Library Trustees to Determine Commission's Future

The Dixon Public Library’s governing board will meet Thursday to determine the fate of the library commission.

            At the request of Trustee Joe DiPaola, the five trustees will meet to weigh in on the possibility of initiating the process to consider the dissolution of the library commission – a board that has been in place in Dixon since the 1960s – which oversees most of the day-to-day administrative work on behalf of the library district.

            DiPaola, who along with Guy Garcia was just elected to both the library governing board and Dixon Unified School District’s governing board in November, sent an email to acting president Herb Cross in December, requesting the item be placed on Thursday’s agenda. When reached by phone, DiPaola declined to share his reasons for wanting the matter on the agenda, and said he preferred to wait until Thursday’s discussion to publicly share his thoughts.

            District Librarian Gregg Atkins said Tuesday he did not want to speculate on DiPaola’s reasons for wanting the library commission to be dissolved. If the trustee’s request is granted, Atkins said, it would likely lead to more work for the governing board. At this time, the board is only required to meet on a quarterly basis to discuss matters related to the library, which allows members to focus more on their roles as Dixon Unified School District trustees.

            “It would mean they would have to take on all of the responsibilities (of the library commission) and probably more meetings and more time,” Atkins said. “We’re talking about a new building. That takes time and energy. Who knows what the circumstances may be down the road?

            “We’ve been doing this for more than 40 years,” he added of the current arrangement. “It’s been a good solution.”

            One hundred years ago, the Dixon Public Library and as many as 10 other library districts within the state of California had only one library board, comprised of the members of the school board. In the mid 1960s, Atkins said, a section was added to the Education Code that allows these school boards to create library commissions that would take over almost all of their library responsibilities.

            “I presume that the section was put in place in the 1960s because obviously, school boards felt they had too many responsibilities just dealing with school issues,” Atkins said.

The five-member Dixon Library Commission meets on the third Monday of every month and oversees almost all of the governing responsibilities of the library. The group is responsible for hiring and overseeing the work of the district librarian, sets library policy, and approves financial reports every month.

At the same time, the governing board retains three powers that cannot be delegated, Atkins said. These include the power to appoint commissioners, approving the annual budget, and any decision that has to do with real property, such as purchasing land or approving contracts.

“The law provides that the board’s role is shrunk down to this core group of items and the library commission handles the rest,” Atkins said. “The library commissioners are people who have an interest in libraries. They want to strengthen library services in the community. They believe in reading, they want to strengthen literacy. Our commissioners tend to all have those interests and a desire to contribute to the community by helping to ensure the library is doing as good of a job as it can.”

            All commission seats are for three-year terms, and members are appointed by the governing board. The last appointment, in September, brought Rebecca Craig, Jane Felton and Ian Arnold to the commission. The other two members are Susan Ostergard and Olivia Stringer. All live within the library district.

According to Education Code Section 18452, the library’s governing board may dissolve the library commission effective June 30. Before the board of trustees can take this action, at least one public hearing must be held on the matter.

If the library trustees decide to begin the process to dissolve the commission during Thursday’s meeting, a public hearing will be held at a later date.

            Atkins said that to his knowledge, this is the first time in recent years the governing board has considered the possibility of dissolving the library commission.

“This arrangement has worked exactly the way changing the law intended,” he said. “It allowed people who had a real interest in library services and activities to get engaged in that activity and the school board people are able to handle specific services when needed and focus their attention on the school board, which is what they were elected to do.”

The Dixon Public Library’s governing board of library trustees will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday in council chambers, 600 East A St.