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Politics & Government

Library Trustees Review Commission Application Process

The Dixon Public Library Board of Trustees recommend eliminating "Cooling-Off" period for Library Commission applicants and possibly changing the role of the librarian in selecting new library commissioners

Meeting in City Hall June 23, the Library Governing Board of Trustees discussed shortening the period anyone who formerly worked for the library must wait before applying for a seat on the Library Commission. Existing policy mandates a 4-year-waiting period to allow any "angry former employees," as Trustee Herb Cross put it, time to "cool off."

In response, Susan Ostergard, a Library Commissioner seated in the audience, stated she had done some research and that two years was the longest waiting period at the federal level and one year on the state level.

Trustee Irina Okhrentchouk elaborated that waiting periods for former employees are instituted in government to prevent them from profiting by knowledge they had gained during their time of employment. Thus, they would have to wait before entering employment with a private company such as a lobbying firm.

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"But even Congress people only have to wait a year before they can start lobbying," she said. "And that's a completely different situation from what we have here at the Dixon Library. Here it involves a public employee moving on to serve as a public servant on the Commission, not work for a private company."

As Dixon Patch , District Librarian Gregg Atkins admitted at a Library Commission meeting that he had suggested instituting a change in the policy, Policy 7020, with the idea of providing one employee in particular four years to "cool off." Asked at that meeting by former Assistant Librarian Nancy Schrott if he had her in mind, Atkins had replied affirmatively.

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At last night's meeting, the Governing Board, which oversees the Library Commission, finally took a vote on Policy 7020.

Trustees Okhrentchouk and Gildardo Pinon voted for recommending the policy be eliminated. Trustees John Gabby and Herb Cross wanted to suggest reducing the waiting period to 12 months.

In addition, the Governing Board also voted to recommend eliminating any language in Policy 7020 that could possibly seem to enable any inappropriate involvement in the Commissioner selection process by the District Librarian.

All of this will be discussed at a Commission meeting tentatively scheduled for today -- venue to be announced.

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