GRAND JUNCTION – A writer of Christian romances and a conservative Christian podcaster have been appointed to two seats on the seven-person Mesa County Public Library District Board of Trustees in spite of a sometimes rowdy, packed-house attempt Tuesday morning to keep them off the board.
The Republican county commissioners refused to back off on their support of new members, Lisa Fry and Rosanne Croft, whose selection only came to light late last week. The news of appointments that are normally a rubber-stamped, little-noticed matter, caught fire over the weekend after a local online publication called The Revolutionist reported that the commissioners planned to fill the board seats with “right-wing ideologues.”
The news made Mesa County the site of the latest political battle over library neutrality in the country and prompted fears of book banning and the injection of right-wing politics into a public facility. It also fired up progressives’ hackles over the perception that the commissioners were attempting to sneak through the approval of the new board members without a public squabble.
The commissioners had placed the board appointments among other “consent agenda” items that is the location for matters that are considered uncontroversial and not in need of public discussion.
Instead, news of the proposed shift on the library board spread through Democratic and progressive social media sites. The commissioners were forced to move the appointments to public discussion when hundreds of citizens packed the commission chambers and overflowed into two meeting rooms. Some stood outside the county building waving signs opposing the appointments.
Some of them complained about the county’s lack of transparency on the matter.
“This process was extremely rushed. There was a lack of transparency,” Tracy Louis-Marie said. “I believe lack of transparency is a euphemism for sneakiness.”
A handful of Mesa County residents spoke in support of the appointment of the new board members. Around three dozen spoke out against the appointment of Fry and Croft to take the places of board members Sue Conry and Alice Dow.
Conry and Dow had each served five-year terms and had applied to serve for second terms overseeing a $10 million library system with more than 100 employees.
They had submitted their applications this fall and had told others they assumed they were being reappointed until they received email notices Friday telling them Fry and Croft would be appointed.
Out of 22 completed applications for the board, the commissioners chose Fry, who is the co-host of a local right-wing podcast called the Mesa County Compass. Fry was also a founder of the Grand Junction campus of Colorado Christian University.
Mesa County Commissioner Cody Davis said Fry has “extreme business acumen.”
Fry gained library-related attention when she co-organized a Constitution Day event in the children’s section of the library in September. The event was also hosted by a group of homeschool advocates.
The cosponsor of that event was Kety Vandervelde the director of children’s programs at the River of Life church in Grand Junction. Vandervelde was appointed this summer – with no public attention – to the library board to fill a vacancy.
Croft, the other new board appointee, has written Christian romance novels – referred to in reviews as “clean romance” – and has been outspoken about education being affected by “woke” ideas. Davis said Croft has extensive experience working in libraries in other parts of the country.
A number of members of the public who spoke out at the meeting against the appointments, cited their own credentials for the library board, including Ph.D.s in library science and education. Some had worked in library systems for years.
Many of them said they had applied for the board but had heard nothing from the commissioners who are responsible for making the appointments. So many speakers said they had applied and been ignored, that each new one prompted audience laughter.
Cynthia Aitz, Ph.D., and Lynn Connaway, with a Ph.D, in library science, said their applications were never responded to.
“I have been involved in libraries for 48 years,” Connaway told the commissioners.
“I signed up for the board and I was ghosted,” said Jahara Morris, who told of growing up in a “high-control religion” that dictated what she could read. “When I read ‘The Color Purple,’ it set me free. I now do not believe in censorship of any type at all.”
Deedee Harold, who identified herself as a lifetime librarian who has worked in libraries in three countries, urged the commissioners to choose board members who will pay attention to everyone in the community.
A handful of supporters of the new board members spoke up at the meeting.
Carol Rathbun said she believes that “rotation” is good for a board that will now be composed of three “Christian first” members and four that are non-partisan.
Greg Haitz, a well-known, far-right Republican who is running for Mesa County treasurer after a failed attempt as a commissioner candidate, referred to Fry and Croft as “really sweet ladies who are willing to volunteer.”
He said the fears that they will be book-banning advocates are wrong. “Libraries should be places of ideas, not ideology.”
Jason Bias, a perennial political candidate, who participated in the Constitution Day at the library by dressing in a colonial costume, spoke in support of the new board members and referred to the crowd at the commissioners’ meeting as “woke,” “evil,” and “white-haired demons.” He accused them of supporting childhood sexual mutilation.
Several speakers warned the commissioners that they may be drawing the county into a costly legal battle with their library board appointments.
“As a taxpayer, I’ve paid enough for frivolous litigation in this county,” retired attorney Dennis Baker said. “We don’t need lawsuits from the ACLU or any other bodies over this.”
Former state representative and Secretary of State Bernie Buescher also warned about repercussions.
“I wonder why you as commissioners would choose this battle,” said Buescher, a retired attorney. “I see a lot of people here with time to organize,” pointing to an audience that skewed toward retirees.
Mesa County Attorney Todd Starr was asked to offer his opinion on the legality of the library board selections and he said that disagreements over who should be chosen “do not render a legal process illegal.”
“The process is sound,” Starr said.
Commissioner Bobbie Daniel attempted to cool tempers in the room at the end of the meeting by stating that the county will look at ways to improve the process of seeking and vetting board members in the future and making that process more open to the public. The commissioners are responsible for appointing members for 30 boards.
“We will do a survey on ways we can improve this process,” she said.
