Library Trustees and the Kentucky Revised Statutes

SELECTED STATE LAWS AFFECTING TRUSTEES

Open Meetings Act and Open Records Act:

KRS 61.800-61.850 Library board meetings must be open to the public except in certain specific instances. Exceptions to open meetings applicable to library boards are:

1. (b) deliberations on the buying or selling of real property;
1. (c) discussion of proposed or pending litigation against or on behalf of the board;
1. (f) “discussions or hearings which might lead to the appointment, discipline, or dismissal of an individual employee, without restricting that employee’s right to a public hearing if requested.”
(This exception shall not be interpreted to permit discussion of general personnel matters in secret.)

[When going into closed session, the board must state for the record the KRS citation; therefore the exact subsections are listed. Example: KRS 61.810, Section 1, subsection f, to discuss a personnel issue.]

Kentucky Public Library Trustee Manual, 2009
Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives http://www.kdla.ky.gov/

NOTE: What is the penalty if the Board disregards these laws? I have written KDLA and apparently they can do nothing. The only recourse is a lawsuit. At the meeting I attended the Board went into executive session without stating the K. R. S. citation; or, if so, it was done in a voice so low I could not hear it. There were other irregularities that will be discussed later, but it is important to note that there is no one there to tell them how to conduct the meetings, and their lawyer does not know.