Wednesday, April 22, 2009

West Bend City Council rejects library board reappointments

The West Bend City Council voted 5-3 Tuesday night to reject Mayor Kristine Deiss' reappointment of four library board members in response to complaints from citizens about the appropriateness of materials in the young adult collection. Board members Tom Fitz, Mary Reilly-Kliss, James Pouros and Alderman Nick Dobberstein were not reappointed, though they will continue to serve until the mayor can find others who will agree to serve on the library board. This is the most recent development in a complaint originally lodged by Ginny Maziarka about gay-themed books in the library. The complaint was later broadened to include all "pornographic" materials.

2 comments:

cherylb said...

This is very sad. If it can happen in West Bend, it can happen to any of us. West Bend PL, we're thinking of you! I hope the new library board appointees take their job as seriously as those who are being replaced.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure I understand--if members of the Library Board vote against your petition to ban gay books, they get kicked off the library board? In what world does this make sense?