Recently Asked Questions

For public libraries seeking school ballot funding, there's some gray area around whether a petition with signatures of eligible school district voters needs to be submitted to the school. Is the petition actually needed and if so, what laws and policies define this process?

[My library's] community is calling for a member of the staff to have a seat on the board as a voting member. However, I am searching for something in the trustee handbook or DLD regulations that explicitly states this. I am not aware of any library that has ever had a staff member sit on the board as a voting trustee. I'm not inclined to agree because there are multiple knock-on effects they have not contemplated (e.g. changes to by-laws, number of seats on the board, not to mention the ethicality of a staff member sitting on a body that directs hiring/wages/appointments etc.). Of course, local by-laws are also in effect, but those do not state staff cannot be on the board, it's always just been common knowledge.

Any help/advice you could provide about the ethical question, as well as perhaps the legal one, would be very helpful.

Many thanks.

Our by-laws name certain committees as committees of the corporation --- "No such committee shall have the authority to bind the board. Members of such committees of the corporation, who may be non-trustees, unless otherwise designated, shall be appointed by the President."

Can the non-trustee members of a committee vote if one is called for in the committee? It seems like they could because the committee can't bind the board, however we could see where their vote within a committee might mean that something isn't brought to the full board.

Related to this, should we amend the by-laws to specify them as voting/non-voting members of committees?

Thank you!