Some optimism following special city council session on library

ANTIGO — The Antigo City Council held a committee of the whole meeting Tuesday night to discuss recent events and future plans regarding the Antigo Public Library.

At the meeting, the council unanimously adopted resolutions to form a joint library task force with the county, as well as recommendations that the library board make no bylaw or policy changes until the task force is in place and that an advertisement be posted to hire a qualified interim library director.

The task force was proposed at the start of Tuesday’s meeting by Seventh Ward Alderman Glenn Bugni due to concerns he had regarding two recent replacements on the library board by the county board during public disputes between both entities about the library’s budget.

“This task force is…communication we should have had from day one of the library agreement when it was initiated so perceived problems could be corrected before they became what they are now,” said Bugni.

Seemingly, the county will take part in the task force — which will be composed of three non-administrative county board members, three non-administrative city council members, and two administrators from both the city and county — as Bugni said he has already been in contact with county board chairman Ben Pierce and that its initial organizational meeting has been scheduled next week.

“The library is going to be an issue, but we’re also going to use the task force for other county and city-related issues in addition to the library,” Bugni said. “But the library is a high priority.”

At the meeting, which ran roughly two hours before going into closed session and was originally called to improve future communication on library-related policies, council members and concerned citizens in attendance rehashed several controversies that unfolded in past months related to library board appointments.

Also discussed were disputes that have arisen in recent weeks at library board meetings, such as an item on the agenda for the May 1 library board meeting to “review and amend or temporarily suspend” bylaws of the joint city and county library agreement, which Bugni claimed was in conflict with Robert’s Rules of Order, the protocols that guide most public meetings.

“‘When an assembly wishes to do something during a meeting that it cannot do without violating one or more of its regular rules, it can adopt a motion to suspend the rules provided that the proposal is not in conflict with the organization’s bylaws,’” Bugni said, reading directly from a book outlining the rules. “If you have Robert’s as your guide, you cannot suspend your bylaws and suspend the rules.”

New library board member Nancy Jones said the item was placed on the agenda after conferring with the Department of Public Instruction and the county attorney. She said it involved a kind of limbo the board found itself in following the resignation of the library director in April, which Mayor Terry Brand most succinctly explained.

“So I think your challenge is, your bylaws say that the director serves as the recording secretary of the board, but because you don’t have a director, you need to find a way to have a secretary to record your meetings,” Brand said. Jones confirmed that was the case, but city attorney Mike Winter advised that the item should not be acted on at the meeting, which was eventually canceled.

Though dissatisfaction about other past issues — including the recent, quick appointment of an interim library director (and it is not clear now if the library board, which is autonomous, will accept the city council’s recommendation to seek a new interim library director) — was voiced at the meeting, the open session Tuesday ended with several in attendance expressing hopes for more positive dialogue going forward, including Third Ward Alderman Tim Kassis.

“I appreciate everybody coming and I’ll tell you, the community really has an interest in our library,” Kassis said. “I really appreciate it and we’ll get this thing figured out. I think we’re making a mountain out of a molehill. I think we’ll get it done, and we’re going to have a very, very nice library, something that we can all be proud of. We’ll make it work.”

Bugni voiced similar sentiments.

“I think what everybody wants to do is to put something together that all of us can agree on,” Bugni said. “I think this has been a long time coming. So now we can finally sit down and talk about things and work things out.”