MY TURN: Facts vs. fallacies

The Community Library Network board of trustees has had quite a lot of letters this month. Due to the timing, it seems likely inspired by a Coeur d'Alene Press Aug. 1 My Turn full of misinformation. I feel it’s my duty to correct that inaccurate information, and other misinformation circulating in our community. It seems there’s a concerted propaganda campaign to turn citizens against the CLN trustees, so in future elections, voters will oppose conservatives. Instead of ingesting propaganda, I would encourage citizens to attend and/or watch the YouTube videos of CLN board meetings to see the truth for themselves.

Following are facts versus fallacies regarding the recent actions of the CLN board.

FALLACY regarding CLN staffing: The trustees wantonly reduced the number of employees.

FACTS: Many CLN employees pursued other employment after the Post Falls and Athol libraries temporarily closed from extensive water damage in January. The vast majority of the planned staff reduction for FY2025 is actually from converting many part-time jobs into full-time jobs, so employees have opportunity to advance AND receive benefits as full-time employees. We’ve been working on this goal for a few years as recommended in our employment compensation study.

Yet, the board is demonized for providing more career opportunity and better compensation for our employees.

FALLACY regarding library directors: The trustees hired a director who is less qualified for the pay and to run a multi-library system than previous directors.

FACTS: The previous board who hired the previous director asserted that a higher salary was necessary to entice a director to stay in the increasingly controversial library industry and work in a divided community. That hasn’t changed. Some of our previous directors were hired directly from being assistant directors (much less responsibility) rather than directors, and/or were coming from smaller library systems. Previous boards knew it was entirely doable to scale up the responsibility.

Our new director is currently a qualified director with a proven track record.

Yet, the trustees are demonized for securing a credentialed and qualified director. However, now it’s labeled problematic likely because the current majority is conservative.

FALLACY regarding budget: Trustees drastically reduced the FY2025 budget.

FACTS: That budget is not yet approved, but some trustees seem inclined to increase the budget to help offset inflation. Staff has suggested some items have higher allocations and some items lower in order to nearly balance the budget; trustees concurred as these seemed like the best solutions for now. In addition, the trustees have suggested a few very minor cuts to finish balancing the budget.

Yet, the trustees are demonized for offsetting inflation and agreeing to balance the budget as suggested by professional staff.

FALLACY regarding insurance: That we’ve hired an expensive insurance broker and/or changed our insurance company to be much more expensive.

FACTS: We still have the exact same insurance policies through the exact same insurance companies at the exact same cost as at the beginning of the fiscal year. We did engage a newfound broker to work on our behalf, and to give us more options if the ICRMP policy quote has substantially higher costs or substantially less coverage. This broker doesn’t cost CLN even one penny more, since they get their commission from the insurance company.

Yet, some people want to demonize the trustees for trying to make sure we have options for proper coverage at the best price.

FALLACY regarding attorney costs, No. 1: We released, then rehired the same attorney so that we could pay him $1,000/hour.

FACT: We’ve continuously had the same attorney for a year, his fee has not changed and is about a quarter of what the propagandists are saying.

FALLACY No. 2: The trustees have frivolously paid too much money for legal counsel.

FACTS: Yes, CLN’s legal services have increased over the past year. The last director asked that we have our attorney present at every board meeting. The board did not object since we were constantly being fed misinformation about legal issues and wanted to make decisions based on true information. When the new director starts in September, I expect that our attorney services and therefore costs will be substantially reduced.

Yet, the trustees are demonized for wanting to act on sound legal grounds and accurate information.

Some people just won’t accept that leftists are not in charge anymore. No matter what we do, they look for molehills to make into mountains, even if they have to invent the molehill.

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Rachelle Ottosen, Community Library Network chair.