Attorneys for the Dolores Library District Board and the Town of Dolores have been working to iron out language in an intergovernmental agreement between the two entities.
That comes after the town board on Jan. 12 abruptly rescinded its participation in a 2024 IGA with the library district.
The issue was language referring to removal of trustees on the library board. The IGA, which was signed in June 2024, says trustees may be removed by the library board “only upon a finding of good cause pursuant to their bylaws” and then references CRS 24-90-108(5). But that portion of state law says, “A library trustee may be removed only by a majority vote of the appointing legislative body or bodies, but only upon a showing of good cause as defined in, but not limited to, the bylaws adopted by the board.”
The appointing legislative bodies are the town board and the Dolores School District, which created the library district in 1986. They approve new library trustees who are recommended by the library board.
At the town board’s meeting on Jan. 12, Town Manager Leigh Reeves said, “When we got that IGA we didn’t look at it as closely as we should have because we should have figured out that it was against the law.”
The town board then voted unanimously to rescind their participation in the IGA.
Board President Sandy Jumper told KSJD in a phone interview that she spoke to the town board at a workshop on Dec. 22 and told them the district is looking for three board members and would follow the IGA regarding the process of interviewing candidates.
Later, Jumper said, she got an email from Reeves saying the town was looking at the IGA because of concerns about the language, and Jumper replied to her that the library board is revising its bylaws, but finally Reeves said the town had withdrawn from the IGA.
The two entities’ attorneys have been working to make the language compliant with state law, Jumper said,.
She noted that the bylaws don’t actually say anything about removing trustees from the board. They only talk about how to remove officers (such as the president or secretary) from those positions.
Jumper said there was an IGA in existence prior to that one, but she wasn’t familiar with it. Some language was revised before it was approved in June 2024.
There is no indication that the board is seeking to remove any of its current members.
“Removal of a trustee is not anything that’s in our plans,” Jumper told KSJD.
The board now has three members leaving. Jeanne Becker and Virginia Hernandez are term-limited and Tamara Woodbury has announced her resignation.
The library board has seen disagreements in recent months Even the fact that it has an attorney was the subject of heated discussion at the board’s meeting Jan. 13.
Jumper announced she had retained an attorney at the board’s direction and needed the board to ratify a letter of engagement with the firm Seter, Vander Wall & Mielke of Denver, which specializes in special districts and libraries.
Trustee Emily Wisner-Meyers said the board had wanted to be involved in choosing the attorney.
“It would have been nice to involve us in this process,” Wisner-Meyers said. “It would have been nice to have two law firms [for the board] to look at, especially with looking at the costs involved. We did not vote for you to move ahead without a statement of work.”
Jumper said she had not understood it that way and thought the board needed to have an attorney as soon as possible to expedite work on bylaws and other issues.
“This is just another example of lack of transparency. It’s very frustrating,” Wisner-Meyers said.
The board ultimately decided to ratify the letter of engagement and to create a committee to develop a statement of work for the attorney, who is Elizabeth Dauer of Seter, Vander Wall & Mielke.
Jumper, Wisner-Meyers, and Hourmanesh are to be on that committee.
The board is moving ahead with interviews with the five board candidates. The three they nominate must be approved by the town board and school board before they are seated.
The board is to have a special meeting Jan. 27 to talk more about the nominations.
Despite the controversies and disagreements the board has seen in recent months, the library is experiencing a great deal of use. Executive Director Sean Gantt told the board it had 832 people at events in December, an increase from 544 for the same month in 2024.
During public comment at the library meeting, Dolores resident Pat Kantor spoke about how hard local residents had worked to get the current library building constructed. She said she served on the library board two separate times, during which the library had five different directors.
“Then Sean came on and look where we are now,” Kantor said. “I’ve never seen this parking lot as full every day as it is. . . I’m very proud of this library.”
