The FVRLibraries Board of Trustees Should Recommit to Their Ethics or Resign. At the March 4th, 2026, meeting of the Friends of the La Center Community Library, the Friends voted to express a vote of no confidence in the Board of Trustees and their vote to adopt the strategic plan. We have serious concerns regarding the Board's commitment to their bylaws, roles, ethics, responsibilities, and our FVRLibraries system as evidenced by their actions surrounding the adoption of the Strategic Plan. Several significant factors have contributed to our decision:
Bylaws
- Article IV: Meetings; 4.4 Agenda: The Chair and Executive Director will determine the agenda, distributed with supporting materials at least 72 hours before a regular meeting.
--Trustee Kakorina shared a document with last-minute changes to the Strategic Plan language. This document was not provided for the public to view in advance nor was it provided to the Board for full consideration.
Trustee Responsibilities
-Conduct work at the policy and planning level, by reviewing and adopting policies as necessary for the efficient and effective operation of the FVRL and provision of quality library service.
-- The Board of Trustees does not have a role in word-smithing these documents and yet Trustee Kakorina provided edits without public input or consultant support and the Board adopted Trustee Kakorina’s language without proper review.
-Listen to the concerns of the public
--Thousands of members of the public shared their thoughts through the multimodal process of developing the strategic plan. The Board also heard dozens of public comments in support of retaining the word ‘equity’ in the Strategic Plan at the February 2026, January 2026, and December 2025 public Board meetings, and still removed the word “equity” from the document.
-Understand the financial needs of FVRL
--The Board adopted language presented very late at the February meeting. This action does not align with understanding FVRL's financial needs after a lengthy and costly process to develop a Strategic Plan, informed by insights from library partners and community members. The Board authorized $400,000 for consultants to develop updated language for the strategic plan that included “equity” and “intellectual freedom.”
The Trustee Ethics & Responsibilities Policy makes reference to constructive, legal, and ethical decisions, including maintaining “independent judgment without regard to personal benefit, special interests, or influence of partisan political groups.”
The vote to adopt the Strategic Plan was not an example of a constructive decision-making process.
We respectfully urge the Board to reflect on these concerns, to reaffirm its commitment to the collaborative procedures that uphold public trust and the integrity of its governance. If members of the Board cannot comply with their bylaws, ethics, commitments, and responsibilities, they should resign. If they will not resign, they should be removed and replaced by their appointing bodies.
Friends of the La Center Community Library
Greta Stuhlsatz
La Center
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