On Feb. 7 the Maple Valley City Council went out of their way to show disdain and downright contempt for two long-serving volunteers in our community. These two ladies have served for over 10 years on the Library Advisory Board. This board is a council appointed board established to be the liaison between the city and the King County Library System. Their terms expired Dec. 31, 2010. Until our new mayor and deputy mayor took office these two ladies would have been automatically reappointed for another term. Both ladies are active with the Library Guild, an organization dedicated to fund raising to bring special programs to the library and our community. They have been strong supporters and great advocates for our library, being able to bring knowledge and needs of the board to the guild, and vice versa.
The Library Advisory Board is made up of five volunteers and one alternate serving three year terms. Between resignations and expiring terms there was only one remaining board member until the appointment Monday night of four new board members and an alternate. Only one of the appointees has any library experience and that was a school library. None have any involvement with the Library Guild. The two individuals, who are both active with the Library Guild, with the most experience serving on the advisory board, were both given their walking papers. Thanks, but no thanks. Why would council do such a thing? The perfect storm overtook them, in my opinion. Neither individual supported a council member running for re-election last year. Both individuals are strong advocates for the library and speak their minds on behalf of the Library Guild and the library patrons. Two library employees took exception to their advocacy. Partner that with a council member who wants what I call “political retribution” and you have the perfect storm. The five council members supporting the nonappointments cited the need for “new blood” on the advisory board. In my opinion what they have done is drain the blood from the advisory board and have done much more damage than necessary. They could have gotten plenty of new blood with three new appointments and still have shown long standing volunteers their service to our community and to our library, are valued. Instead, they allowed political retribution to rule the day. It seems the mayor and deputy mayor want nothing to do with long standing volunteers appointed under past administrations. In my opinion this mentality has no place in Maple Valley and hurts all of us. Layne Barnes and I have both had experience working with the volunteers on the Library Advisory Board and saw merit in reappointing these two women. The rest of Council bought into the perfect storm.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the people who have shown interest in serving on the Library Advisory Board. I’m sure the appointees will all do a fine job. Volunteers are hard to come by these days and we need to value each and every one, including those who have served faithfully for over 10 years. My sympathies go out to the new board members because I think they have walked into a political buzz saw and it was not at all necessary, just expedient. So now we have lost the services of two valuable, gracious ladies who were cast aside for all the wrong reasons in an incredibly callous manner. The final vote was five to remove these two long-standing volunteers and two to retain them. Our city deserves better of its elected City Council members. Once again, I am saddened.
Linda A. Johnson
Maple Valley City Council member
