Bill that Would Have Given Library Board Appointees the Right to Appeal Removal Struck from Docket
The bill was to have been considered by a House of Delegates subcommittee last week.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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Legislation that would have granted library board members the right to appeal their removal was stricken from a House of Delegates subcommittee last week at the request of the patron.
The bill, HB 2704, was introduced by Delegate J.J. Singh, who represents District 26, located in Loudoun County.
It was initially carried by Delegate Josh Cole, who represents the Fredericksburg-centered District 65, and was drafted following conversation between Cole’s office and constituent Mary Becelia.
Becelia was removed from the Central Rappahannock Regional Library’s Board of Trustees by the Stafford County Board of Supervisors for alleged misconduct last summer. She was not notified of the reason for the action or given the opportunity to defend herself.
In December, supervisors voted to strike the allegation of misconduct from the official record and in January, Chair Deuntay Diggs offered an apology to Becelia on behalf of the board.
Becelia wrote in an email to Cole’s office in November that she “[continues] to be very committed to protecting current & future citizen volunteers in the increasingly volatile world where libraries, unfortunately, intersect with political agendas.”
HB 2704 would have amended section 42.1-35 of the Code of Virginia, which states that a member of a library board may be removed “for misconduct or neglect of duty,” by adding the following sentence: “The procedure for removal of a library board member shall include a right of appeal by the member to the circuit court within 30 days of a decision to remove such member.”
Singh took over patronage of the bill and it was to have been considered last week by a subcommittee of the House Committee on Cities, Counties, and Towns, but Singh asked that it be struck from the docket.
Singh’s chief of staff, Lucas Harrington, told the Advance that “constituents in the area reached out with concerns around unintended consequences around removing people who actually do need to be removed from boards.”
“We talked internally and realized there wasn’t going to be time to get stakeholders all together,” Harrington said. “So, we removed it from docket this year so we can craft something better next year and not mess up this thing we’re trying to fix.”
He stressed that the delegate is “not against the idea, but on a process level, we’re concerned about unintended consequence.”
“We want to make sure people in any board have due process,” Harrington said.
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