A Senate committee on Wednesday voted out a bill that would allow city and county governments to oust library board members without cause.
SB26 by State Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Josephine, is the latest version of a bill that Elliott has been bringing for years now. The bill originated as groups who took issues with the placement of certain books in Alabama libraries grew frustrated without the ability to force out library board members who refused to move or remove the books they challenged.
The latest version of the bill has some protections, with Elliott going so far as to call it a “good compromise.” While the bill does not include language requiring the appointing authority to show cause to remove a member, it would require a two-thirds vote of the body to remove a member. That language came from Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, in an amendment last year.
The committee on Wednesday amended the bill closer to Elliott’s original proposal by removing language first added by Democrats in years prior that would require library boards to report directly to the governor’s office what books had been moved or removed due to challenges.
Opponents of the bill at large said the reporting language was well-intentioned, but ultimately would be burdensome on library boards.
During a public hearing before the vote, Alabama Library Association president James Gilbreath said the bill has “great potential to politicize library board positions.”
Alyx Kim-Yohn, a librarian at the Huntsville-Madison Public Library System, told the committee that their library system has the highest service population and circulation but only the fourth highest budget. The reason given, Kim-Yohn said, is the “climate” around libraries in the state right now.
While the bill has primarily been backed by Republicans, it gained a vote from Democrat Linda Coleman-Madison on Wednesday.
“It seems like a slap in the face—‘how dare they’—but you are already under these same rules,” Coleman-Madison told the crowd. “If the city council appoints you and decides they are dissatisfied with a member, they already have the authority to replace them.”
Read Freely Alabama criticized the decision to move the bill forward, saying it would “wrest decision-making authority from local library boards and put it in the hands of politicians.”
“We encourage every Alabamian to call their state senator and ask them to kill this dangerous bill,” group leaders said in a statement. “Our libraries have experienced enough political strife already.”
The bill now advances to the full Senate for consideration.
