THETFORD HILL — A technicality could at least delay the plan to remove Peter Blodgett as director of Thetford’s Latham Memorial Library.
The privately run library’s board of trustees last week effectively nullified its recent decision to hire a new librarian come fall, after learning that it was not legally entitled to act on anything it had voted to do since 2017.
In essence, trustees in recent years have been appointed, but the Latham board’s bylaws require that they be elected.
“We are not a duly constituted board,” trustee Chairwoman Marla Ianello wrote in a posting on a Thetford Listserv Thursday. “This is because the Board omitted to change its bylaws after the Selectboard voted in 2016 to take the Latham trustees off the town ballot.”
The revelation that the current board lacks any authority to act emerged earlier this month, after news broke that the trustees were planning to replace Blodgett — news that led to widespread complaints from library patrons who support the 33-year veteran librarian.
“People are concerned about their library,” Blodgett said Friday morning, referring to comments he’s heard over the ensuing weeks. “They want their library to function well. And they want the board to be functioning in a clear and open manner.”
How the board gets there from here, Blodgett added, “is not exactly clear.”
In her Listserv post, Ianello wrote that the board’s attorney has recommended that the two trustees appointed by the neighboring First Congregational Church of Thetford “will need to appoint individuals to fill the vacant seats. … The recommended approach is to appoint the five trustees interested in continuing to serve and one additional person, filling six of the open seats.
“In addition … the trustees will make a written request of the Selectboard to recommend two further member(s) for appointment, bringing the board to its full complement of 10 trustees.”
According to the minutes of the trustees’ July 18 meeting, Selectboard Chairman Stuart Rogers pledged to raise the subject of appointing two interim members at his board’s next meeting, which is on Monday. Depending on what happens there, Ianello and Matt Senger, the other church-appointed trustee, would meet with interested candidates for the interim board in August, and then eventually call an election.
If or when that interim panel of trustees forms, Ianello said in her post, they would “then work under the guidance and advice of the Vermont Department of Libraries to amend its bylaws to reflect best practices, including a viable succession process resulting in a staggered board membership.”
Assuming the succession process involves elections of future board members, it would not involve the municipality of Thetford. While taxpayers at Town Meeting contribute about half of the library’s budget, they no longer elect trustees.
“The library itself would have to mail out ballots and encourage people to send them back,” Blodgett said. “And then there’s the question of who counts the ballots.”
Blodgett, who described his status as “up in the air,” added that if a viable board is elected, he hopes that it “works to develop a transition plan through budget year 2021.
“When I go is part of that transition plan — ideally,” he said.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com or 603-727-3304.