Search for Moniteau Library receiver unfinished

Wood Place Library is located at 501 S. Oak St., California.
Wood Place Library is located at 501 S. Oak St., California.

Editor's note: This story was changed at 4:10 p.m. March 24 to reflect that Stephen Grantham is from Versailles. The information was incorrect in the previous version of this story.

No one has been named yet as the Moniteau County Library District's receiver - even though the original court order said that person already should have been appointed.

The lawsuit's plaintiffs who challenged the library board's operations in October 2015 - the city of Tipton and three western Moniteau County residents, Cindy L. Suddarth, Leroy E. Knipp and Joe Ed Hartman - recommended the court appoint Donald Claycomb, who retired last summer after 23 years as president of what is now State Technical College of Missouri in Linn.

"He is a highly respected, honest man who has great experience with administration and had agreed to work for a very reasonable rate," the plaintiffs' attorney, Annie Willis, of Jefferson City, explained Thursday.

However, Willis' co-counsel on the library case is Kent Brown, who also has been State Tech's attorney for a number of years - including while Claycomb was the school's president.

Stephen Grantham, of Versailles, the library district's attorney, wrote in a motion filed in the Moniteau County Circuit Court Wednesday: "Defendants believe that this creates an improper situation in that there is an appearance of impropriety, if the Court appoints someone who has been in an attorney-client relationship with one of the parties' counsel."

Willis said the plaintiffs "understand" the district's concern.

"We don't want any appearance of impropriety or favoritism," she told the News Tribune. "We are endeavoring to find another person to suggest, one who has never been a (library) client."

In his Feb. 21 ruling the library district was created illegally - because "the total number of votes in favor of passing the District in 1997, between both subdistricts, was not a majority of the individuals who voted" - Senior Judge Donald Barnes ordered the appointment of a receiver "to ensure that the tax funds and other assets in the possession of the Moniteau County Library District and its Board, or tax funds or income of any kind (payable) prior to the time this litigation is finally concluded are protected and not dissipated."

The court ordered both sides in the lawsuit, within five days of the Feb. 21 judgment, to suggest qualified people to serve as a receiver, and urged them to agree on appointment of a "suitable and qualified" person.

The Wood Place Library in California has been closed since March 1, with Director Connie Walker citing Barnes' Feb. 21 order dissolving the library district.

"The future of the County Library District and the Wood Place Library is uncertain," she wrote in a Feb. 24 news release. "We are working on a plan to have reduced hours and bare-bones services to keep our costs down and to keep the doors open in the future.

"At this point, there are too many unknowns to be more definite. In order to stay informed of the library's future, postings will be made on the library's Facebook page and webpage when there are updates."

The Price James Library in Tipton, which is owned by the city, continues to operate - although part of the lawsuit against the library district alleged it didn't spend money collected in the western part of the county in ways that would have benefited the Price James Library.