Moniteau Library legal fight prompts letter, rebuttal

Even as the parties wait for Senior Judge Donald Barnes to rule in the Moniteau County Library District's legal battle, a letter read at last week's board meeting has added to the out-of-court debating.

Brenda Allee-Bates of Olean told the News Tribune she read a three-page letter to the board Thursday night.

Allee-Bates noted she worked as a library consultant for the Missouri State Library, which is part of the secretary of state's office, from June 2011 to November 2014. She said her letter contained personal thoughts based on that experience, but wasn't an official statement of the State Library's position in the Moniteau County case.

Sixteen months ago, the city of Tipton and three area residents sued the library district, saying the library board was spending some money illegally.

Allee-Bates' letter began: "Recent articles regarding the lawsuit brought by the City of Tipton against the Moniteau County Library Board (are) missing some important information.

"I realize we live in a time of alternative facts, but hope your readers are open to additional information."

She said the first key fact, "from the Missouri State Library's perspective," was that the Moniteau County Library District (MCLD) was created with the passage of a tax in Subdistrict Two in 1997. Since that time, the Moniteau County Library District has submitted state aid applications and received state funds as a county library district."

The lawsuit, filed by Jefferson City lawyers Judith Anne Willis and Kent Brown, lays out some of the library district's timeline as a background for the legal dispute.

Unlike most area library districts that have existed for years, Moniteau County originally had no public district, but worked with two private libraries - the Price James Memorial Library in Tipton, and the Wood Place Library in California.

In 1996, county commissioners created a public library district with two subdistricts - Eastern and Western - and set a property tax rate that voters in each district had to adopt.

The Western Subdistrict was defined by the borders of the Tipton, Latham and Clarksburg public school districts, while the Eastern Subdistrict covered the rest of Moniteau County.

The October 2015 lawsuit argued state law required voters in each subdistrict to approve imposing the tax within five years of the commission's 1996 action - but that approval came only in the Western subdistrict.

In fact, the lawsuit said, the Eastern Subdistrict voters never adopted the property tax - and a 2004 vote inside California's city limits approving a library tax wasn't valid - making the Western region the only valid district under state law.

Allee-Bates said in her letter the ballot language that Western Subdistrict voters approved in 1997 said the 12-cent tax on each $100 of assessed property valuation was "for a County Library."

The October 2015 lawsuit noted the library board had contracted with both the libraries to provide services - but that, in December 2013, the library board wrongly accepted a donation of California's Wood Place Library and renamed it as the "Moniteau County Library at Wood Place."

The lawsuit argued the board and district cannot "accept tax money from portions of the county where there is no valid library district," the district and board "now incorrectly contend that the (California library) is a valid County Public Library " serving all residents, when the only "legal" library district is based in Tipton - so the legal board must "provide (library) services within the Western Subdistrict" only through the Price James facility.

In her letter, Allee-Bates said Tipton representatives believe all the funds collected in Western Subdistrict should go to fund the Price James Memorial Library in Tipton, a city-owned and operated facility.

But, in a rebuttal to her letter, the lawyers for the Tipton residents who filed the lawsuit said: "The reason the Western Subdistrict taxpayer plaintiffs and Tipton are trying to get MCLD money is that it actually is their money.

"The funds they seek are only the funds collected in the Western Subdistrict."

As they alleged in their 2015 lawsuit, Willis and Brown last week repeated their belief the "California subdistrict was illegally created. The Missouri State Library does not have the legal power to construe statutes regarding whether the Moniteau County Library District was entirely validated by the vote of only one subdistrict out of two.

"That is the job of the courts and the General Assembly."

Allee-Bates ended her letter by urging "the County Library Board to pursue a course of action that is best for all the residents of Moniteau County and not just the City of Tipton."

But, Willis and Brown countered: "The MCLD has taken power for itself that it doesn't have, and ignore the statutory provisions which require them to provide library services physically within the Western Subdistrict.

"Currently, the only services being provided in the entire county library district are at Wood Place in California, and they think that's enough.

"Is it beneficial to force everyone in the county to drive to California to go to the library, instead of having two convenient locations?

"Is it better to have one library for the price of two, or two libraries for the price of two?"

Both sides told Barnes in December they had been unable to negotiate a solution to the conflict.

But, Willis said in a motion filed late last month, negotiations were continuing.

Barnes hasn't announced a date for issuing his ruling.