UPDATE: Problem fixed.
The West Florida Public Libraries’ website for its Board of Governance no longer lists its meeting schedule or its most recent agendas and minutes. The link “Agendas & Minutes” also no longer works, cutting off the public from understanding what the board has been doing. The links have been invaluable in my research of the WFPL operations since Christal Bell-Rivera as named the interim library services director last August.
Inweekly asked County Public Information Officer Kaycee Lagarde about the issue. She wrote, “I’ll have to check since library staff manages their website. I’ll let you know, thanks!”
She reported back: “I checked with staff and confirmed that they have not made any changes to that webpage, so it seems to be an IT issue. We have IT looking into it and I will let you know when it is back up. ”
Fortunately, we have downloaded many of the minutes:
oct-20-2025-special-board-meeting-minutes
october-27-regular-meeting-2025-minutes
nov-10-2025-special-meeting-minutes
janaury-26-2026-regular-minutes
2-2-26-special-meeting-minutes-updated-final
Welp, looks like we have officially hit the “not even trying to pretend we are above board” phase of this.
Sad.
Is that true, is there really a person on the Library Department staff that does manage its website? Even if true, why would anyone be monkeying around with the Library Board of Governance portion of the Library website, to include without the approval of the Board Chairman? I recall a recent meeting where the Library Board discussed the budget. I think I heard that a certain amount of money (Library Property Tax dollars) is transferred each year from the Library Fund to IT Department to pay for IT services. I recall telling a Library Board member that a better practice would be for the Library to hire its own IT staff. What is now posted online as of this moment (1:51 PM) is a hot mess. The Library Board was formed in 2013 so everything going back to at least the adoption of Resolution 2013-17 in 2013 should be listed in logical order, and easily searchable by terms.