Community Library Network trustees to present board vacancy nominations today

Trustees of the Community Library Network will present nominations during a special meeting from 2 to 5 p.m. today at the Post Falls Library to fill the board vacancy left after former trustee Katie Blank resigned June 16.

Although it was announced at the June 17 meeting, Chair Rachelle Ottosen officially declared the vacancy at a special meeting Monday evening at the Post Falls Library. Per Idaho Code 33-2716, a library board has 60 days to appoint another trustee once a vacancy has been declared. Each sitting trustee may nominate one person to potentially fulfill the rest of Blank's term, which ends in 2025.

“It's a tough one, this is definitely tough," Trustee Vanessa Robinson said during Monday's meeting. "They had to do this a few years back. I think they had just a couple people go up for it."

Nominees will have up to three minutes to present their interest to the board as well as provide a one-page document with their interest and qualifications for the position. They will also need to be prepared to answer questions from the board.

Ottosen initially said nominations and voting will take place at today's meeting. Citing a board training earlier in the Monday meeting by Idaho Commission for Libraries public library consultant Clay Ritter, Assistant Library Director Lindsey Miller-Escarfuller said for transparency’s sake it would be recommended to present nominations at one meeting and vote at a following meeting so the board has time for discussion before making a decision.

Trustees will vote today and swear in the new trustee if they are ready to do so.

Deliberations must be done in the open meeting; per state code, they cannot be done in executive session.

“And very civil,” Ottosen said. “Decorum, all that. We don’t want to trash people.”

Trustee Tim Plass suggested nominee presentations be done in a "tournament" style where two contenders square off and whoever wins that tournament goes up against the next nominee.

Miller-Escarfuller recommended a forced ranking system, which she said is used in some of the CLN’s job interviews. Each person who speaks would be ranked; the first person would be in the first position, and if that person did not fare as well as the following nominee, that person would go down to second place while the more favored contender would receive the top ranking and so on.

“It’s not a tournament, but it is a fair tool," Miller-Escarfuller said.

The nominations will take place following the departure of Blank as well as the resignation of Library Director Alexa Eccles, whose last day is July 7. 

The Post Falls Library is at 521 N. Spokane St., Post Falls.