At about 2 a.m. Wednesday morning, December 11, after nearly 5 1/2 hours of Public Hearing comments during which what this reporter counted as 100 of 116 citizens speaking or having letters against approval of an enabling code change to alter managerial oversight of Samuels Public Library read into the meeting record, the Warren County Board of Supervisors voted by the anticipated 4-1 margin, Chairman Cheryl Cullers dissenting, to approve the necessary code change to facilitate the managerial oversight shift.
But following the closing of the public hearing at 1:25 a.m. and prior to that vote leading to adjournment of the meeting at 2:07 a.m. the code change-supporting majority of supervisors prefaced their votes with discussion of their perspective on what was on the table before them. It soon became apparent to many present that the 4-1 board majority in favor of creation of the new municipally-controlled Warren County Library Board would hold despite the slightly over 6-1 Public Hearing margin against its approval, at least until its benefits have been verified by joint, objective communications and analysis.
Chairman Cullers was the ‘odd-supervisor-out’ as she repeatedly told her colleagues ‘I don’t see how we can do it any cheaper.’ Below, citizens line up around 5 p.m. to sign up to speak at the library board public hearing that began just before 8 p.m. Royal Examiner Photos Roger Bianchini
That perception by the large majority of Samuels Public Library supporters present in the packed Warren County Government Center main meeting room was fueled by a series of supervisor comments that the new library board appointed by the supervisors was municipal financial and oversite business as usual. However, as illustrated in comments by Samuels Library Board of Trustee members and management staff, there appear to be unresolved potential lost funding and managerial implications that could explode the cost of continuing public library operations here rather than reduce it.
And with the supervisors’ pattern of non-communications with Samuels Library officials throughout this reorganizational initiative, as many present commented Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, if this is not a railroading effort to seize operational and financial control of library operations, why not simply delay action with the tabling of a vote to allow face-to-face meetings and joint mediation efforts to verify what those financial and operational impacts will be?
However, as was recounted to us by County Administrator Ed Daley Wednesday afternoon, County Board Chairman Cheryl Cullers initial motion to table a vote was met by silence, not even receiving a second to allow a vote to be taken. Fork District Supervisor Vicky Cook, co-sponsor of the recommended change with Finance Subcommittee colleague Richard Jamieson, then made the motion to approve the enabling code change, seconded by Jamieson, which then passed by a 4-1 vote, Cullers dissenting while John Santmeyers and “Jay” Butler joined the majority as expected.
Four of the WC Board of Supervisors flanking Chairman Cullers, center, saw no reason to slow a march toward potential supervisor control of library operations through proxy appointees despite myriad questions and their ongoing failure to include Samuels Trustees and management staff in discussion of development of their proposal. ‘Secret agenda,’ some asked of the refusal to get ahead of financial and legal variables before moving forward.
A ‘visible ‘minority’ vs. an ‘invisible majority’
An early clue as to how the vote would go came during board discussion of what they had heard during nearly five-and-a-half hours of public hearing beginning just prior to 8 p.m. Opening the board discussion, Vice-Chairman Butler noted that over the past week, he had been in contact with citizens offering perspectives on the proposed changes to the management oversite structure of, not only Virginia’s current Library of the Year, but the second oldest chartered public library entity in the commonwealth dating to 1799, 225 years ago.
“Let me start off with the feedback that I’ve received indicates that there are more constituents in the county who support the establishment of the Warren County Library Board than those present in this room who are against it. So, I know that we have a lot of people coming in and talking about that. But I just want to make that clear,” Butler concluded of his starting observation. It was an observation made without elaboration on how he had verified that “silent majority” outnumbered not only those library supporters present for Tuesday’s public hearing but those throughout the community who may also support the library without the means or inclination to communicate that support directly to Mr. Butler. Had he heard directly from hundreds of pro-new municipally appointed library board supporters? We don’t know.
Best behavior now, Sheriff Crystal Cline may have been reminding an unusually large County Board meeting crowd before its 7 p.m. convening. But the fireworks, verbal at least, didn’t begin till about 8 p.m. when the new library board public hearing was reached. That public hearing ended at 1:25 a.m. as the board began its discussion of what it heard, or didn’t hear, from 100 of 116 speakers pleading for denial or at least a delay to allow verifiable, mediated answers to multiple operational impact questions to be determined.
So, those 100 of 116 people present who addressed the board in support of the Samuels Library structure and operational oversight and accountability, as well as those present in support of them, may have suddenly realized that from the vice-chairman’s perspective they were the vocal minority, while those not present nor IDed, were from his perspective the “silent majority”.
Uh oh, one swing vote toward tabling down. And more were to quickly follow from supervisors Cook, Stanmeyer, and Jamieson. In fact, when Jamieson was asked for comment, he sought graphic projection assistance from the IT crew present to add to his comments. In the wake of Jamieson’s 39-minute, prepared, graphic-assisted December 3rd work session response to a Letter to the Royal Examiner editor, at 1:45 a.m. Wednesday morning indications of a repeat performance was a signal to many library supporters that it was time to head home for a good morning’s sleep.
Supervisors Finance Subcommittee members Richard Jamieson and Vicky Cook took the lead in pushing forward their committee report on why a new, supervisors-appointed municipal library board is necessary ASAP. Below is a shot of the meeting room just prior to the 7 p.m. convening of the meeting, and further below, the remnants of that crowd around 1:45 a.m. following a mass exodus of library officials and supporters as Dr. Jamieson began his graphics-assisted comments in support of the proposal with the writing already on the wall that it would be approved 4-1.
Many keep the Samuels Library 501-C3 15-member Board of Trustee oversight system in place speakers said they perceived the current rush to impose a system never presented to library officials directly for review and comment as a veiled continuation of last year’s book-banning effort by the so-called Clean Up Samuels group targeting LGBTQ-referencing material.
It was observed by several pro-leave the library as it is speakers that all four of the new board arrangement-supporting supervisors had been involved in support of the 2023 book recall effort either directly or indirectly. That the “Clean Up Samuels” contingent was at least partially self-identified as Catholic by some involved also came into play in the debate. As previously reported, Jamieson has alleged anti-Catholic bias in some criticism of his efforts on behalf of the library management realignment.
As to at least one pro-new library oversight board speaker’s contention of an anti-Catholic aspect to the pro-library as it is currently managed supporters, it might be noted that several keep Samuels Public Library as it is currently managed supporters self-identified as St. John’s the Baptist Catholic Church congregation members. And one speaker noted potentially life-saving assistance to a child with a self-generated alternate sexual identity perspective who had been aggressively bullied, from support from the type of books the Clean Up Samuels contingent had tried to have removed last year.
Due to the length of Tuesday’s 7 p.m. convened meeting, the County noted a delayed posting of the meeting video anticipated: WC Facebook post from Wednesday morning: “Due to the number of speakers and extended length of tonight’s Board of Supervisors Meeting, the video recording may be delayed as the County’s vendor works to process the video file. We expect to have the video available on the Warren County website late Thursday or early Friday. – Thank you for your patience.”
The County video will be LINKED to this story when it becomes available. A follow-up to this story with additional information as it becomes available in the coming days is also anticipated.