EDITORIAL: Library board opts for ignorance, so far

Imagine someone applying for an important job.

The applicant has no experience in that job. The applicant isn’t really sure what the job entails. In fact, the applicant knows next to nothing about the business or organization that’s hiring.

And the applicant gets hired anyway, even though other experienced, knowledgeable applicants were available.

That, in essence, is what’s happened with the Community Library Network. Voters did the hiring, and early returns after two brand-new trustees have shown a staggering lack of understanding about what the libraries are and how they function are setting off alarms across the county.

To be fair, most newcomers to challenging public positions lack the depth and breadth of understanding necessary to lead effectively. And there's merit in fresh sets of eyes examining challenges.

But many candidates do their homework before running for office. They attend board meetings. They ask questions. They study the budget. They ask more questions.

Then and only then do they put their name on the ballot.

Perhaps most concerning — and we’ve seen this recently, right here in paradise, with the fiasco created by incompetent trustees at North Idaho College — is that board members driven by political, religious and/or cultural agendas reject learning curves like rotten peaches in a bushel basket.

They ignore golden opportunities to learn before making critical decisions.

They don’t rely on outstanding employees to carry on until the learning curve has been flattened. They don’t reach out to their predecessors because maybe they see that as a sign of weakness. Nowadays, in fact, it goes deeper; tapping into another’s wisdom can be interpreted as colluding with the enemy.

Well, ignorance is the greatest enemy, and in the case of the Community Library Network’s president and two newest trustees, invaluable resources — former trustees Bob Fish, Judy Meyer and Regina McCrea — are treated like bad peaches. Ignorance festers.

The guess here is that all three would set aside the way their character was impugned during campaigns because, to them, the job was never about their egos; it was always about serving the public. Meyer, McCrea and Fish are the kinds of people who would rather help their successors shine than see the institution and the public suffer.

Off to an ignominious start, the Community Library Network board majority has time to correct course before setting its budget for the next fiscal year, but it’s going to take courage, patience and a healthy dose of humility.

They got the jobs they wanted; now they need to live up to them.