Audio from the January 18th 2012 Meeting of the Middletown Library Board

by guest blogger Linda Baum

My March 19th post on this blog evoked a flurry of comments about the statements made by some library employees who attended the February 15th Library Board meeting. For the record, I don’t think anything inappropriate was said. Many who spoke during the public comments portion of the meeting expressed concern about the intentions of the newly-refigured Board, and some were critical of the new Township appointees’ behavior at the January 18th Board meeting. I talked about the tone of that meeting in my January 24th post on this blog, but have been late in getting you the audio recording.

Below is a 35-minute audio clip from the nearly 5-hour January 18th meeting. It is a recording of the Board’s discussion about service contracts and purchase resolutions. Two issues were central to the discussion. One issue concerned the normal January purchase of library materials and the exemption of these types of materials from purchasing laws. The other issue was whether or not an attorney should review these purchase resolutions and be present at Board meetings.

In large part, you will hear Library Director Susan O’Neal explaining the rules that govern library materials purchases and responding to new trustee Michael Convery’s questions.

If you don’t have 35 minutes, then skip to the last 5 minutes of the audio recording to hear the comments – by Lawrence Nelsen in particular – that resulted in public criticism of the new Board members.

(Unfortunately, there is no video-recording for the January meeting that would make it much easier to identify who is speaking. The first Library Board meeting to be video-recorded was the February 15th meeting.)