Escambia County Commission | Libraries

Library Board Hasn’t Met Since April. Commissioners Finally Move to Fill Its Seats.

A 5-0 vote opens a two-week application window for two vacancies, but Wes Moreno’s role in hiring the next library director remains unresolved.

Escambia County commissioners voted 5-0 Thursday night to open applications for the two vacant county seats on the West Florida Public Library Board of Governance and to bring the names back at the Nov. 5 meeting. The board has not met since April.

• The vote came after 17 speakers urged commissioners to restore the volunteer board and after County Administrator Wes Moreno defended how he has handled it. His account and the board’s account of the past six months do not line up, and commissioners did not press him to reconcile them.

Moreno: “I Don’t Want to Be at Odds”

Moreno told commissioners that in a little over five years on the job he doesn’t recall hearing from the board. He said he has never seen a budget presentation from it and heard nothing from the board when the previous library director left.

FACT CHECK #1: The county administrator conveniently failed to mention that the board was notified of Library Director Todd Humble’s resignation only days before its August 2025 meeting, when Interim Director Crystal Bell-Rivera told them that Moreno had put her in charge. She also asked for their support in being named the new director.

FACT CHECK #2: Moreno didn’t tell the commissioners that he had received a letter from Board Chair Dr. Blaine Wall, who had emailed him on Aug. 29, 2025. Wall invited the county administrator to the board’s September meeting. He also asked for clarification on the hiring process for the new director and the anticipated timeline. Moreno sent Assistant Administrator Wesley Hall to the meeting. Read Blaines letter to County – 8-29-25

His view of the hiring process. Moreno said county departments run under county personnel and procurement policies, and he is used to writing the job description, interviewing and hiring directors himself. That a board would choose the library director was “a foreign concept” to him, although he acknowledged the board’s bylaws say that is how it is done. The county tried a collaborative approach, he said, but “it didn’t work out.”

FACT CHECK #3: Moreno didn’t research how the hiring process was conducted by then-County Administrator Jack Brown in 2015. Brown and his HR director worked closely with the board and hired a new director in about four months. See process.

Why the meetings stopped. Moreno said the county “took a break for the summer” to try to fill the vacancies. He has received letters of interest, including one he called “very interesting” and expects to discuss with someone soon. When another library director departed, he said, things were “in limbo,” so no meeting was scheduled.

• What he wants. He said he will schedule meetings whenever the board wants them. He asked commissioners either to amend the bylaws or to direct that he stay out of hiring the director. If nothing changes, he warned, the county will “wind up right back in the same position.” He also called the library “fantastic.”

The Board’s Side

Board chair Dr. Blaine Wall told commissioners that Moreno has not permitted the board to meet since April. He said:

• He twice asked Moreno to identify the authority for stopping the meetings, copying the county attorney, and never got an acknowledgment.
• He twice called special meetings under the board’s rules, and both requests were ignored.
• The board was not officially told of the director’s departure, was not consulted on interim leadership, and was not even told that its September meeting, set for the previous Monday, had been canceled.

“For months, our board has effectively been prevented from functioning.”
—Dr. Blaine Wall, chair, Library Board of Governance

Wall asked whether commissioners would restore the board or stay silent while “your unelected administrator” exercises powers the 2013 resolution and the city interlocal do not grant him.

Lori NeSmith, the board’s former chair, put numbers on it. Five meetings in a row have been canceled, she said. Two county seats have been open since January, and at least five qualified people applied on time, but none of their names has come before commissioners. She noted the library has no permanent director and no public search. She advised commissioners to ask Moreno on the record why he stopped the meetings, why the chair’s letters went unanswered, and why applications for seats they fill have been held back.

The Commissioners’ Debate

Commissioner Steve Stroberger opened by saying he wants the board to meet again, though he had been told the library is running well and doesn’t see it as urgent. After Moreno’s answer he learned the vacancies are the commission’s to fill.

• Commissioner Mike Kohler said the bylaws are outdated and don’t even list the correct libraries. He wants them reviewed on a regular schedule and the board’s makeup re-examined. Reading Article 8, Section 1, which says the board “shall recommend” a director to the administrator, he said he believes the administrator has responsibility over a county employee. Kohler was the lone no vote on the previous director’s hiring and said he won’t support hiring another director without clear qualifications.

Commissioner Lumon May kept it simple: “Appoint two people.” He said the commission can reject the board’s recommendations later or work with the city to dissolve the interlocal, but filling the seats shouldn’t be tangled up with hiring or operations. He also criticized the process that let a committee rank director candidates and then departed from the ranking.

• Commissioner Steve Barry—Moreno’s staunchest supporter among the commissioners—wanted an open notice for applicants, not “a closed circuit application process.” He argued a volunteer board can’t be handed authority to appoint high-paid public employees and that dismantling the interlocal with the city wouldn’t be a workable plan.

County Attorney Alison Rogers said a 2024 review of the bylaws was signed off in her office but never reached the commission. Getting it on an agenda, she said, would have been the library director’s responsibility. Kohler said he was frustrated that the agenda backup didn’t include the interlocal or the current bylaws.

• Commissioner Ashlee Hofberger said she wants the seats filled and was concerned that applications had been emailed “willy-nilly” rather than collected in one place. She called for a public portal. Once the seats are filled, she said, the commission should meet collaboratively with the full board on the bylaws.

Commissioners spent much of the night arguing about how the library got here, but they agreed on one point: the seats should be filled. That fixes the quorum problem. It does not settle whose hand is on the director’s hiring, and it does not explain why a board that the commission created in 2013 went more than five months without a meeting.

Next Action: The public needs a guarantee—in writing or at a public meeting—from each commissioner that they will not vote to do away with the Library Board of Governance.