MY TURN: Reckless CLN trustee actions
Risk from actions of the board majority of the Community Library Network continue to rise. Trustees Ottosen, Plass and Hanley are adding liability and eroding CLN’s safeguards; they are actively harming the library network. In just six months they’ve violated agreements, cut funding while increasing expenses, disregarded legal advice, and tried to demoralize staff.
Recently they revised a policy on Materials Selection that was only a year old. They created a separate Materials Withdrawal policy. The board majority rushed to approve these despite one trustee’s caution, another trustee’s absence, and no legal advice. The board majority was unwilling to even listen to staff reservations about implementation.
Policy author, Vice Chair Tom Hanley, added wording he said is “basically a legal sentence…that says we’re not doing this because we don’t like ‘Gender Queer’ or whatever goofy books are out there.” Mr. Hanley is not an attorney. CLN’s attorney Colton Boyles was absent. The changes Mr. Boyles had encouraged to an earlier version were not made.
Mr. Hanley showed his views on the rule of law by supporting Sheriff Norris’s theft of library books. Chair Rachelle Ottosen said in a recent meeting that if an action were not legal “we can do it and (later) see what our attorney has to say about it," though the board majority regularly ignores Mr. Boyles’ advice.
For months I’ve watched the CLN board majority (including Trustee Tim Plass) shut down input. They don’t want to consult the Idaho Commission for Libraries, an agency offering services including guidance to trustees creating policy. Trustees Katie Blank and Vanessa Robinson regularly caution their board colleagues against recklessness, but the extreme board majority shuts down their input too.
A financial price is inevitable.
— Insurance impacts of board recklessness
For more than 20 years CLN has been insured primarily by Idaho Counties Risk Management Program, which offers pooled coverage to governments. ICRMP knows members can use guidance as they face new responsibilities, so it’s developed extensive training programs and organized teams of specialist advisors. They manage collective risk through prevention, a concept the CLN board majority appears not to value.
Since the board majority took office in June, Chair Ottosen has refused to take calls from ICRMP attorneys. When ICRMP arranged for an attorney specializing in employment law to meet with the board in executive session, Ms. Ottosen removed that agenda item over objections from trustees Robinson and Blank. Mid-August, ICRMP’s board notified CLN it was downgrading coverage based on “increasing risk exposures." The coverage cuts were drastic:
• Reducing per-occurrence indemnification claims from $3 million to $500,000
• Reducing defense cost limits from $2 million to $500,000
• Reducing annual aggregate for all covered claims from $5 million to $2 million
Removing all Employment Practices Liability coverage (such as hiring, discrimination, wrongful termination, breach of contract, harassment), including lawsuit settlements and attorney fees.
ICRMP didn’t lower CLN’s coverage due to claims history. Claims totaled $31,142 over five years, with a single storm’s ice and water damage costing $26,283.
What appears to concern ICRMP about CLN’s risk profile is trustee recklessness. Chair Ottosen violated ICRMP’s Joint Powers Agreement by not speaking with their attorney. She also violated CLN’s Financial Management Policy.
Last year CLN paid $44,603 for insurance. This year’s total could be double or triple that. Library Director Alexa Eccles found replacement Employment Practices coverage to protect CLN’s 103 staffers, for $13,000 without any risk management guidance like ICRMP provides. So far CLN’s board has not agreed on what new coverage they want for the remainder of FY 24, or when it should begin, or what action to take on the second half payment for ICRMP’s premium.
Even as CLN’s total FY 24 insurance cost rises, though, premiums are likely to be a small fraction of the cost to settle a lawsuit. And a lawsuit seems more likely with every CLN board action.
ICRMP’s views on CLN risk are flashing red indicators of danger. I think we should pay attention.
Please talk about this situation with other community leaders.
You can offer your thoughts to trustees at https://communitylibrary.net/board/#board-contact.
Retired now, Pat Raffee served six years as Kootenai County’s Chief Deputy Clerk, where she regularly interacted with ICRMP. She served eight years on the Board of the Idaho Commission for Libraries.