Board of Trustees

First question: With the expiration of the Executive Orders on June 24th, 2021, including the Order modifying the requirements of the Open Meetings Law, are libraries back to the "old way" of conducting trustee meetings?

First question: Yes...with the expiration of the Executive Orders on June 24th, including the Order modifying the Open Meetings law,[1] things are "back to normal."

Or, as the Committee on Open Government, the authority on the State's Open Meetings Law (OML), put it:

I serve on the board of an association library.

Before I answer, I would like to thank this unnamed trustee for bringing forward this important issue.  Dealing with personal legal matters is rarely easy; remembering to factor in consideration of one's volunteer obligations at the same time is impressive.

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."

This reply will answer the questions up-front, and then tackle the concern about the full board not seeing a matter since it was voted on in committee in the "background and commentary" section.

The questions:

1.  Can the non-trustee members of a committee vote if one is called for in the committee?

Our Library Director was hired 5 years ago and has always been paid for her attendance at monthly Trustee meetings. In 2021 the Town Supervisor stopped this long-standing practice. Our Town pays our Library Director.
 

Is this legal without letting the Trustees and Director prior to stopping the practice?

"Is this legal?"  Not likely.

But before I say more, I just want to offer a quick primer on how things work at "Ask the Lawyer."

Our board meetings are now 100% remote, and one trustee has failed to attend every session since the start of the pandemic.  How can our board address that, if we know the move to virtual meetings (unfamiliarity with Zoom, bad internet, etc.) is the reason for the absence?  Is removal an option?

Earlier this week I was having a conversation with Brian, one of my paralegals, about the challenges we—our office and our clients—are facing due to the pandemic.  The conversation ranged from the personal (Brian is a musician whose band hasn't been able to play; my father-in-law is in the hospital and we can't go see him), to the professional (how to handle a contract breached because people c

The library is seeking information about a law stating that the library board has sole authority over public library staff benefits. The issue that needs to be addressed is a town board's attempt to eliminate a part-time employee's one week of paid leave per year that the library board granted [several years ago].

I recently had a chance to check in with the New York State Comptroller's legal department[1] on this very topic.

The reason I had to check in is because the most recent on-point authority I could find on this subject was from 1981. 

A member of my board of trustees would like for us to meet in person. There would be 9 people in the room. They wanted to know if allowing the meeting to be simultaneously on Zoom would satisfy the requirements of open meetings law even though only one member of the public would be able to be physically present in order to stay under the 10-member cap for small gatherings.

Since the onset of the pandemic, we have had two questions about the impact of Executive Orders on the Open Meetings Law.

The first question, back in March 2020 (remember March 2020?  Ugh.), led to this advice:

Under the executive order, the modifications to Open Meetings Law meant we (I'm asking for several libraries in our system) record our Board meetings.

Before attempting to answer this one, my team and I looked to see if anyone else "out there" has tackled this question.

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?

When I started writing “Ask the Lawyer” in 2016, my daughter was two years old.

I would like to be able to answer this question like a two-year-old Molly and say simply (and loudly): “NO!” (you don't need a petition).

Can a school district library board mandate that trustees take a one-year break after two terms? It is our understanding that we cannot limit trustee terms, but our bylaws require a year break after serving two three-year terms. We aren't limiting the number of terms a trustee can serve.
Thank you for your input.

This question is being answered by guest writer and LOSA[1] associate attorney Ben Sachs. 

Thanks Ben!