West Florida Public Library

They Said It Themselves: The Library Board Was Never Advisory

The 2013 resolution and the BCC’s own words from the meeting that created the Board of Governance tell a very different story than what County Administrator Wes Moreno and HR Director Nikki Powell are now claiming.

County Administrator Wes Moreno and HR Director Nikki Powell have argued that the West Florida Public Library Board of Governance is merely an advisory body, with no real authority over library operations or personnel decisions. The record says otherwise, and the record comes directly from the people who created the board.

• On Jan 22, 2013, the BCC voted to adopt Resolution R2013-17, formally establishing the West Florida Public Library Board of Governance. The transcript of that meeting—and the plain language of the resolution itself—make clear that commissioners never intended the board to be advisory in any meaningful sense of the word.

What the Resolution Actually Says

Resolution R2013-17 is unambiguous about the Board of Governance’s purpose and authority. Its very first operative clause defines the board’s mission in terms that go well beyond offering opinions:

The West Florida Public Library Board of Governance is hereby established to oversee the management of the West Florida Public Library System and make recommendations to the Escambia County Board of County Commissioners regarding the annual budget.

Oversight of management is an executive function, not an advisory one. The resolution spells out what that oversight looks like in concrete terms.

Under Section 3, the Board of Governance is given the following duties:

• It “shall be accountable for the administration and operation of the West Florida Public Library System.”
• It “shall recommend to the County Administrator or designee a Library Director to develop and implement a long range plan, an annual plan of service, and an annual budget, and oversee the day-to-day operation of the West Florida Public Library System.”
• The Library Director “shall report directly or indirectly to the County Administrator. Upon the written request of the Board of Governance, the County Administrator or designee may remove and/or reassign the Library Director within thirty (30) days.”
• The Board “shall conduct an annual evaluation of the Library Director and forward said evaluation to the County Administrator or designee.”

An advisory board does not conduct annual performance evaluations of a county employee and forward them to the county administrator. An advisory board does not have the authority to trigger the removal or reassignment of a department director within 30 days. These are powers that belong to a governing body.

What the Commissioners Said When They Voted

The Jan. 22, 2013 meeting videos capture what commissioners and then-Interim County Administrator George Touart understood they were creating—in their own words, in real time.

Commissioner Wilson Robertson opened by asking Touart directly what authority the new board would have:

“When the Board of Governance starts meeting, what decisions can they make and enact, and what decisions does the Board of County Commissioners have to approve?”

Touart’s answer left no room for ambiguity:

“The Board of Governance will run the library system. … The Board of Governance would be totally in charge of the library system. … The day-to-day operation of the library system in Escambia County will be under the Board of Governance.”

He went further, describing the relationship between the Library Director and the Board of Governance:

“As far as day-to-day direction to Darlene, she would be governed by the Board of Governance, the five-member board.”

Commissioner Lumon May followed up by asking where the library system would fall in the county’s organizational structure. Touart’s response was direct:

“The Board of Governance will be the department. The Board of Governance will be a separate department.”

That is not how you describe an advisory committee.

Touart also made clear that he viewed this board as unlike any other the commissioners would appoint:

“The Library Board is probably more unique than any board you guys will ever appoint. … This is not just like appointing any political board, for lack of a better word. This is a working board that will have a lot of responsibility. We will control the dollars, but they will control the day-to-day operation.”

Commissioner Robertson, at one point, suggested the board might function more like a traditional monthly-meeting policy board. Touart agreed with that framing—but even then, the authority involved was real policy-making power, not advice:

“Correct. They will set policy that will be carried out by manager/director and her staff.”

And Touart spelled out the board’s position in the county structure one final time:

“When I list the departments under the county administrator in an organizational chart to you, the library system will be one of the county administrator’s departments. The Library Board has the policy-making authority of that department.”

Later in the meeting, he was even more blunt:

“The Governance Board will be the authoritative board.”

The Hiring Authority Question

The current controversy centers largely on the Library Director position—specifically, County Administrator Moreno’s decision to bypass the Board of Governance’s recommendation and appoint his own candidate. The resolution and the 2013 meeting transcript both speak directly to this question.

Touart told commissioners at the January 2013 meeting:

“This board will have final say-so about the director/manager of the library system.”

The resolution echoes this, establishing that the Board “shall recommend” the Library Director to the County Administrator—and that the County Administrator “may remove and/or reassign the Library Director within thirty (30) days” only “upon the written request of the Board of Governance.”

•  The County Administrator was positioned to act on the board’s recommendations—not to override them unilaterally.

The Bottom Line

The effort to recharacterize the West Florida Public Library Board of Governance as merely advisory is not supported by the resolution that created it, the meeting at which commissioners voted to adopt it, or the words of the interim county administrator who helped draft it.

Why this matters: The record is clear. The Board of Governance was designed to be—in George Touart’s own phrase—”the authoritative board.” It was given policy-making authority, oversight of the Library Director, the power to trigger that director’s removal, and responsibility for the annual budget process. It was described as a department of county government, not a committee that offers suggestions. That was the intent of the Board of County Commissioners in January 2013. They said so themselves.

• The videos show that Moreno and Powell did no research before making their power grab, and the county attorney’s office sat on the sidelines letting it happen. 

Meeting Videos

Interim County Administrator George Touart: “The Board of Governance will run the library system. … Correct me if I’m wrong, Mr. Attorney, the way I understand it right now, the Board of Governance would be totally in charge of the library system. The recommendation of a director would be to the county administrator, ultimately to this board. The budgetary situation is an annual situation that you have to vote on. … Ultimately the bylaws that the board attorney’s office works with the governance board, ultimately those would have to be approved by this board. But the day-to-day operation of the library system in Escambia County will be under the Board of Governance that y’all appoint, the three members by y’all and the two by the city.”

PART 1

PART 2

Interim County Administrator George Touart: “The Governance Board will be the authoritative board.”