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MPL boardroom antics part 10
Editor, this is the latest of dozens of rejected Statements of Concern.
A Reasons for trustees to fire MPL director.
1 Unethical treatment of patron DB Aug. 2022
2 Gross behavior toward patron JW Nov 15, 2022 . No apology offered.
3 Failure to provide accurate , balanced data to trustees prior to voting on SOC. No apology offered.
4 Failure to promote compromise first offered by patrons early 2023.
5 Promoted reactionary and punitive policy aimed at punishing patrons civil attempt to hold MPL admin accountable for #1 thru #4 above.
6 Allowed patron to breach decorum for 3 minutes June 2023 board meeting.
7 Along with board pres., rejected dozens of Statements of Concern from published agendas, effectively shielding the public from concerns with a city department.
B Reasons requiring resignations from 3 longest serving trustees.
1 Failure to insist on accurate, balanced data from staff and director noted in #3 above.
2 See #4 above.
3 Adopted #5 above. Including another trustee.
4 See #6 above.
5 Refusal to accept a list of 200 signatures in petition form of patron's request for periodicals. Board president requested a list. Repeated requests for lists requesting each title in the collection currently go unanswered.
C Reasons requiring four latest trustees' resignations.
1 Refuse to meet with the patron who has witnessed all of A and B above and more.
2 In contrast, Marshall Co. rep quickly agreed to meet with patrons, recognized politicization but has done nothing to deal with it.
Four trustees have resigned since mid- 2023, been replaced by the former mayor, who have demonstrated no more respect for patrons than those they replaced.
Due to autonomy, the board is tasked with oversight of city employee director and indirectly city employee staffers. The board has failed in this regard, and the city has failed to hold the board accountable. City administration has ignored MPL exposure in 12 newspapers twice, Des Moines City View, tv interview, radio interview, multiple letters to the editor from various patrons, countless social media posts, and articles/photos in this paper. If not for this exposure, due to MPL's practice of rejecting literally dozens of Statements from meeting agendas for the past forty-five (45) months, citizens would be unaware of city department malfeasance.
MPL admin, if you are reading this, compromise from patrons is still on the table.