HAVERHILL LIBRARIES AND THE LAW

Trustee Custody

Sect. 202-A: 6 makes a sweeping requirement of trustees: "The library trustees shall have the entire custody and management of the public library and of all the property of the town relating thereto, including appropriations." Furthermore, Sect. 202-A: 11, III requires that the trustees "Expend all money raised and appropriated by the town or city for library purposes …"

The Haverhill trustees do not have custody or management of any library and do not expend any of the library appropriation. They transmit appropriated money to the four libraries that they have no authority to control. They cannot claim that the four libraries are branch libraries since each has a board of trustees that exclusively governs it and do not fall under the jurisdiction of a main library.

Although only library trustees have authority to manage the town library, this does not prevent the town from establishing rules for library governance or to otherwise exercise control over a library. The voters at town meeting may impose requirements on libraries to the same extent and in the same way that they impose requirements on other town agencies or officials. Just as the state legislature may pass laws that govern state agencies and officials but may not manage the agencies or supervise their officials, so voters at town meeting may impose requirements on the town’s agencies and officials as long as their requirements do not allow any official to supersede the authority that the law has bestowed upon the agencies. This applies to the libraries as well.