CALIFORNIA, Mo. -- The lawsuit challenging the legality of the existence of the Moniteau County Library Board and the Moniteau County Library can proceed, according to the state attorney general.
Judge Kenneth Hayden recently dismissed the original case brought by the city of Tipton and Joe Ed Hartman, Cindy Dix Suddarth and Leroy R. Knipp. All of the individuals are Western Subdistrict taxpayers and patrons of the Price James Memorial Library in Tipton.
However, the attorney general's office authorized the suit to be refiled.
The lawsuit was filed Oct. 6, 2015, against Moniteau County Library District and its board of directors.
County Librarian Connie Walker said since an actual decision needs to be made, it is good the attorney general's office allowed the case to continue.
Patrons of Tipton's privately owned Price James Memorial Library filed the suit after the $1.8 million in assets of another private entity, Wood Place Library in California, were donated to the Moniteau County Library District. Effective on Jan. 1, 2014, that action created a publicly owned, taxpayer-supported Moniteau County Library. It then was named "Moniteau County Library@Wood Place."
The Missouri State Library had urged the county library board to create a Moniteau County Library after the county commission created the library district in 1996. This donation is believed by the county library board to have placed it in full compliance with state law governing libraries.
There are three main issues addressed in the lawsuit:
First, whether the Moniteau County Library District exists lawfully. If it does not, any actions it may take could be moot, including the acceptance of the existing California Wood Place Library, which was a private library. A part of this question is if there is actually any subdistrict other than the Western Subdistrict.
Second, whether the county library district is required to contract to provide services with Tipton and the Tipton library in the Western Subdistrict. As a library owned by the city of Tipton, the Price James Library has an advisory board and no governing library board. The county library board maintains all contracts with the Price James Library must be done through the city of Tipton and voted on by the Tipton City Council.
Third is whether members of the Moniteau County Library Board legally are qualified to hold offices in the organization.
Appointed by the Moniteau County Commission, two are residents of the Eastern Subdistrict, two of the Western Subdistrict and one of the California Subdistrict.
The answers to these three questions are disputed by the two sides. On one side, the county library board and Walker believe the donation of the $1.8 million of private Wood Place assets to the publicly owned Moniteau County Library not only brings the county into state compliance, but also provides actual assets belonging to the taxpayers.
On the other side, the Friends of the Price James Library, their President Cindy Suddarth and the city of Tipton say the only lawful library county taxing entity is the Western Subdistrict.
It appears that up to now, no judicial decision has been reached on the question of how state law applies to the tax-based funding of various county library entities, and affiliated private libraries.
When Walker, who has a county library background, originally came to Moniteau County, she did not realize the taxpayers had no assets belonging to the library district, since only private libraries served the county residents.
All taxpayer funds were going to the two private libraries - Wood Place and Price James.
The idea was that donating the private Wood Place assets to the public Moniteau County Library would give taxpayers something to show for their money.
The Moniteau County Library District was established with the two subdistricts established based on the public school districts.
One subdistrict including the Tipton, Clarksburg and Latham school districts passed a library tax levy. Those funds had gone toward the support of the contracted Price James Library in Tipton.
The second subdistrict included the rest of the county's school districts, but its voters did not approve a library tax.
Later, California voters approved a library tax within the city, allowing the Wood Place Public Library to be supported by the Elia Wood Paegelow Trust and the California library taxes.