The Washoe County Library Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday was another meeting with inflamed passions and accusatory comments. Ire, this time, was aimed at Libraries Director Jeff Scott not just by members of the public but by the board’s new chair, Gianna Jacks.
Jacks twice implied Scott was not doing his job—once because meeting minutes were not up to her standards and again because she said Scott would not provide adequate information about drag queen story hour events.
“I’m not going to approve these minutes, once again, because they’re being transcribed by, I’m guessing, library staff … during their workday,” she said. “[It’s] totally inappropriate, and it’s an antiquated system to have the library staff do this.”
Library Trustee Al Rogers pointed out an error in the minutes from the last meeting and disputed Jacks’ statement.
“I would like to clarify my further comment that I don’t see this as an egregious error,” he said. “I see this as an error that was made in the recordation of the minutes. This was an error that was made by an action item that was split into two that, I think, given the circumstance and the time, is … not acceptable [but] is understandable.”
A motion was made to approve the minutes with the error corrected, which passed. Jacks voted against the approval. Jacks also criticized Scott for not providing a budget for drag queen story hour events.
“As it says in the document, the library has no costs for hosting drag queen story hour over the summer,” Scott told the board.
Scott repeatedly said the library system does not pay for or receive money for the events, but Jacks said Washoe County taxpayers pay for staff time to promote and staff the events.
Scott said that, like all events at local libraries, staff have an obligation to provide support, from event promotions to having staff at events. Staff on salary do not count extra hours to staff events.
“We don’t do activity-based costing at the county,” Scott said. “I have done that at other locations, so it’s hard to determine staff time to do these kinds of things. Every program takes time and staff to put that together. It’s hard to contribute what would be part of the storytime and what was part of their regular schedule.”
Jacks repeated that she wanted Scott to break down costs.
“Mr. Scott, I’m asking you the cost of drag queen story,” she said. “No, it says Our Center gave us funding.”
Scott explained Our Center pays to host the events, a breakdown of which he provided to the board.
“We would have to do an activity-based costing, which involved work journaling and getting the exact cost of time for things like that, so it’d be very difficult for us to get that information,” Scott said.
“We’re not asking for Our Center costs,” Jacks responded. “Mr. Scott, we’re asking for the cost of the library. And you didn’t provide us anything? I’m asking you, once again, for numbers, and you can’t give us numbers. That is your job requirement. Once again, you’re failing at your job.”
Rogers, who used to work for Washoe County, explained county costs for such events would include staff time, but providing those costs would be more complex and time-consuming to account for.
“What we have in front of us today is the information that was requested and provided,” he said. “We didn’t ask for activity-based costing. If we want to go deeper, then we as a board can at least discuss that to see if that’s where we want to go.”
Jacks, at the board’s December meeting, made a motion to terminate Scott, but was told that was not on the agenda and could not be considered.
Public commenters spoke for and against drag queen story hour events.
Christopher Daniels is one of the drag queens, Ginger Devine.
“I talk to the families who attend, and the line goes out the door with children and parents who have smiles on their faces, who are joyful, who speak to me about family members who are no longer around because they didn’t feel loved or accepted and how they wish that there were events like this when they young,” Daniels said. “It is a joyous day. It is a wonderful and beautiful day, and we sell out.”
Those against the events said it sexualizes children, and they want them banned from libraries.
Roger Edwards said that in the 1970s, children “didn’t have to worry about some homosexual dressed up as a female parading up and down in front of our children grooming them for illicit actions. … I don’t want my children exposed to grooming my great-grandchildren, and certainly not in a public facility.”
