How many times must it be said that according to MPL policy, Statements of Concern must go to the board and agenda before their next meeting? Instead, the director has prevented seven of my Statements of Concern from doing so. I am again objecting to your misuse of MPL policy. It’s blatantly obvious that you add to, subtract from, ignore, and revise policy at will with the goal of preventing patron input.

I’ve seen the public funded State Libraries instructions to you on how to do just that. It’s ironic and sad that between the group of civil patrons and library administration, only the patrons refer to The Library Mission Statement, The Freedom to Read Statement, and The Library Bill of Rights. The patron’s requests are fully in line with and backed by those policies. Yet you continue to censor.

Since Aug. of 2022, a number of patrons have civilly followed policy as well as possible I believe, with the purpose of providing two popular, pertinent, and timely periodicals for fellow patrons to read or not to read at no cost to the library. You voted not to purchase them while prohibiting me from addressing my agenda item, according to policy at the time, and ignoring three policies listed above. The director offered to accept the free Epoch Times in August 2022 contingent upon a generous patron’s commitment to several more years of subscriptions. Please honor the offer and get out of the public’s way so we can choose what to read or not to read in our public library!

I invited each of you to come to the library one hour prior to the Sept. meeting to read several copies of the two requested periodicals and come to your own conclusions. It was no surprise that none of you did so. What were you afraid of? Seems to me that you fear they may not be as horrible as so many have been conditioned to believe. I will gladly loan copies of both to anyone who wishes to read and conclude what you will.

BTW, the public should know, and will know that lately a police officer has attended board meetings. On duty I assume. Seems odd, but it is welcome. Camera on, I hope. Too bad they didn’t record the meeting in which the councilman/mayor’s rep yelled at fellow patrons and labeled them borderline bullies and harassers.

— Signed, John Worden, “our problem patron” (ask the director about that)