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Library Board Ousts Director
Jo Ann Pinder For No Cause
Viewpoint by Gay Wiley Shook
June 13, 2006
It was a case of déjà vu. In recent years at least two successful leaders of Gwinnett non-profit organizations have been summarily ejected by their boards without cause and without explanation. Now we have seen the executive director of the Gwinnett County Public Libraries (GCPL) get fired by that tight-lipped board by exactly the number of votes needed. That board divulged no cause for Ms. Pinder’s immediate dismissal and provided no explanation to the public, whose tax dollars are at issue here.
The board members of the GCPL, unlike the aforementioned non-profit organizations, are appointed by the district commissioners to four-year terms. Each commissioner appoints one member to this public board. Citizens support the public library system with county tax dollars and for that reason transparent sunshine should prevail in that board’s decisions, not the partly cloudy conditions we see now! One of the three votes for dismissal came from District 4 Commissioner Kevin Kenerly’s appointee Margaret Tiller. Ms. Tiller was only appointed on May 16, 2006, less than one month ago. It is unbelievable that Ms. Tiller would cast a pivotal vote like this at her first regular board meeting where there was no discussion. This is highly suspect and citizens should make note of it. The motion for dismissal was presented by board member Phyllis Oxendine, Chairman Charles Bannister’s appointee and seconded by Dale Todd, Commissioner Bert Nasuti’s appointee. Board Chairperson Lloyd Breck, appointed by Commissioner Mike Beaudreau, announced that he supported the dismissal vote. Board member Brett Taylor, appointed by Commissioner Lorraine Green, was the only vote against Pinder’s dismissal.
Brett Taylor, CEO of Advanced Computing Technologies, sent a letter to fellow citizens of Gwinnett County on June 2, 2006 stating his alarm at the impending unwarranted dismissal action against Ms. Pinder. He states that he believes the action is the result of a personal vendetta against Ms. Pinder harbored by Phyllis Oxendine, who used to work for the library. Taylor also states that he believes Mrs. Oxendine plans to dismantle the library executive staff.
Since the public has very wrongly been left out of this decision to fire the director who brought the GCPL to the pinnacle of success as Library of the Year in 2000--the best in the nation--the taxpayers are left with their own speculation and conclusions. This present library board looks like a little Naziville to me, having witnessed their behavior at the board meeting that resulted in Ms. Pinder’s immediate dismissal. They refused Brett Taylor’s request for discussion, which was shocking. We must be ever vigilant against strident factions that want to fly in the face of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, burn our books and try to regulate our thoughts for us. This mess may ultimately be an issue of control and censorship and Ms. Pinder may just have been in the way of what Judy Craft and her cronies in the Camp of the Religious Right want to see on the library shelves for the rest of us to read and to use. Now Ms. Pinder has been hauled off. Who will be next?
Wake up, Gwinnett County! Wake up, Board of Commissioners! Please take steps to bring this outrageous library board back to its mission of serving the public libraries and the citizens who use them. How about giving each board member a copy of the Constitution of the United States and requiring them to read it, especially the First Amendment? How about requiring the board to document and explain publicly what they did? I want to know exactly what grounds caused the immediate dismissal of Jo Ann
Pinder.
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