ASHEBORO, N.C. (ACME NEWS) — The Randolph County Board of Commissioners approved nine appointees to the Library Board of Trustees Monday as a dozen residents used public comments to renew complaints that the process lacked transparency.
The vote closes out a months-long process that began in March, when commissioners adopted new bylaws for the library board following the dissolution of the previous board in a dispute over the children’s picture book “Call Me Max.” A month later, commissioners pulled a vote on seven nominees from the June 1 agenda after residents said they’d had no meaningful way to learn about the openings or apply. County Manager Zeb Holden said at the time the delay was simply to allow a full board to be seated at once — not a response to those complaints.
The county did little to address that in the weeks that followed. Nine names surfaced for the first time in a memo buried 55 pages into the agenda packet posted July 2 — four days before Monday’s meeting and just ahead of the holiday weekend.
Public comments target transparency
Judith West of Archdale was the first of twelve residents to address the board, most of them repeating questions from the June meeting that commissioners had not yet answered.
“Can you share with the public tonight your process, and list the specific criteria for appointing the new Library Board of Trustees members?” West asked. “I am aware of numerous individuals with library and/or educational experience who applied for the board. Most of them, it seems, never even received acknowledgment of their application.”
Pat Miller of Trinity raised a similar list of unanswered questions — how nominees were selected, how many people applied, whether they were interviewed — and argued residents “deserve clear answers before these appointments are approved.”
Charlie White, a Randolph County resident who raised similar objections at March’s bylaws meeting, asked commissioners to pull the appointments from the consent agenda and consider each nominee individually.
“These appointments deserve public discussion and individual consideration,” White said. “Not a single up-or-down vote alongside unrelated matters, because this guarantees the absence of transparency.”
David Smith, former mayor of Asheboro, told commissioners the city has a direct financial stake in the outcome, echoing previous speakers’ concern that residents deserve more insight into who’s being appointed.
Smith pointed out that Asheboro owns the library building and is currently spending $1.5 million on its roof, contributing $125,000 a year toward operations, periodicals, books and staffing, and recently spent $500,000 replacing its heating and air conditioning system — all with little visibility into who would sit on the board overseeing that investment.
Virginia Wall told commissioners she had spent roughly a month researching the seven nominees named at the previous meeting, with limited success.
“I wanted to know who they were, what their views might be regarding the library, whether they even had a library card,” Wall said. “I couldn’t find most of that information — for some, all I have is a name. I made a notebook of what I could find.”
She said she’d observed what she believed was a pattern of appointments and decisions made by the board behind closed doors regarding the public library, and that several appointees appeared, as best she could tell, “to align with groups that advocate restricting access to certain books.”
Meeting gets heated
After Wall’s comments, Vice Chairman Kidd pressed her to share her notebook’s contents. “I think you already know,” she replied. When Kidd asked how she’d reached her conclusions, Wall turned the question back on him, asking how he’d chosen his own nominees.
“I get two picks on this board, and they’re my decision and my nomination,” Kidd said. “I picked who I thought was most appropriate.”
Kidd went on to question Wall’s sincerity, noting she hadn’t scrutinized appointees to other boards filled through the same consent-agenda process. “Here’s the Animal Services Board — are you really concerned about that one? Did you research all those people?” he said, citing the Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority and the Tourism Development Authority as well. “I don’t think you care about any of those.”
“I’m beginning to think I should,” Wall responded, before Chairman Frye cut off the exchange.
After public comment ended, Frye circled back, telling the room that a speaker had “put down people” they knew nothing about. “One of them happens to be the vice president of Randolph Community College, Dr. Shaw, sitting right there on the back row,” Frye said. “Do you want to turn around and tell him what you think of him?”
According to multiple sources in the room, the nominee Frye pointed to was actually Alvin Battle, a pastor at South Plainfield Friends up for appointment to the library board that night — not Dr. Shaw. Battle serves on Randolph Community College’s Board of Trustees, not as its vice president.
Frye’s comments also set off a back-and-forth with a member of the public, who pointed out they were unaware of who the nominees were because the board hadn’t provided any information about them ahead of the meeting.
“Well, you took so much trouble to find out everything else — why didn’t you find that out?” Frye said before moving on to approve the consent agenda.
Nominees (and a liaison) appointed
Before the vote to approve that agenda, Frye announced that one of the names of the appointees to the library board had been a mistake and added a new name to the list of appointees.
“We’re going to make one change, because one of the appointees was, by mistake, appointed to a district board from a different district, and the bylaws don’t allow that. So Starr Ayers will be dropped from the list, and Donna Brown, a former teacher at Providence Grove, will take her place,” Frye said.
The nine nominees were then approved on a unanimous vote of the consent agenda. The appointees, as approved, are:
- – Donna Brown – Asheboro (3 years)
- – Jennifer Cole – Asheboro (1 year)
- – Alvin Battle – Archdale (3 years)
- – Richard Callahan – Archdale (1 year)
- – Cindy Garrett – Liberty (2 years)
- – Steven Watson – Randleman (3 years)
- – Cynthia Rogers – Seagrove (2 years)
- – Mary “Mimi” Cooper – Ramseur (2 years)
- – Michael Johnston – Franklinville (1 year)
Related new business Monday night also included the selection of a commissioner to serve as a non-voting liaison to the library board, a position created under the board’s new bylaws. Vice Chairman Kidd nominated Commissioner Lester Rivenbark for the role; the nomination drew a mixed vote and failed.
Commissioner Haywood then nominated Chairman Frye, citing the board’s earlier decision to have its chairman and vice chairman jointly lead the county’s Animal Services division after a similar controversy. The nomination drew an objection from Vice Chairman Kidd that the liaison appointment had not been included on the published agenda. However, the vote to appoint Chairman Frye passed, placing him as the first liaison for a one-year term.
What’s next
As of Wednesday, the new Library Board of Trustees had not yet set a date for their first meeting. A public notice of when and where meetings will take place “shall be posted in the Administrative Office of the Asheboro headquarters library” and “on the website of the Randolph County Public Library” according to the bylaws which also say the board shall attempt to hold meetings at 6 p.m. or later in order to allow citizens of Randolph County to attend.
Acme News emailed Chairman Frye asking how residents were expected to learn nominees’ backgrounds when only their names were released in a memo attached to the meeting agenda four days before the vote. Acme News also asked Kidd whether it was appropriate to question a speaker’s sincerity — a rare breach of decorum for the board. Neither had responded as of publication.
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