Apr 20, 2011 4 min read

After showing emotion during a discussion about “a manufactured problem,” a feeling of being “accused” and “bullied” and “investigating a conflict of interest”

upon reviewing a taped recording of the April 4 Town workshop, the Fort Myers Beach Public Library Board of Directors approved two actions at a special meeting in hopes of correcting “a growing misperception” about the special district’s expansion efforts, public facility’s report and overstating budget expenses.

The library board unanimously passed a motion to present an information packet to all council members at their May 2 meeting, authorized submission of information to be printed in The Beach Observer and The Sandpaper in response to erroneous allegations, adopted a policy prohibiting a formal meeting between town elected and appointed officials and library elected and appointed officials until further notice, and established a goal of planning an event by its May board meeting to carry out the first “Beach Walk,” in accordance with the resolution passed at its January meeting. A second motion to defer consideration of action in regard to the Town Attorney’s conflict of interest and breach of rules of professional responsibility passed unanimously.

Each library director expressed themselves through comments to open up the nearly 2 1/2-hour meeting on the matter. Corning then summarized with a “go forward” mentality.

“If our goal is to get information out to correct the mistruths and to undo the spin without being threatening, let’s try to give peace a chance. I don’t see the point of creating more grief and sorrow at a time we should be celebrating (the expansion),” she said. “We are not trying to escalate an adversarial situation. We are trying to be bring peace and closure to this situation.”

Beach Library Board members appeared riled up at the beginning of the meeting. Some voices were raised in defense of their actions.

Corning: “Having watched the DVD of the workshop, I think the town is in a precarious position. I think they have embarrassed themselves. I think, in an effort to pull themselves out of this hole, they have manufactured a problem where none really exists. It’s all about making the library look bad.”

Judy FitzSimons: “I got the impression that there is a lot of envy in the fact we have accomplished and are accomplishing what is a tremendous undertaking.”

Mark LaFave: “To have a joint meeting, to me, would be just fruitless. We have no intention of telling them how to run a town. Is there intention to tell us how to run a library?”

Karen Swanbeck: “I think the important thing is to focus on how we move forward.”

Debbie Whitehead to the town council: “We’re hoping you can put this past yourselves and stop wasting the taxpayers’ money.”

Lori Wolf: “If it gets to a point that we are required to defend our actions, we need to do that.”

Sallie Seabury after attending workshop: “I really felt accused of mishandling this, and I don’t feel that way. It was extremely painful to be there. It’s basically a control issue.”

Before deciding to defer the consideration of action, the board members and Attorney Anne Dalton discussed and entertained the idea of investigating a conflict of interest case regarding Town Attorney Jim Humphrey, who works for Fowler White Boggs. The law firm assisted the library district in the issuance of a bond that was taken out for the library construction fund.

“My point is that Fowler White assisted the library with the bond issuance. Now, Fowler White is questioning whether the bond issuance was done correctly,” said Dalton. She offered options if the board decided to explore the conflict of interest question.

“There are two ways to address that,” said Dalton. “One is to explore whether or not a grievance would be filed with the Florida Bar directly resulting from that conduct. The second way to go is to explore a malpractice action against Fowler White. Those are potential areas that need to be explored.”

Library Director Dr. Leroy Hommerding represented a cooler head during the discussion.

“I think we have a lot to gain by communication. This is a small community. We are going to continue to live next to each other,” he said. “We did a resolution in January that really aimed to try and provide a vehicle to bring the community together. Let’s take action to pull together.”

A copy of the resolution and points addressing false allegations against the library will appear in next week’s paper.