. When the dust settled, the newbies Tom Hanley and Tim Plass, enjoyed a solid win over the incumbents Judy Meyer and Regina McCrea.
To fully appreciate the intense voter engagement and election results, simply review the voter data from May 2023 with the ballot that elected Meyer and McCrea to their last 6 year term. In May 2017, only 3,902 total votes were cast in the library trustee race, with Meyer garnering 1,678 votes and McCrea 1,364 votes. Fast forward to May of 2023 where Kootenai voters came out en masse, casting 52,563 total votes in the library trustee race. Hanley earned the top slot with 14,376 votes, while Plass held second place with 13,804 votes.
The voters had decisively spoken, they wanted a significant change. The core issue that brought voters to the polls centered around the content being given to children. Parents from all walks of life were incensed to discover their community libraries were not the safe places they had been during their own childhoods. Throughout the years, children and teen material collections had seen radical shifts to include hundreds of items promoting transgenderism, LGBTQAI+, racism, drug use, Marxism, anti-police, social justice, and sexually obscene content.
Hanley and Plass campaigned on promises to clean up the minor sections of the libraries. These new trustees joined a board with at least two like-minded trustees. Rachelle Otteson and Vanessa Robinson won their elections in May of 2021 with similar campaigns focused on protecting children from harmful material.
Now the players are set in the drama that is playing out in the latest CLN board meetings. Four out of five library trustees campaigned and won on platforms promising to make policy changes that will improve the material content in the children and teen collections. The first steps are beginning to take place in this endeavor. On Thursday and Friday, the board discussed a series of topics, including ones that parents and grandparents across the county voted them into office to address.
At Friday’s meeting, the board was presented with a policy revision by Chair Rachelle Ottosen. This revision addressed a part of CLN’s material selection policy that shields librarians from complying with the Idaho statute that protects minors from obscene and harmful material, like pornography. All schools and libraries in Idaho have an exception from criminal prosecution for the distribution of material to minors that would land a private citizen or a business in serious legal trouble. Ottosen’s proposed policy revision would simply set a standard going forward that keeps CLN from knowingly distributing such material. The revised policy has been sent to CLN’s legal firm for review. It is important to note that should the revision become part of CLN’s official material selection, no staff will be in danger of any form of criminal or civil liability because state statute supercedes board policy. Although the new policy doesn’t open the doors to legal trouble, it does provide a more thoughtful material selection review process.
Next, the board discussed ending all affiliation with the American Library Association (ALA). Trustee Hanley called the ALA “an ultra liberal organization.” He believes their values, which are enshrined in documents known as Freedom to Read and Library Bill of Rights, “find it appropriate for minors to have access to anything and everything the library system has to offer, regardless of age.”
Hanley didn’t hold back in his two and a half minute statement. He brought attention to the ALA’s close work with LGBTQ groups who train library officials how to “thwart and demonize parents and public officials opposed to obscene and pornographic books for children and teenagers in public libraries.” He thinks the ALA holds a clear animosity and resentment toward the family and traditional religious values. He went on to note the newest president of the ALA has a vision to build and use a power structure within its membership to progress a host of left-wing political agendas, which include social justice, LGBTQAI+, DEI, green initiatives and globalism.
Trustee Katie Blank, who has witnessed the increasingly explicit nature of the children and teen collections during her 30 years on the board, made a lengthy statement regarding the ALA. She notes at the beginning of her comments that the ALA has “perhaps not understood where we, in more middle America, are at this point and time.” But she firmly believes the foundational pieces of the ALA are supportive and helpful for libraries to stay within the bounds of the First Amendment.
Library staff had objections to both the policy revision and the proposal to unaffiliate with the ALA. The director Alexa Eccles and the assistant director Lindsey Miller-Escarfuller took positions in opposition to the board majority. Miller-Escarfuller interrupted two trustees during Friday’s meeting, appearing hostile to any form of oversight.
Neither of the two issues were brought to a board vote. The board expects ongoing discussions and votes on these matters in the near future. The majority of the board appears to be following through on promises they made to the community during their campaigns.
