Some commissioners say library committee commenters simply trying to make pre-election political points
The words “quiet, please” may still get plenty of play from Alamance County’s librarians. But for some local library patrons, this appeal for silence has given way to an urge to speak out, loudly and publicly, against a perceived political threat to the county’s library system.
For the third time in less than two months, a number of these concerned library goers confronted the county’s board of commissioners on Monday about its allegedly ideological interference in the policies and operations of the county’s libraries.
Of particular concern to these critics was the sense that the Republican-dominated board has stacked the county’s library committee with like-minded conservatives – who, in some cases, were appointed in lieu of nominees favored by the county’s municipal leaders.
In the meantime, the county’s only non-Republican commissioner made a failed bid to get her colleagues to have “a simple discussion” about the two-decade-old rules that allow the commissioners to overrule these municipal recommendations.
Commissioner Pam Thompson, who defected from the GOP two years ago and is now unaffiliated with any political party, was ultimately unable to get anyone to second her motion to have this item tacked onto Monday’s meeting agenda. But this setback didn’t stop Thompson from chiding her colleagues for repeatedly stonewalling her efforts to bring up the issue.
“Every time I’ve asked for something it’s, like, nothin’,” she told the rest of the board later that morning. “I think it really ticks people off…and to continually not want to talk about it, is not a good look for leadership.”
At its most superficial level, the matter that Thompson tried to broach with her colleagues concerns the extent to which local municipalities are represented on the county’s library committee.
In its current form, the county’s library system functions as an interjurisdictional partnership in which cities build and maintain library branches that are then operated and staffed by Alamance County. In theory, the composition of the library committee is supposed to reflect this collaborative spirit – with six of the 10 seats set aside for representatives of Burlington, Mebane, and Graham. Yet, under the library system’s bylaws, the commissioners have the final authority to appoint all of the committee’s members, while the three city councils merely make recommendations for the consideration of the county’s governing board.
Yet, this purely jurisdictional point is underpinned by trickier questions about ideology, inclusion, and the independence of Alamance County’s libraries.
Another factor tied up with the committee’s membership is a book labeling policy that the committee’s members developed last year to warn parents of age-inappropriate books. Critics of these “parental advisory stickers” have viewed as a dangerous first, step toward the censorship of library materials.
Although Thompson may not have succeeded in her bid to have a “simple discussion” about the library committee, the issue did get a thorough airing from self-styled defenders of the county’s libraries who were on hand to address the commissioners on Monday.
Close to a dozen of these rankled readers attended that morning’s proceedings. Clad in color-coordinated green garb, these verdant avengers were easy to spot among the board’s audience, and six of them went on to address the commissioners directly during a designated public comment period that kicked off the meeting.
Most of these speakers told the county’s governing board that they’ve noticed a clear ideological bias to its recent appointments to the library committee. Some like Amanda Johnson, who identified herself openly as “queer,” went so far as to accuse the board’s appointees of harboring anti-LBGTQ prejudices.
“A library should be the least political place – a place where every view and story is represented. Reading is for everyone. . . and it should be led by people who can remain impartial and not use their positions to control what others do.”
– Amanda Johnson
“A library should be the least political place – a place where every view and story is represented,” Johnson declared. “Reading is for everyone…and it should be led by people who can remain impartial and not use their positions to control what others do.”
Rachael Stimpson. likewise, saw an ideological slant to influence that the commissioners have exerted on the library system. In response to a previous remark from one of the board’s appointees to the committee, Stimpson cautioned that she is “not a secret Democrat operative.” She went on to call out the alleged partisan bias of commissioner Ed Priola, who currently serves as the committee’s liaison with the county’s board of commissioners.
“The county’s libraries have long been a space that have served all individuals. It does not mean that the county’s libraries are being mismanaged. And for a commissioner to sit in a public meeting and make this claim with no supporting evidence is poor leadership at best and potentially slanderous at worst.”
– Rachael Stimpson
“The county’s libraries have long been a space that have served all individuals,” she said. “It does not mean that the county’s libraries are being mismanaged. And for a commissioner to sit in a public meeting and make this claim with no supporting evidence is poor leadership at best and potentially slanderous at worst.”
