LIBRARY GOVERNANCE
Board Chairman: Library Governance Board Meant to Be Independent, Nonpolitical
Blaine Wall says the Board of Governance hasn’t met since April—and County Administrator Wes Moreno still isn’t talking to him.
The chairman of the West Florida Public Libraryies Board of Governance broke his public silence this week, telling me on Rick’s Blog Live that the board was never meant to be a rubber-stamp advisory panel, and that its canceled summer meetings are putting the library’s budget at risk just as state lawmakers consider property tax changes that could cost the library millions.
- Blaine Wall, a 23-year English professor at Pensacola State College, has chaired the board for three and a half years. He told me the governance structure wasn’t an accident of bureaucracy—it was a deliberate choice made when the library became a countywide system. Read Resolution Creating Board.
“There was a decision to move from an advisory board… to a governance board. And that was created by a city interlocal agreement, also a resolution that was passed by the county commissioners, and then bylaws were created that outlined what the role of the board should be.”
A Board Built for Oversight, Not Politics
Wall said the resolution creating the board makes its purpose explicit: oversight of library administration, not ceremonial advice. He pointed out that even the county’s own interim administrator at the time called it a unique, independent body, not something meant to fall under a department head’s control. Watch videos of the January 2013 BCC meeting.
Asked directly whether the board was designed to stay out of politics, Wall didn’t hesitate: “That’s correct. It was not supposed to be a political body.”
For most of his tenure, Wall said, that’s exactly how it functioned. The board reviewed policy, helped set budget priorities and long-range goals, and signed off on budgets before they went to the county commission. “Our meetings were not political,” he said. “It seemed that everyone was on the same page. There was a lot of transparency about what was going on.”
That changed, he said, after the library’s longtime director retired.
No Meeting Since April
The most pressing issue isn’t personnel—it’s the calendar. County Administrator Wes Moreno canceled the board’s summer meetings, even though the founding resolution requires the board to meet monthly. Wall has pushed back and called for a special meeting, which he said the bylaws allow him to do.
By the numbers: Wall says if the statewide property tax amendment passes, the library could lose $2 million to $4 million in funding—conversations the board hasn’t been able to have because it hasn’t met since April.
On March 23rd the Library Board of Governance did vote to approve the Library’s Fiscal Year 2026-2027 Annual Budget that must be approved by the BCC. In past years, I don’t recall if the Library Board Chairperson made a presentation during the BCC’s budget workshop to explain the proposed budget and answer questions. If not, it should be done this summer. All that said, I’m not confident that much thought went into the budget. There was a lot to cover in that meeting to include the budget. The meeting started at 4:02 pm and ended at 5:20 pm. The budget discussion was at best cursory. The budget was never made public so we’ve not seen it. And, I was told the Library Director only sends the agenda and agenda items to the Library Board on the Friday before the monthly Monday meetings. That may explain what seemed to be a very light review of the budget. When questions were asked, Library Director Bell-Rivera seemed to struggle to answer them to include not knowing how much of the library system’s property tax budget is paid by city property owners, pretty important if the city leaves the West Florida Public Library System to set up its own Pensacola Public Library System. Also, Bell-Rivera was very murky about some budget items such as not being able to explain why she wants to conduct “ballroom dancing classes” at the Brownsville Library Branch, etc.