The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON - The Columbia County Commissioners met for a special meeting on March 25, 2024. Chairman Jack Miller and commissioners Ryan Rundell and Marty Hall were present.

The commissioners and County Prosecutor Dale Slack discussed changes to the county's coroner services required due to amendments to RCW 36.16.030. The coroner function must be separated from prosecutors starting in 2024. The commissioners decided not to turn the position into an elected office, choosing to appoint or contract services.

Next, the commissioners began scheduled interviews for the Columbia County Rural Library District Board Trustee position held by Karin Spann, who completed her first five-year term.

Trustees can serve two five-year terms, and Spann was one of eight Columbia County residents who applied for the position.

Candidates were given a list of 19 questions from the commissioners before the meeting. After asking each candidate about their background and reason for applying, subsequent questions included censorship, book banning, the recent petition to dissolve the district, and steps to repair the chasm formed in the community over controversies stemming from library issues were covered in the questionnaire.

After hearing from all the candidates over the day's session, commissioners voted to appoint Dale Walling.

Walling is a retired firefighter and EMT who moved to Dayton with his wife after retiring. He said he had experience working in a junior taxing district and on other boards, including his union's executive board.

In his written and oral answers, he said library trustees should identify and consider the majority public opinion on issues including library materials, subject matter, and funding.

When asked what steps he would take to restore community fellowship, he said he would like to bring people together for civil discussions, saying the recent Civility Café was a perfect example.

Walling said he was not in favor of dissolving the library district. Though he had signed the first petition, he would not have voted to close the library. He felt the petition was the only way to get the trustees' attention.

Walling provided The Times with the following copy of his written answers to the commissioners' interview questions.

Questions from Columbia County Commissioners to Library Trustee applicants

Question 1: Please tell us about yourself and why you applied to the board.

Answer: I am a 61-year-old retired FF/EMT, married 40 years in June. My wife is a substitute teacher, and my two adult sons are a Sheriff Deputy and Captain in the Fire Dept.

Both grew up in small, rural towns in CO. Lived on the west side for 16 years. Moved to Ellensburg when the boys were in 1st & 2nd grade.

I moved here upon retirement to be closer to the boys, the Blues, and small-town life.

Applied: I would like to see reasonable discussion and compromise on the issues the library has been facing. I have experience working for a Junior Taxing District for 29 years. I was responsible for purchasing and maintaining all of our portable and mobile radios along with dispatch pagers. I submitted a budget request annually and was responsible for maintaining my budget area. I understand funding of a JTD, the $5.90 restriction, and the levels of funding priorities established by the state.

Question 2: Please tell us about any civic organizations or committees that you have been a part of where you have had to work with others to achieve goals. How did you contribute to the group?

Answer: I was a board member of our church intermittently for 13 years. We re-wrote by-laws to establish term limits to avoid….

On that board, I was Treasurer, Chairman of the Finance Committee, and Chairman of the pulpit committee. We developed a policy manual, created a line item budget, and updated our constitution and by-laws.

I also was a union officer for 11 years, serving 2 as president, 2 as vice-president, and 7 on the executive board.

Question 3: What responsibility does the Columbia Rural Library District Board of Trustees have toward the taxpayers of the district in regard to public opinion about materials, subject matters, funding, etc.?

Answer: It’s their responsibility to determine what the majority public opinion is on those matters and use that information to guide their decisions. Their responsibility is to represent the taxpayers, not their own personal agenda.

Question 4: Do you believe that a taxpayer funded entity should be involved in reshaping the culture in some fashion?

Answer: No, I don’t. The library collection should reflect the culture and values of the community, but not try to re-shape it.

Question 5: What are your views on how much non-board opinions should influence the decisions of the board, whether it be from constituents, local media, national media, and state or national library associations?

Answer: I believe the views of the constituents should absolutely influence the decisions, but not the media or state/national library associations. We should maintain our own identity.

Question 6: Please tell us what censorship and /or book banning means to you.

Answer: Censorship is the suppression or prohibition of any parts of a book, film, news, etc., that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security.

Book Banning is the practice of prohibiting or restricting the reading of certain books by the general public.

Question 7: Please define pornography. Should pornographic material be found in the local library?

Answer: Pornography is the depiction of erotic behavior intended to cause sexual excitement. The questions to answer regarding the current controversy are: is it sexual or educational? If it’s educational, is it obscene, and is it age appropriate?