Stimpson also criticized the commissioners for their lack of transparency in declining to discuss the bylaws that guide how the committee’s members are chosen. Emily Conway put the same point even more bluntly when she got her turn at the podium.
“I do think it’s cowardly,” she said, “to avoid discussion of how the county is handling its various committee appointments.”
Another speaker – Alicia Ariel – lambasted Kelly Allen, the chairman of Alamance County’s commissioners, for “having nothing to say about the county’s libraries other than the $4 million allocated to them.”
Meanwhile, Debra Kaufman was lavish in her praise of Thompson, who had served as the committee’s liaison before Priola took over this role. Kaufman added that, under Thompson’s influence, the committee was a force for “creative and inclusive programs” at the county’s libraries.
“The [library] committee’s time is spent deciding what books they do not approve of and what to label. . . I would love to see our commissioners rise above petty politics and ask themselves how they can best serve everyone in the county.”
– Debra Kaufman
“Sadly, that is something I do not see happening now,” she added. “Instead, the committee’s time is spent deciding what books they do not approve of and what to label. . . I would love to see our commissioners rise above petty politics and ask themselves how they can best serve everyone in the county.”
Although she wasn’t present at Monday’s meeting, Burlington’s mayor Beth Kennett has also taken issue with the commissioners over their rejection of the city’s latest nominee for the library committee. During a city council meeting on Tuesday, Kennett announced that she intends to relay her concerns directly to the county government’s leaders in the not-too-distant future.
“Our recommendations we’re disregarded,” she added. “I’m working on a resolution, and I will ask for some edits on that.”
In response to the attacks from the podium on Monday, Allen tried to explain some of the reasons why she has rejected municipal nominees for the library committee.
“I am very polite and nice, and I never get into an argument. I’m just tired of being accused of things that I didn’t do.”
– Alamance County commissioner chairman Kelly Allen
Allen recalled one instance where she bucked a proposed newcomer in favor of a current board member “who shows up for meetings and is noncontroversial.” She also recounted a case when she took up the cause of a retired librarian who had overlooked by his municipal leaders when he first applied for the committee. Allen also took Thompson to task for voting against a Graham nominee who was ultimately accepted by the other commissioners.
Meanwhile, Steve Carter, the vice chairman of the commissioners, objected to the inference of political motives in the aforementioned book labeling, which he and his colleagues unanimously adopted in the spring of 2025.
“It’s a sticker [referring to certain labeling recommended by the library committee]. We’re not taking books off of shelves, and we’re not telling people they can’t read them. . . It looks to me like someone’s trying to make a political issue out of a sticker.”
– Alamance County vice chairman Steve Carter
“It’s a sticker,” he insisted. “We’re not taking books off of shelves, and we’re not telling people they can’t read them…It looks to me like someone’s trying to make a political issue out of sticker.”
Sam Powell, likewise, took umbrage with the way that some critics have framed the role of the county’s governing board in setting library policy.
“We as commissioners don’t have a thing to do with restricting access to books. . . nor do we set the agenda for the library committee. We simply make appointments.”
– County commissioner Sam Powell
“We as commissioners don’t have a thing to do with restricting access to books…nor do we set the agenda for the library committee. We simply make appointments.”
Priola, like Carter, argued that the recent criticism of the library committee seems to him like a ploy to win votes in the upcoming election.
“They’re trying to make a political issue. It’s a game that they’re trying to play – and not very well to my thinking.”
– County commissioner Ed Priola
“They’re trying to make a political issue,” he said. “It’s a game that they’re trying to play – and not very well to my thinking.”
But perhaps the most dramatic moment that morning came when Thompson and Allen engaged in a brief sparring match over the board’s committee appointments.
Allen initially roused Thompson’s ire when she cut in to her claims that the commissioners are ignoring the public’s concerns with the current appointment policy.
“We talk about all the time,” the board’s chairman said as she alluded to the recurring public comments about the issue.
“I’m not going to get into a pissing match with you,” Thompson shot back, “because that’s what you want.”
“I am very polite and nice, and I never get into an argument,” Allen countered. “I’m just tired of being accused of things that I didn’t do.”
