Jackson County Commissioners peppered Fontana Regional Library board members with questions but took no vote about leaving the regional system during a special joint meeting on Thursday.
Fontana Regional Library Board Acting Chair Cynthia Womble told BPR before the meeting that she had not received any questions or concerns from the county commissioners in previous months – despite the fact the commissioners have publicly debated whether to break away from the three-county library system.
During the meeting, commissioners asked Womble and others questions about the library’s collections policy, organizational structure and budget. The Fontana Regional Library System includes six libraries in Macon, Jackson and Swain counties.
The meeting kicked off with Jackson County Commission Chairman Mark Letson saying that the meeting would not have public comment based on the county’s policy around non-voting work sessions – despite the fact that the library systems regional agreement requires public comment at all library board meetings.
“I know there was some confusion and some individuals wanted to have public comment, that’s why we don’t have public comment,” Letson said. “...We’re not taking questions tonight. We are trying to get information, and that’s the purpose of the meeting.”
The meeting was tense at times as Womble referred the commissioners to read these policies on the library website and noted that neither she nor the rest of the library board had been sent any specific items to prepare for the meeting.
“I've not had any feedback specific to the Fontana Regional Library from any county commissioners of any of our three counties,” Womble said. “I've not had a single phone call, email, text, memo, or letter addressing any concerns or issues related to Fontana Regional Library.”
After questions about the board’s structure, Womble explained that seven board members out of nine will be new this year. These board members are appointed directly by each county commission. This includes three new board members from Jackson County: Lori Richards, Marva Jennings and Deborah Smith.
“I'd ask you to look at these board members that you appointed from Jackson County. And if you really think they're not doing their jobs, then I would say maybe you need to replace them,” Womble said. “But that would seem silly since you just appointed them. I mean what I'd say is give us a chance.”
Near the end of the over three-hour meeting, Jackson County Commissioners Todd Bryson and Michael Jennings suggested the board – along with Fontana Regional Library Director Tracy Fitzmaurice – to review images from “It’s Perfectly Normal,” a children’s sex education book which has been brought up at previous county commission meetings.
Fitzmaurice explained that the first edition of the book was added to the library in about 1994. The current edition was added in 2014.
Two years ago, a citizen filed a complaint about “It’s Perfectly Normal,” which library board members formally reviewed. Members ultimately decided the book could stay in the children’s section of the library.
Womble said library board members would review the book – and its availability in children’s sections again – under the system’s formal process, if a complaint was re-filed. There is a three-year time limit for a book to be challenged again.
Fitzmaurice said the library system (like others nationwide) would likely draw litigation if it began censoring or moving books or library material without following its own rules pertaining to complaints and board review.
Fitzmaurice also explained that books are reviewed using the Miller Test, established under a Supreme Court ruling, that requires the full book to be considered to determine if material is considered obscene or if it should be protected by the First Amendment as free speech.
Commissioner Jenny Lynn Hooper quipped that a person could be judged by a single action, so why can’t a book be judged by a few pages?
“That's almost like saying it's illegal to judge a person by one act they did and committed murder,” Hooper said.
Bryson continued to ask about the book.
“I'm elected by Jackson County, by the majority of Jackson County. So I will ask about the book, so you're not going to stop me,” he said.
“I'm not going to stop you from asking, but I will ask you to please fill out one of the forms. So that we can properly address the book,” Womble said, and was interrupted by clapping from the audience. “We are an appointed board that's been delegated an authority and a responsibility. As we are fiduciarily responsible and have to have insurance just like you.”
Bryson and Jennings asked for the pages of the book to be shared during the meeting to “share community concerns” with an understanding that no action would be taken.
Letson, however, said that he was not aware that there was a plan to share the images and hadn’t included this option as part of the groundwork for the meeting.
“I almost feel like we should adjourn this meeting without those images and then come back to it at a later time,” Letson said.
FRL Board members from Jackson County Lori Richards and Deborah Smith both spoke up to say that the images should be shared.
Ultimately, the images were not shared.
