New Law Proposed for Rural Libraries
Dayton Memorial Library
Washington State Senate Bill 5824 passed out of the Senate Committee on State Government and Elections to the Senate Rules Committee on January 12, 2024. This is a positive first step for a bill that will revise the statutes on the dissolution of Rural Library Districts found unconstitutional by the Columbia County Superior Court in Dayton last September.
Prior to this Superior Court action, Washington law governing rural library districts provided that only registered voters who live in unincorporated areas of a county could vote on the dissolution of a district. This provision existed because the statute’s framers believed that rural library districts would only serve and be funded by residents outside of incorporated cities. However, the city of Dayton's residents have been receiving services from the Columbia County Rural Library District through the Dayton Memorial Library and paid taxes to the library for those services since 2009.
Neighbors United for Progress (a political action committee composed of Columbia County Democrats, Republicans, and Independents) helped create Senate Bill 5824, redefining how rural library districts can be dissolved. The proposed measure provides that all registered voters who pay taxes in a library district can vote on library ballot measures. It also raises the petition signature requirement threshold from 10% to 35% of eligible registered voters.
On Tuesday, January 9, Elise Severe, the Chair of Neighbors United for Progress, gave testimony at the Senate’s Committee on State Government and Elections hearing. The committee’s consideration Senate Bill 5824 starts at timestamp 37:10. Elise’s testimony starts at timestamp 46: 44.
On Friday, January 12, Senators Sam Hunt (D) Javier Valdez (D) Bob Hasegawa (D) Patty Kuderer (D) voted to pass out the bill. Senators Jeff Wilson (R) Phil Fortunato (R) and Perry Dozier (R) not to pass the bill from the committee. Senate Bill 5824 now goes to the Senate Rules Committee,
We will update you on the bill's status as it advances.
A Refresher on How We Got Here
Beginning in early 2022, extreme conservatives in Walla Walla and Columbia County sought to ban some books on race and gender issues from the Walla Walla High School and the Dayton Memorial Library. In September 2022, the Walla Walla Public School board and the Columbia County Rural Library firmly rejected those requests. That ended (perhaps temporarily) book-banning actions in Walla Walla, but it set Columbia County conservatives on a path that could have destroyed their county’s only public library.
In October 2022, a petition was launched to dissolve the library district. This petition was driven by concerns from some community members over the content of 11 books that addressed race, transgender, and nonbinary issues.
The situation culminated in a lawsuit filed by a local political action committee, Neighbors United for Progress. They argued that the initiative to close the library exceeded the county's powers, unconstitutionally disenfranchised county residents who pay taxes but wouldn't get to vote, and that the petition process was marred by fraud.
On September 20, 2023, the Columbia County Superior Court ruled in favor of the library district and barred the initiative from appearing on the November ballot. The court found the statute that defined who could vote on this initiative unconstitutional. It further found that the initiative was procedurally invalid, and its signature-gathering process was marred by "potential criminal acts."
This legal decision was a significant victory against efforts to ban books and close libraries. The Dayton Memorial Library was on the verge of becoming the first in the country to shut down over disputes about its contents.
Three weeks after Neighbors United for Progress won its case in the Columbia County Court, Elise Severe, the NUP chair, and Amy Rosenberg, chair of the Columbia County Democrats, presented a great program at the Central Committee’s October 10, 2023 meeting. You will enjoy it.