HAVERHILL LIBRARIES AND THE LAW
Action Needed

Whether due to ignorance of the law or to social or political lethargy, the town has retained this pointless system of a board of trustees without a library and four public libraries that are not subject to the control of the town or its elected library trustees. If voters of the town want to get a good grip on library service, they must either abolish the town board of trustees or ensure that it carries out its legal responsibility for operating a library. If the town abolishes this board and wants a library, it has two choices. It must either establish another board and clearly require that it operate a library, or it must accept a currently operational library and impose appropriate conditions on its trustees to ensure conformance with citizen needs. The town may require, among other things, election of all trustees at town meeting and their subjection to town rules and regulations. It may forbid trustees to transfer appropriated money to entities that it and the voters cannot control.

The simplest solution would be for the town to abolish the present elected trustee board and to establish another one, preferably with more members. The town should give the board a clear mandate to operate a library over which it has entire custody and management, and make clear that it has to expend all appropriated money as required by law and not transfer any of it to another library or entity. The Town of Haverhill has access to a grant to facilitate transition to a new system.