Dayton voters would be excluded from potential library vote

DAYTON—Columbia County Prosecuting Attorney C. Dale Slack requested and received an informal opinion from the Washington State Office of the Attorney General clarifying the voter eligibility to petition and vote on the issues concerning the Columbia County Rural District Library.

A group of residents dissatisfied with the library’s Request for a Reconsideration of Materials policy, are circulating a petition to place a proposition on the ballot to dissolve the library district. Should voters decide in favor of dissolution, all of the books and printed materials “shall” be sent to the State Library under RCW 27.12.320. According to Slack, “shall” means there’s no alternative or way around that provision. The library board would then need to dispose of the remaining property that is not “books or printed materials. The proposition would close the only public library in the county.

The petition must be presented to the library board by August 1, which then must forward it to the Columbia County Auditor’s Office to be placed on the next general election ballot.

The library district must pay the cost of placing the proposition on the general election ballot. Library Board Chair Jay Ball said he would meet with the county auditor this week to determine the price.

The Auditor’s Office will verify the signatures to determine if the proposition can be included on the ballot for voters in the county’s unincorporated areas.

Slack said the AG’s opinion clarified what he feared was the case; only county voters outside of Dayton or Starbuck can petition or vote on whether to dissolve a rural library district under the procedure set by the RCW.

“I am expecting that at least one City voter will file suit to stop the measure under the theory that the RCW is unconstitutional as applied here, as it denies the voters of the City (who pay the taxes and use the library) a say in the dissolution,” wrote Stack in an email response to “The Times.”

The Columbia County Rural Library District was created in 2005 to take over the library from the City of Dayton. Library Board Chair Jay Ball said the library became derelict after the city couldn’t afford or diverted funds needed to operate and maintain it.

Ball credited Dayton resident Tanya Patton for saving and rebuilding the library, saying, “Tanya invented it.”

Since the formation of the rural library district, the board and staff have added to the collection and services, and updated the building and facilities, and established professional library standards.

After a little over two years, Director Todd Vandenbark gave his letter of resignation to the library’s board of trustees on June 14.

“I am writing to inform you that I am resigning my position effective Thursday, July 13, 2023, at the end of the workday,” Vandenbark said in the statement.

Ball said the board would appoint an interim director while they look for a qualified replacement for Vandenbark. The candidate must have a master’s degree in library science.

“I hate to see Todd go. He is a true professional and worked very hard as director,” said Ball.