WEST FLORIDA PUBLIC LIBRARY
Moreno, Bell-Rivera Go Silent on Library Board Chair’s Demand for a Special Meeting
Dr. Blaine Wall asked for answers and a special meeting by July 1. Three days later, he has neither.
County Administrator Wes Moreno and Library Director Christal Bell-Rivera have not responded to Board of Governance Chair Dr. K. Blaine Wall’s Monday email demanding a special meeting by July 1. He also challenged Moreno’s authority to cancel the board’s meetings in the first place.
Details: Wall sent his email at 1:33 p.m. Monday, less than three hours after learning his board’s regular meeting that afternoon had been scrapped. He copied Moreno, Bell-Rivera, board members Joyce Hopson and Rachel Hendrix, county attorney Alison Rogers, the county legal department, and Pensacola City Attorney Adam Cobb.
As of this posting, neither Moreno nor Bell-Rivera has responded to Wall’s questions about his authority, or to his request that she—acting as staff liaison—coordinate a date, issue public notice, and get a special meeting on the calendar.
“After reviewing the governing documents establishing and regulating the Board of Governance, I have been unable to identify any provision authorizing the County Administrator to unilaterally cancel meetings of the Board or suspend its operations.”—Dr. Blaine Wall
What the bylaws say: Article V, Section 3 of the Board of Governance bylaws gives the chair explicit authority to call a special meeting:
- Special meetings may be called by the Chair, or upon the written request of three members.
- Except in emergencies, at least 48 hours’ notice is required.
- Article VIII designates the Library Director—or her designee—as staff liaison to the board, responsible for working with the chair on logistics.
Wall invoked that provision directly in Monday’s email, formally requesting a special meeting and asking Bell-Rivera to handle the scheduling and notice. Under the bylaws, fulfilling that request isn’t discretionary—it’s the staff liaison’s job. Read BOG Bylaws.
A Pattern of Silence
Monday’s non-response follows a pattern. It took Moreno’s office roughly 30 minutes to get an explanation to Wall on the day of the cancellation—and that explanation came from Bell-Rivera relaying a verbal directive, not from Moreno himself in writing. County spokeswoman Kaycee Lagarde gave me a one-line text explanation the same day: the board needed to “evaluate scheduling and the BOG vacancies.”
Since then, the county has had a detailed, document-by-document legal challenge to that explanation sitting in its inbox and has said nothing.
Why this matters: The resolution and bylaws both put the scheduling power in the board’s hands, not the county administrator’s. If Moreno has authority to cancel meetings that Wall and the governing documents say he doesn’t have, the county has had three days to point to where that authority comes from. Instead: nothing.
What Happens Next
Wall’s deadline of July 1 is now less than a week away. If the meeting isn’t set up today, county may not meet the 48-hour notice requirement.
The bylaws don’t require Moreno’s permission for the board to meet—they require the chair to call it and the staff liaison to coordinate it. If Bell-Rivera continues to take direction from Moreno instead of from the bylaws that govern her role with the board, Wall will have to decide whether to schedule the meeting himself and force the issue, or escalate further to the county commission, the city council, and the mayor—the three bodies that actually appoint the board he chairs.
I’ll have more as Moreno’s office—or Bell-Rivera’s—responds. So far, the silence is its own answer.