Five of the board’s seven members are nominated by Grand Forks’ mayor and approved by its city council, and council members on Monday unanimously OK'd three nominees Bochenski put forward for three up-for-grabs board seats: Chilly Goodman, an administrator for the North Dakota Chiropractic Association and volunteer about town, Sarah Schindler, the director of HOPEful Beginnings Preschool and Childcare Center, and Brad Sherwood, a music teacher at Grand Forks Public Schools.
They’ll replace Fred Remer, a professor at UND, Ted Sandberg, a lawyer, and Katie Darling, an accountant at Alerus bank.
Remer, who’s nearing retirement and said he didn’t want to be tied to another term, didn’t ask to be reappointed. Sandberg and Darling both threw their hats into the figurative ring but weren’t nominated by Bochenski, who said in emails provided to the Herald that he was “disappointed” in the board’s decision in September to only slightly reopen and was “heartbroken” for people who use the library. His family frequently uses the library.
The mayor did not return a Herald request for comment on Wednesday, but Sandberg and Darling both said they didn’t suspect they were passed over because of that reopening decision.
“I think, like any incoming manager or boss of a business, he wants to put his mark on things and usher in his new era as mayor,” Darling told the Herald. “I don't think you can draw a fair comparison to be able to say that, because I did not open the library, he got rid of me on the board.”
The library, which is officially called "Grand Forks Public_" (with the underscore intended) after a 2019 rebrand, closed to the public at the beginning of the pandemic last spring. Staff there, some of whom are particularly vulnerable to the virus, moved some programming online and began offering curbside service over the summer, pausing it occasionally when one of them tested positive for COVID-19 or was considered a close contact of someone who had. That status quo stayed in place until September, when board members voted 5-1 to start allowing handfuls of people to visit the library in-person, assuming they scheduled an appointment beforehand.
The change, in effect, put the library somewhere between the first and second phases of a reopening plan it put in place in March. Board members generally agreed at a meeting in late October, when cases in Grand Forks County were beginning to spike a third time, to maintain that arrangement.
Sandberg said he didn’t feel Bochenski was upset by the board’s conservative reopening plan when the mayor interviewed him for another term.
“Katie and I were the two people who were probably pushing harder for a broader reopening sooner,” Sandberg said. “That's why I don't think that that really has much to do with it. I don’t know that it could have because we were the two people pushing for a faster reopening.”
Concerns about the appointments extended beyond political misgivings: Katie Dachtler, a Grand Forks City Council member who also holds a seat on the library board, worried that replacing so many board members so quickly could make it logistically tough for those that remain, all of whom are relatively new. Another board member’s term is set to expire in March, and Dachtler and Grand Forks County liaison Diane Knauf can’t hold board leadership positions, which would mean almost entirely new faces in high places this spring. Dachtler recommended holding off on one of the appointments until March but, ultimately, voted to confirm all three alongside the rest of the council.
“After you win the election, the mayor has an authority and a duty to make certain board appointments,” Bochenski, who was voted into office by a wide margin in June, said at Monday’s council meeting. “So I think it should be no surprise, and probably expected when a new mayor comes in, that there will be some different appointments than the outgoing mayor, certainly in some areas. Without changing anything, I don’t know that there would be any point to changing the mayor.”
"board" - Google News
December 24, 2020 at 06:00AM
https://ift.tt/2Kwb0Xf
Replacements on Grand Forks library board not motivated by reopening plan, former members say - Grand Forks Herald
"board" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2KWL1EQ
https://ift.tt/2YrjQdq
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Replacements on Grand Forks library board not motivated by reopening plan, former members say - Grand Forks Herald"
Post a Comment