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The Prattville City Council ultimately voted 5-2 Tuesday night to reappoint Doug Darr and to newly appoint Don Bethel to the Autauga-Prattville Public Library board.
The votes came after a back-and-forth among council members after hearing from both sides of the aisle during a public comment session. Read Freely Alabama members and like-minded citizens called on the council not to appoint the two men; Clean Up Alabama members and like-minded citizens voiced their support.
Part of the discussion between council members came down to how the council has traditionally made these picks.
“It has been the tradition of the council—it’s not a legal thing—but it’s been tradition to accept nominees from the board and we usually vote in who they ask for,” said Council President Lora Lee Boone. “We’re at a crossing point … we’re at a point here where we will be making the decision of continuing our traditional process or looking at a completely new process where we are not taking into consideration who they appoint and instead go outside the box.”
Councilor Michael Whaley also openly questioned whether the council would only break with tradition with this board, and asked the council’s attorney Andrew Odom whether the city has any liability for action taken by board members.
Odom said that there is nothing in the code that construes any liability on behalf of the city, and said that the council could actually have immunity since they are performing a statutory duty.
It was Darr’s appointment to the APPL board one year ago by the Autauga County Commission that set in motion all of the events to come. The Autauga County Commission itself broke the tradition of appointing a nominee recommended by the library board. That decision led the remainder of the old board to resign, opening the door for the commission to stack the board with a four-member majority that aligned with the values of Clean Up Alabama.
The city’s own picks, Gloria Kuykendall and Quincy Minor, have also mostly fallen in line with the county members’ agenda. The county appointed Darr to the board seat that rotates annually between the two county governments that share control of the library, a process that allows the two governing bodies to trade majority control on a yearly basis.
In less controversial times, the tradition of the governing bodies to appoint members nominated by the board has served to fill needs recommended by longstanding board members, and to give deference to the board members involved in the decisions of the library system.
Councilors Marcus Jackson made a motion to delay the appointments once again after successfully delaying the appointments at the previous council meeting, and Councilor Robert Strichik seconded, but the motion failed. Jackson and Strichik ultimately voted against both appointments.
“The commission has made some appointments, but it’s at our feet right now,” Jackson said. “We cannot afford to be a part of any more litigation. We need to thoroughly vet candidates, and have conversations maybe with the (library board) chairman (Ray Boles) and say we need somebody neutral.”
Strichik said the board has “lost the neutrality” when it comes to opinion on the books and that most patrons are not wrapped up in the politics of the library.
“I believe that 90 percent of the people who go to our public library want to go check out a book, or listen to a book and go home,” Strichik said. “They don’t want to get into the politics of all of this.”
Lacie Sutherland, the former cataloging and acquisitions librarian at APPL, told APR that Bethel is one of the individuals that filled out multiple challenge forms for reconsideration of materials at the library.
Sutherland, whom the board fired for locking the library in protest of the termination of director Andrew Foster, addressed the council Tuesday and pleaded for them not to appoint Bethel and Darr. She pointed to Darr’s service on the board during the upheaval at the library.
“On March 14, 2024, this current board unethically fired our director, Andrew Foster,” Sutherland said. “Most of my co-workers and I closed the library in protest, then we were fired too. Mine and other positions have never been replaced, and it’s been nine months.
“But why did we protest, despite knowing that we were risking termination? We did it because what they did to Andrew was wrong. Andrew and Lindsay Milam before him were great directors … When Boles and (APPL board Vice Chair Rachel) Daniels demanded we reopen the library, they stood on the other side of the circulation desk from us like it was a Wild West standoff. When the dust settled, we knew that we were going to be the losers, not with our lives, but our livelihoods.”
Members of Clean Up Alabama said that the character of the appointees had been unfairly maligned, and continued the argument that the library’s actions have been in the interest of protecting children and the false claim that the library offered pornographic material to children.
The majority of books challenged by the group have had no sexual content but do have LGBTQ+ content, and the group has specifically focused on rooting out books that discuss gender identity.
