Please plan to Attend the Fullerton City Council’s next meeting: 6:30 pm, Tuesday, September 18th, City Hall Council Chambers – 303 W. Commonwealth Ave. Fullerton, CA. It’s the first item of New Business. The staff report is here: Attachments 1 and 4
September 18, The Fullerton City Council will consider abandoning the century old practice of appointing Fullerton residents to serve on our Library’s Board of Trustees, and instead appoint themselves!
Buried in the nondescript title of “CITY OF FULLERTON BOARD / COMMISSION / COMMITTEE REORGANIZATION” is a proposal to place the responsibilities of the Library Board of Trustees with the City Council itself: Two City Council Members would become members of the Library Board of Trustees in January 2019 and the remaining Council Members would assume the remaining Library Board of Trustees seats as current Trustee terms expire or become vacant. The change would also reduce the participation of Fullerton residents to an advisory one only by creating a Library Advisory Commission.
No reason has been given for this proposed change!
This idea was originally suggested at a May 1, 2018 Council meeting by Council Member Jennifer Fitzgerald, who has also recently suggested that the City sell the Hunt Branch Library and that the Orange County Public Library should takeover Fullerton’s entire library system.
In response, Fullerton’s Library Board of Trustees has scheduled a special meeting of its own to consider their response to this possible change by the City Council for Monday, 5:00 p.m., September 17 at the Main Library, 353 W Commonwealth Ave, Fullerton, CA 92832.
We are sending this information to you because the potential sale of the Hunt Branch Library could be strongly affected by a major change in the library’s governance. One of the reasons library boards exist at all is to provide some measure of insulation from pressure from private interests, political groups, and city councils themselves. There is no sensible reason to discontinue the longstanding, 112 year practice of having an independent Library Board of Trustees, composed of community members and give more direct power to the City Council.
The proposed change has taken many by surprise–including all three boards serving the library! Neither the Fullerton Library Foundation, who privately raise funds for the library, The Friends of Fullerton Public Library, who operate its bookstore and organize its periodic books sales, nor the Library Board of Trustees themselves were ever consulted about this unprecedented change, or even informed of its appearance before the Council this Tuesday night.
Please support an independent Fullerton Library Board of Trustees by letting your City Council know you oppose this unwarranted change. Contact them here:
Also, please attend Save The Hunt’s Special Tour and Presentation About Hunt Branch Library September 24 – William Pereira’s contributions to architecture and planning in the 20th Century and the significance of Fullerton’s Pereira-designed Hunt Branch Library building.
Thank you for supporting our library!
Save The Hunt Library 