The Alabama Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would allow local city councils and county commissions to remove members of local library boards. Senate Bill 10 is sponsored by state Sen. Chris Elliott (R-Josephine).

“This bill deals with local library boards and how their members are appointed and their appointment powers,” Elliott explained. “In this case, local library commissioners, once appointed, are not expressly authorized to be removed by the local appointing authority.”

“It should be left to the locals,” Elliott continued. “We should defer to the local city council, and the local county commission that made the appointment should be able to revoke the appointment, and that's what this bill is about.”

Sen. Roger Smitherman (D-Birmingham) asked, “How are they ever appointed?”

“I did not know how they were appointed statewide and why the appointing authority could not remove them,” Elliott responded. “I had a number of local officials and mayors and others come to me and they said we have this commission that we appoint. You are not allowed to remove it if you do not have one. It is our power that we have delegated to this library committee, and we would like to be able to manage our own library committee if we wish. Masu.”

“Simply put, this means that if you are a library commissioner, you are not appointed to a federal judgeship, and the appointing authority that appointed you has the power to remove you,” Elliott said. Ta.

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Smitherman asked, “Is there anywhere in this bill that sets out criteria for removing them?”

“This came up in committee. It was a good question asked by the Jefferson woman and my fellow whips here. Listen, there's a higher standard to fire someone than to appoint someone. Should we have one?'' Elliott said. “I think we're going to end up with an amendment that requires a two-thirds vote to remove someone because they don't have any authority at this point. They just do what they want. They You do not have permission to delete it.”

“If we're going to create a bill that changes the standards across the board for everyone, we need a uniform standard,” Smitherman said. “It’s not because they don’t like it, there has to be a good cause.”

The committee tabled an existing committee amendment and replaced it with an amendment by Sen. Clyde Chambliss (R-Platteville).

The Chambliss amendment required a two-thirds majority to remove someone from the library board. It also clarified that joint libraries between counties and cities will use the same language as the unitary government libraries.

Smitherman “(f) The appointing authority shall ensure that the membership of the library board is inclusive and reflects the racial, gender, geographic, urban, rural, and economic diversity of the State. “The appointment shall be adjusted to ensure that the appointment is made accordingly.''

The Smitherman amendment was adopted 32-0.

Libraries have sparked a lot of controversy over the past year over the placement of controversial books in children's sections that promote alternative sexual lifestyles, gender transition, and Marxism.

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said Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton (D-Greensboro). This is not Nazi Germany where they burned books in the streets. ”

Singleton required libraries that removed books from their collections to report their actions to the governor and Legislature.

Singleton proposed an amendment. “Each library board established pursuant to this section shall submit a report to the Governor, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the President pro tempore of the Senate by December 31 of each year detailing the following:'' Board of Directors members, and actions taken by the Board regarding the review or removal of items in the collection during the past 12 months. ”

“I want to know what they did,” Singleton said. “I want to know what they're doing. I want them to report what's being removed.”

The Singleton amendment was adopted 28-0.

“We can't go down the road to censorship. That's a bad path,” Singleton said.

SB10, as amended, passed the Senate on a 26-7 vote. The bill now goes to the House of Representatives for consideration.

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