HAVERHILL LIBRARIES AND THE LAW

Establishing a Library

RSA Sect. 202-A: 3 states the authority of each town to establish a library: "Any town may establish a public library by majority vote at any duly warned town meeting." Haverhill voters in effect established a library in 1898 when they approved election of a board of three trustees. This board, existing without interruption since then, must, by law, govern a library. RSA 202-A:2 states: "Library trustees" shall mean the governing board of a public library." Thus, these town-elected trustees are the legal entity responsible for governing and operating a library for the town.

The Haverhill trustees have only latent governing authority since they have never organized a library service. Instead, they transmit unconditionally all the appropriated library funds to four independent public libraries which they cannot control and over which they have no authority. In spite of the inaction and the barrier that this system poses to citizen influence over the libraries, the town-elected board of trustees remains the official entity responsible for receiving the town's library appropriation and for operating a library. Only a majority vote at town meeting can abolish this board.

A town that does not establish a library has authority to accept a pre-existing library under authority of RSA 202-A: 3: "Any town may vote in the same manner to accept a public library which has been provided, in whole or in part, by private donation or bequest." Voters at town meeting have never voted to accept any of the four libraries. Indeed the Town's attorney recently confirmed in writing that the Town has not established a public library and that none of the four libraries in town is operated by, or under, the authority of the Town.

Nevertheless, each library meets the legal definition of public library as stated in Sect. 202-A: 2, I. ""Public library" shall mean every library which receives regular financial support, at least annually, from public or private sources and which provides regular and currently useful library service to the public without charge." Each library consistently receives financial support from Haverhill tax revenues. At least some small fraction of the town's population uses the libraries occasionally.

Although the four libraries are public, they have all formed independently of town authority. Their only relationship to town authority and to the town-elected trustees lies in the funding mechanism, which is simple and perfunctory. The town transfers money supposedly to the town trustees who then supposedly transfer it to the libraries. In effect, the town transfers the money directly to the libraries since the town trustees do not even vote to transfer the money. The trustees have never voted on budget or money matters. In fact, they went for 109 years without even meeting. They have been meeting only in the last year or so in a move to involve themselves with the libraries but have taken no vote on money matters.

The Town's attorney on August 5, 2008, informed the town trustees that they lacked authority to involve themselves in the governance and/or operations of the four libraries. In a letter to the select board, same date, he stated that the trustees should decline any requests of the four libraries for assistance in matters of governance. He also advised that the libraries may not have the services of the town attorney and that "unequivocal transparency is the better mode whenever taxpayer funds are involved."

The libraries hardly practice unequivocal transparency. All four libraries have refused citizen requests for information. Two of them responded only when they received a request from an attorney. They have also not provided information on their scheduled meetings as the law requires them to do.