Letter to the Editor from Rachelle Ottosen, CLN Trustee
I was disappointed, but not even remotely surprised, to see an extremely slanted and inaccurate Cd’A Press article (Kaye Thornbrugh “Regional Library Consortium Will Dissolve” July 17, 2025) regarding the dissolution of the CIN library consortium and insinuation that the dissolution is the fault of the conservatives on the Community Library Network (CLN) board.
You can have a pretty good idea you’re being fed propaganda when they nearly always blame one group and fail to report the good that group does. Instead of reporting facts and letting you decide, they “report” opinion, lies, and conjecture from one side with the implication that they are fact. In other words, they act as if CLN is evil, as NIC was once painted as evil, but now that leftists have control of NIC again, it’s all sunshine and rainbows on that topic. Seems a lot more like an agenda than news reporting.
I wrote a bunch of notes to refute what Ms. Thornbrugh published in the above mentioned article, but our excellent and capable director Martin Walters put it much more succinctly in the CLN press release sent out July 22 (according to the CDA Press electronic search function, they have failed to publish that press release as of this submission on the evening of July 24). To wit: “The truth is that the dissolution of the CIN was a necessity—acknowledged by all members—because of the illegal status of the interstate joint powers agreement. The truth is that the CLN never discussed legal action against the CIN. The truth is that there was never any threat of legal harm for any member of the CIN due to the actions of another member. The truth is that CLN policies follow professional library practices, uphold Idaho laws, and guarantee parental rights. The truth is that the CLN was committed to the legitimization of a regional consortium that honored the autonomy of its members and respected the taxpayer; unfortunately, attempts to legitimize the consortium were ended by the dissolution.”
In her article, Thornbrugh stated that CLN Trustee “Ottosen declined to comment on the dissolution”. Thornbrugh was taking notes as she asked me questions. I’m not sure if this speaks to a lack in her memory or integrity, or both; but her statement is absolutely false. Thornbrugh asked me what I’d like CLN’s patrons to know about the dissolution of CIN due to CLN’s policy (protecting minors from materials so harmful that it is illegal to give to someone else’s child). I told her that was a lie, that the CIN had to dissolve after the June CIN meeting wherein the Cd’A Library announced that they had run the JPA (Joint Powers Agreement) by their attorney, who told them the CIN had never been a legal entity. Why would she fail to report that? My guess is that it’s because it doesn’t align with the “conservatives bad, leftists good” agenda.
An electronic search on the Press’s site turned up nothing, so I’m assuming the Press will also fail to report CLN’s very exciting plan, unveiled at the July 22, 2025, CLN public meeting, to make things better than ever for CLN patrons. In fairly short order, CLN can purchase books that CLN patrons had previously borrowed through CIN, by redirecting the large contribution we used to give to CIN… AND get them to the patron’s home library faster.
Leftists cry loudly and often about chaos caused by conservatives, when in fact the leftists usually created it, exaggerated it, or just plain made it up out of out of thin air. However, the sky isn’t falling, even if there is an awful lot of thin air!
