The Baldwin County Commission will vote on a resolution Tuesday to dissolve the Baldwin County Library Cooperative. The move comes after the library cooperative board fired all employees in May.
Issues with the cooperative's organizational structure first arose in 2023 when the commission determined the board was operating illegally as a 501(c)(3). The commission referred to an Attorney General Opinion from 1999 (99-00135), which concluded that Section 11-90-1, et seq., of the Code of Alabama does not give library boards the power to incorporate.
The commission began work on reorganizing the cooperative to allow for joint services between all 13 libraries in the county. Those services include a connected catalog, Libby and Sors services, a courier service and tech and grant assistance.
Commissioners considered taking over all operations of the library cooperative and forming a new county department, but that was not feasible according to some commissioners, who told 1819 News they would instead the county spend its limited resources on responsibilities such as transportation and infrastructure.
Before the commission could decide, the library cooperative board fired all its employees.
According to documents obtained by 1819 News, the library cooperative's director requested to fire all employees.
“Apparently, the Director informed the Board that the County Commission was going dissolve the BCLC, the assets of the BCLC would be seized by the Commission and all employees would be fired immediately without severance pay at the June 4th Commission Meeting,” the document stated. “The Director requested the BCLC board to terminate all BCLC employees effective immediately and approve providing the employees with one year’s worth of salary as severance pay.”
It is unclear if employees were given a severance.
Commission staff has since attempted to maintain services. The courier service was only interrupted for one day, and staff communicated with municipal library directors about some of their options for sharing resources.
The resolution being considered on Tuesday will dissolve the cooperative and establish a new joint library service system for the municipal libraries.
The intergovernmental agreement between the commission and the municipal library boards in the county would transfer all assets of the library cooperative to the commission and all contractual agreements from the cooperative to the county.
The county attorney and the county administrator will be tasked with all actions going forward.
The commission’s regular meeting will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the Baldwin County Administration Building in Bay Minette.
Legislation Details (With Text) by Erica Thomas on Scribd
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email erica.thomas@1819news.com.
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