Budget, safety and collection development policy questioned
Commissioners also questioned how books are purchased to be put into the library. Womble directed commissioners to the library system’s collection development policy.
Commissioners asked if it would be possible to review new books that were coming into the library.
Fitzmaurice explained that there are as many as 30-40 new books brought into the library each week. Those purchases are supervised by the adult and children’s librarian supervisors. Since January, the library system has purchased about 4,700 new books.
Womble explained that with the new board, there was a need to look at all library policies.
“What I'm hearing is that you have concerns about our collection development policy and you would like us to relook at that and I've already stated that we are looking at all of our policies to see whether or not they need to be changed because we've had a huge turnover in our board composition of the people who've been appointed by each of the three counties to serve on this board and provide the services to our counties,” she said.
During the meeting, Womble also explained that each of the counties in the FRL system has a separate budget - meaning that the funds paid in by each county go to its individual library. The library system does purchase some items in bulk and pays for those by percentage accordingly. State funding pays for the Fontana Regional System’s shared management expenses and some library fees are also factored in.
Womble said that this was something that the board would work to clarify more in the future.
Fitzmaurice answered questions about safety at the library by explaining the library’s safe child policy, which requires children under 12 to be supervised in the library.
She also mentioned that sex offenders aren’t allowed in the library.
“We keep a very close watch, and if anyone is acting in a way that we deem concerning, we immediately report it,” Fitzmaurice said. “We have books in the library that represent our entire community. Everyone in the community has to be represented in our library. As far as the safety of the children, I would put my trust in any of those employees to watch over those children carefully.”
The Parent’s Bill of Rights
The Parent’s Bill of Rights, a North Carolina law passed in 2023 – that has been compared to Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill – was brought up multiple times during the meeting. The legislation survived former N.C Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto, with legislators voting along party lines – Republicans for, Democrats against.
The bill extends parents' rights to information about medical and educational information in schools.
“The parents' bill of rights lays out what schools mostly must do to allow parents to have information about their kids,” said Chris Cooper, an expert in North Carolina politics and Madison Distinguished Professor at Western Carolina University .
“It includes a lot of provisions, but the central point is parents [need] to be able to know what's happening with their kids medically, know what's happening with their kids intellectually, know what's happening with their kids in terms of mental health.”
During Thursday’s meeting, Jackson County commissioners asked the library board if the Parent’s Bill of Rights applied at the local library as well. Both mentioned a letter from Sen. Kevin Corbin to FRL Board Member Lori Richards that clarified that library information pertaining to partnerships with the local school would fall under the bill.
Womble explained that the student access program still exists at the state level and that individual school districts are choosing to participate or not.
Cooper explained that libraries outside of schools are not part of the Parent’s Bill of Rights.
“If you read the bill, what you'll find is the word library is actually only mentioned one time, and it is in terms of a school library, right? It doesn't say anything about general public libraries. So, it's about school libraries and libraries connected to school functions,” he said.
During the meeting, Womble explained that earlier this year, Jackson County Schools ended its Student Access Initiative partnership with the library, which allowed students to check out books with their student ID.
“The reason was because it was going to be so hard to follow this parents' bill of rights. It was going to be so hard to kind of show parents exactly who checked out what and because public libraries are not mentioned anywhere and the parents' bill of rights,” Cooper said. “I think the idea was, hey look, one way to deal with this problem that we have is just to get rid of the student access program. It doesn't mean that a student can't come in the library, of course, but it does mean that they don't have this partnership with the public schools in a formal sense anymore.”
Womble said during Thursday night’s meeting that Swain County School has also opted out of the program and that Macon County had not responded about the policy yet.
Overall, Cooper says this bill has been passed in many other states and shows how state politics have become more nationalized in recent years.
“We see the same kinds of bills get introduced in lots of places. And I think we're also seeing similar battles over libraries across the country and across the state and even in Western North Carolina,” Cooper said, citing Yancey County’s current legal battle over its library system.
“So Jackson County is an interesting example of this battle, but it's certainly not the only one.
