The Lafayette Parish Library board's plans to appoint an interim director Wednesday didn't go quite as planned.
Director Teresa Elberson retired suddenly Jan. 29, days after the board voted 5-2 to reject a Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities grant, part of its "Who Gets to Vote?" series, with some board members saying the two moderators represented far left views on voting rights without a speaker to represent the right.
Wednesday's special meeting was called to appoint an interim library director. Instead, the board appointed a reluctant Larry Angelle, library operations manager, to serve as "provisional" director for 11 days. That should give the board time to accept resumes from current staff and appoint an interim director to serve for up to six months while a search is conducted for a permanent replacement.
Clashes between some board members and the former library director in part over micromanagement, along with media reports and public outrage over the board canceling the voting rights history discussion, hung over the discussion about replacing Elberson.
Board President Doug Palombo said Angelle was well qualified for the temporary assignment because he knows the workings of the library system and the dynamics involved.
"What do you need me to do? I want to clearly understand this right now, before I accept this," Angelle said, adding he wanted to know of any limitations. "I want to understand what I’m getting into based on the environment right now. I’m sure you all understand what I’m saying.”
Angelle agreed to take on the job for 11 days with a 25% pay increase “just so the library can operate. At the moment we can’t do anything. No one can sign anything," he said. "People are starting to ask a lot of questions" and vendors may soon call requesting payments.
Also on Wednesday, the first meeting since the board rejected the LEH grant and set off a firestorm of public reaction, Palombo again blamed the board's decision on Elberson for not securing a right-leaning speaker.
"We asked for a fair, even-sided presentation from either side" he said, and asked Elberson to secure a conservative speaker. "To me, if anybody’s at fault, it’s her."
Residents and another board member Wednesday chastised Palombo for attacking Elberson without giving her the opportunity to defend herself. Some asked for the resignations of the five board members who voted to reject the grant.
Palombo and board member Landon Boudreaux said Wednesday they weren't suggesting discussion facilitators had to represent both ends of the political spectrum about voting history, but on more current voter topics such as the electoral college, voter ID laws, purging voter roles and the ability of felons to vote,, which are controversial, political topics.
Jamal Taylor, a former library board member and Lafayette activist, accused some board members of pandering to a certain group of politicians and taking action that was racist and bigoted.
The board "made a mockery of a lady who gave her life to the library," he said, speaking of Elberson, a 38-year library employee. During his tenure on the board, Taylor said, the librarian was in charge of programming and the board never voted on grants.
The library's own programming policy gives "ultimate responsibility for programming" to the library director, citizen Jeremy Montes said.
According to the library's programming policy, sponsorship of a program "does not constitute an endorsement of the content of the program or the views expressed by the participants. Program topics, speakers, and resources are not excluded from programs because of possible controversy."
Montes asked why the board violated its own programming policy. When Montes said he got the policy off the library's website, Palombo said he didn't know it was posted there.
The American Library Association and United for Libraries wrote to the library board asking them to reconsider rejecting the grant.
"There should be no limiting qualifiers on programming or resources based on a speaker’s background, and there is no justification for the exclusion of programming deemed to be unpopular or offensive by some in the community, no matter how vocal or influential," the wrote.
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