The Fairhope City Council voted Monday night to approve Gustavo Douaihi as the newest member of the Fairhope Public Library Board.
The library remains unfunded by the Alabama Public Library Service for its refusal to move books the local board found to be appropriately shelved. The APLS board found at least some of the books to be “sexually explicit” under the state agency’s definition.
Douaihi has been a vocal advocate of the library during this fight, speaking at multiple meetings to support the board’s decision to keep most of the challenged books in place. Born and raised in Venezuela, Douaihi shared concerns last January that America is falling into similar patterns that he saw as a boy.
“In 1998, an authoritarian, socialist government took power in Venezuela; a power that they hold to this day,” Douaihi said then during a public comment period. “In Venezuela, they stripped every freedom we take for granted in the U.S. … In a free society, there must be a free exchange of ideas. So you might imagine that after escaping that authoritarian socialist government and moving to the Land of the Free I am deeply saddened to see fellow residents of Fairhope advocate for censorship by using the exact same rhetoric and tactics of the country where I was born.”
Douaihi has been a naturalized U.S. citizen for more than six years.
Josh Gammon, a new councilmember whose campaign was backed by residents critical of the library board, was the only council member not to vote in favor of Douaihi. Gammon abstained from the vote, explaining that he asked the library board to explain its process and why it chose Douaihi out of 10 candidates and did not receive a prompt response.
“Gustavo, you may be the perfect angel pick for all I know, but I require more information to make an intentional vote,” Gammon said. “I want to understand who I’m voting for. And what I’d say makes the library board different from other boards that we very quickly appoint is that there was obviously considerable [chuckle] problems, or different things that have come up in the past with the library board that have made national headlines and made city news, and has been a source of discussion for month and months on end … In my opinion, we want to make sure that somebody being appointed to the board is matching the opinions of the council, or at a minimum, the opinions of the city. When you have a strongly contentious area I think it warrants a little more scrutiny of the council.”
Councilman Jack Burrell said that while he does not have knowledge of how the interviews went, he does have familiarity with Douaihi from his many appearances before the council on the library issue.
“So for me, I’m familiar with him and how eloquent he speaks and how educated he strikes me as being; and that’s why I’m personally comfortable,” Burrell said. “I don’t feel like I’m voting based on the recommendation of the library board so much as I am familiar with this gentleman.”
“I know that when here was some kind controversy in the library, he’s the only person who read every single book on the list,” said Councilman Jimmy Conyers. “And when he came before the library, he said ‘You know a couple of these may need to be moved, a couple don’t even need to be in here.’ He didn’t come in with a pre-conceived notion, I took him to be very fair-minded.”
