Commissioners substitute their own nominees for one Burlington, two Mebane candidates for advisory board
A recent batch of appointments to Alamance County’s Library Committee seems to suggest that the county and some of its municipalities are no longer on the same page when it comes to the membership of this appointed advisory board.
Since time immemorial, Alamance County’s library system has been something of a joint venture between the county and its municipalities. Under this longstanding arrangement, cities and towns put up the funds to build and maintain the brick-and-mortar facilities that the county goes on to staff and operate as library branches.
One biproduct of this division of labor has been a shared responsibility between the county and its municipalities in determining the composition of the committee that advises the commissioners on the library system’s affairs. To this end, the city councils in Graham, Mebane, and Burlington, which host the system’s individual branches, recommend candidates for certain seats on the library committee. Meanwhile, the county’s board of commissioners confirms the appointments of these municipal delegates while installing several of its own appointees to represent the county itself.
This two-part procedure has traditionally seen the commissioners more or less rubberstamp the recommendations that they receive from the leaders of Graham, Mebane, and Burlington. Lately, however, this amicable process seems to have gone off the rails – as illustrated by the way that the commissioners have handled the latest submissions from the three city councils.
During their most recent meeting on Monday, the commissioners were asked to confirm two candidates proffered by Graham’s city council as well as a third who had been passed along by Burlington’s elected leaders.
A majority of the commissioners ultimately upheld Graham’s proposed reappointment of Bonnie Whitaker and Lindsay McKinney to two of its seats on the committee. The city had also received applications for these posts from Sarah Durbin, Cheryl Schmidt, Jessica Sappinen, Jennifer Talley, Scott Stirling, and Kim Baker – none of whom made the cut with the members of Graham’s city council.
Commissioner Pam Thompson tried to shake things up a bit by suggesting that the commissioners swap Whitaker for Sterling, whom she identified as an active member of the library system’s nonprofit booster club.
“He’s with the Friends of the Alamance County Public Libraries,” Thompson told the rest of the county’s governing board. They do fundraisers; they do book sales; and he’s really anchored in to the libraries.”
Thompson’s proposal nevertheless fell flat with Kelly Allen, the chairman of Alamance County’s commissioners. Allen made a motion to approve the appointments of McKinney and Whitaker that passed 4-to-1 with Thompson casting the lone vote of dissent.
The entire board of commissioners proved willing to defy the wishes of another municipal partner when its members turned their attention to one of the seats that represents the city of Burlington.
Two weeks ago, Burlington’s city council had endorsed newcomer James Shrover for this position, which had also attracted applications from Deandra Little, Shawna Gentert, and incumbent committee member Debbie Johnson. According to the county, another application from Stanley Donahoo had come in directly through the county’s own application portal. The commissioners nevertheless gave Johnson a unanimous nod, effectively overruling the city council proposal in favor of Shrover.
The commissioners took an even greater liberty on the evening of June 15 when they filled both of the slots that the city of Mebane has on the library committee.
Sean Ewing, a member of Mebane’s city council, reprimanded the commissioners on Monday over their dismissal of the council’s endorsements of Melissa Teets and Kayla Schilke for these positions.
“The Mebane city council put up some fantastic, well qualified individuals to serve on that committee,” Ewing recalled during a designed public comment period that night. “It was very disappointing to see this board pass over those individuals that the council carefully vetted and suggested.”
Ewing, who also happens to a Democratic contender for the board of commissioners in November’s election, had been the one to propose Teets and Schilke to the rest of the council on May 4, when its members considered their picks for Mebane’s two seats on the library committee.
The council ultimately accepted Ewing’s suggestions by a margin of 5-to-0 while rejecting a third application from Mandy Al-Bjaly. It may be worth noting that all three of these contenders were newcomer to the committee since neither of the city’s incumbent representatives had applied for reappointment.
Faced with the city council’s suggestions on June 15, Steve Carter, the vice chairman of Alamance County’s commissioners, proposed Carolyn Burns and Steven Squires as alternative appointees to represent Mebane. The rest of the county’s governing board voted 5-to-0 in favor of these two newcomers, who the board’s chairman Kelly Allen said she had previously squared with Mebane’s mayor Ed Hooks. Hooks, who only votes in the event of a tie, hadn’t participated in the council’s selection of its two nominees for the committee in May.
