After months of book challenges, most of the Autauga-Prattville Library board resigned Monday, including a member who’s served on the board for more than 20 years.

The resignations of four of the seven members come one week after the Autauga County Commission appointed Doug Darr to the board without going through the official procedure of waiting for recommendations from the board.

“We didn’t even know that there was going to be a vote until that day for this candidate,” said library director Andrew Foster. Foster said they were caught “completely off guard” by this move and scheduled possible appointments for the Dec. 10 county commission meeting.

The initial commission recommendation was for Tony Moore, who Foster said has been a “controversial” candidate supporting Clean Up Alabama’s efforts, an organization started in Prattville that has challenged mainly books with LGBTQ or race themes. Foster said at one point, Moore threatened a library board member.

“Moore unfortunately has a bit of a reputation for being very hot tempered,” said Prattville resident Angie Hayden, a member of the library advocacy group Read Freely Alabama. “I know for a fact that he has made physical threats against city leaders. I know that he put his finger in the face of a library board member at one of the city council meetings.”

When community members such as Hayden spoke up at the commission meeting, Moore withdrew his name. The commission immediately voted in Doug Darr, who wasn’t listed on the meeting agenda.

“It’s odd that they jumped the gun and it was even more odd that they did it with such little transparency and such secrecy,” Hayden said. She said Read Freely Alabama is petitioning the county commission to reconsider the appointment. Hayden added no one in RFA has considered running for the board because they desire neutral candidates.

“We are very concerned that this Moms for Liberty affiliated group (Clean Up Alabama) is trying to stack the board and I think that has been their intention for a while now,” Hayden said. “And we hope that the county commission is not going to help them do that.”

The resigning board members include chair Susan Poteat, who’s been a member since 2015; vice-chair Wayne Lambert and Pam Frederick, who’ve been members since 2022; and Sandra Harvey, who has served on the board for more than 20 years.

The remaining board members are Tommy Gamper, a board member appointed in 2014, and newcomers Doug Darr and Christie Sellers. The city council appointed Sellers this month. AL.com couldn’t reach current and former board members for comment at the time of publication. In October, Darr shared on his Facebook page the Clean Up Alabama event, “Fighting to End the Sexualization of Children in Public Libraries.”

“I don’t know much of anything about Mr. Darr,” Foster said. “So I don’t know if it’s going to be a good thing, a bad thing, or a neutral thing. I’m certainly hoping he’s not going to come in with any kind of agenda, but I don’t have any assurances on that. The county hasn’t even sent me the official information on him yet. So I don’t have all that much to work off of, sadly.”

Earlier this month, the board voted to move the young adult novel “Red Hood,” written by Elana K. Arnold, to the adult section after consulting with the book reconsideration committee, according to library director Andrew Foster.

“I think it was a conversation that the committee took very seriously,” Foster said in an earlier interview. The committee is comprised of two library staff members and a board member. The board voted to keep four other challenged books in the juvenile and young adult sections, including “If You’re a Kid Like Gavin,” “The Civil War of Amos Abernathy,” “Felix Ever After,” and “I Am Margaret Moore.”