North Jefferson County Library Board: not an open book

When the North Jefferson County Library Board gathered on May 24 for their monthly meeting, smiling faces filled the room. As the meeting commenced, the atmosphere changed and a thick cloud of tension replaced the formerly present grins.

Like all other public meetings, library board trustees opened their meeting with the setting of the agenda and the approval of the prior meeting’s minutes. While the agenda was not a point of contention, discussion of the written record of the March meeting prompted a heated conversation led by Jane Lee Hamman, the At-Large trustee for the Clancy area.

Carly Delsigne, the North Jefferson County Library director, had presented proposed changes to the minutes with the hope of establishing an accurate record of the board’s discussion. Hamman took the position that meeting minutes should be a concise “summary,” not a transcript.