No, pornography should not be in our library.

Question 8: Should a library board take the author’s intended audience into account when placing a book? For example: if the author says this is a teen book, must we place it in that section?

Answer: The Library Board should consider the author’s intended audience and the book should be evaluated with that in mind, but the standards of the community you are representing should also be considered.

Question 9: Please talk about how the issue of free speech applies to the current controversy regarding the placement of books.

Answer: People are free to write/publish whatever they choose. We are free to determine if it’s appropriate or necessary to add to our collection and where to place it. If we choose not to purchase it, it will be available through the intra-library loan program.

Question 10: A child is defined as anyone under 18 yo. There’s a big difference between a 6 yo and a 16 yo.

Answer: My answer does apply, but my personal opinion is that we don’t need to have those books available to children through elementary age. I’m open to hearing opinions from the other side, but that’s my initial feeling.

Question 11: Is it censorship to move sexually descriptive material to a high shelf so young children cannot easily see it?

Answer: No, it’s not censorship. Those books are still available in their entirety.

Question 12: If the library does not carry a controversial book, has the library banned said book?

Answer: No. There are hundreds of thousands of books out there, probably more. We can’t possibly carry every book in print. Just because we don’t carry one does not mean we’ve banned it. It’s still available through the intra library loan program, just like any other book we don’t carry.

Question 13: If the library places a political book in a prominent display case, must they also display one of a differing opinion? Why or why not?

Answer: I would rather see a prominent display case avoid politics. We aren’t supposed to be a political entity. That’s why the state has county commissioners appoint the library board rather than have them elected.

If it does display political books, I suppose it should display differing opinions to remain neutral.

Keep in mind that not everything that someone disagrees with is political in nature. Just because a political party leans a certain direction for an issue does not automatically make it a political issue.

Question 14: Should a library maintain neutrality in political, social, or cultural controversies? Please explain your views.

Answer: Yes, the library should maintain neutrality. The mission should be to provide materials for education, research, history and reading. I don’t believe they should take a position on anything political, social, or cultural.

Provide the materials and resources.

Question 15: Do you see a need to dissolve the library district for any reason?

Answer: Absolutely not. I did sign the original petition. Anyone who signed it has been labeled as wanting the library closed. My motivation was to get the Board’s attention. I would not have voted to dissolve the district. This should have been an easy problem to resolve. I was hoping that, with signatures on a petition, the board would bend a little and make some changes. There was a flaw in the petition process that left out the city voters. That needed to be fixed and the governor is signing the bill today that fixes it.

Question 16: How would you make the district more valued to the citizens who think it should be dissolved?

Answer: I would listen to their concerns and try to address them collaboratively.

The new director has created a young adult section upstairs, she put partitions between the children’s section and the teen(?) section. She moved the parenting books that are downstairs for parents to access while watching their children to the upper shelves of a taller bookcase. I applaud her for making these changes.

We also need to communicate the other services the library provides that would not be available in Dayton otherwise, such as copying, faxing, internet access, and internet hot spots.

Question 17: What value does a library add to a rural community?

Answer: A good library results in a more educated community. A more educated community results in a better community for all.

Question 18: What steps do you see that could be taken to restore fellowship, or repair the chasm that has formed in our community?

Answer: Getting people in a room together to have a civil discussion. The Civility Cafe was a perfect example of that. I hope we have more of those.

Question 19: What is your opinion about the recent controversy regarding materials in or near the children’s section at the library, petitions to dissolve the library, district budgets, etc.?

Answer: Materials in or near the young children’s section should be age appropriate. I shouldn’t have to walk my child past a display of age inappropriate material to get to the children’s section.

I didn’t feel the original request to move some books was unreasonable.

The Civility Cafe showed that the public wants young children protected from certain materials. “We don’t want to ban books, but we need to protect our children.”

The petition was a result of refusal to do what has now been started by the new director. There hasn’t been an uproar about it. This could have easily been avoided.

There’s also a perception that the library has an extravagant budget for the size of our community. Our library offers a lot of services other than books and internet access. I don’t know how many of those services are paid for by the Friends of the Library vs. coming from the general budget. I would need to look at that before coming to any conclusions.

I would like to see a community survey if the budget allows to get input on content, services, and budget. If it’s not in the budget, I would like to see more Civility Cafes to get that input. I would use that to help determine the direction going forward.