LETTER to the Editor

To the Editor: I would like to take the opportunity to respond to Mr. Ericksen’s statement at the last city council meeting (January 17) about library funding. He states that this is done at the state level. I give that statement about a seven out of ten for accuracy.

While it IS true that county funding of libraries is dealt with at the state level, what the state sets are MINIMUM standards for counties and county boards can, and sometimes do fund libraries at more than that minimum.

After my comments expressing my concern about Mr. Ericksen being on both the county board and library board which receives money from the county, I received an email from the clerk saying she had looked into it.

First I have to wonder why it was only looked into AFTER the fact when it should have been very obvious there could be a conflict, then I looked at the first two words from a response she received…”not necessarily.” I will say that the clerk never did tell me the exact question she asked, but based on the responses she was asking if it was a problem to have someone with roles on dual boards like this. Those two words give me the distinct impression that it should not be the norm. In addition, my statements at the city council meeting never implied that it was against any county or state regulation, but only that I didn’t think it was a good idea.

In addition to this conflict, I see another possible happening that I don’t like. If the county board does approve more funding for the library, will the city take it as an opportunity to provide less city funding? It was not long ago, when Mr. Barby was on the city council that he was stating that the library had been overfunded for years. We all know that the city needs additional money to fund some of the other projects it is undertaking.

This is the first time that the clerk has ever emailed in refer – ence to my comments where I did not email her first. I find that interesting. I will provide to anyone that asks a copy of the email in reference to those comments. I will bring a couple of copies along with me to the next city council meeting as well as the next library board meeting. If I do not bring enough copies I will make arrangements at that time.

Regards,

Lori Klonowski Cooley