The head of Alamance County’s governing board has apparently come up with a plan to resolve an ongoing spat over municipal representation on the county’s library committee.
Kelly Allen, the chairman of Alamance Coun-ty’s commissioners, didn’t go into the particulars of her proposal when she announced the potential breakthrough to her colleagues on Monday.
“I have a plan to satisfy everyone about the library,” she declared that morning. “I have a fantastic idea about how to resolve everything.”
Allen went on to instruct the county manager to set up a joint meeting between the commissioners and the city councils in Burlington, Me-bane, and Graham to discuss her prospective solution.
Allen’s announcement comes after several months of public criticism over the county’s current selection process for the 10-member library committee.
Since time immemorial, this advisory board has consisted of four appointees tapped directly by the commissioners as well as two delegates from each of three cities that have built, and continue to maintain, the library system’s individual branches. These municipal representatives are nominated by their respective city councils – subject to the final approval of the commissioners.
Over the past couple of years, the commissioners have showed a growing willingness to overrule these municipal selections. A series of several such vetoes earlier this year have set off a steady stream of public criticism that the county’s Republican-led governing board has been playing politics with the committee’s appointments.
Earlier this month, Burlington’s mayor Beth Kennett sent Allen a formal invitation to meet with her and other municipal leaders in order to hash out their differences over the committee’s appointments. Allen’s announcement on Monday appears to take Kennett up on her suggestion.
In the meantime, the county’s control over the committee’s membership drew a spirited defense from commissioner Ed Priola, who currently represents the county’s governing board on the committee.
“There’s some unresolved questions in regard to this – in my words – dysfunctional library system,” he told Allen during Monday’s discussion, “and I think we ought to question the nominations that have been put forward to us as we move forward with your initiative.”
