Fairhope city leaders on Monday declined calls to pass a resolution instructing the city’s library board to remove books deemed “sexually explicit” under the state library board’s guidelines.

Instead, council members reaffirmed their trust in the Fairhope Public Library Board, which is currently reviewing about a dozen challenged books to determine whether they should be reclassified as adult content and moved out of teen sections.

“They are trying to work through the process that they were initially told they were in compliance with by the (Alabama Public Library Service) board,” said Councilman Jimmy Conyers, the council’s liaison to the library board. “I really think there can be a positive resolution. I think (APLS) Chairman (John) Wahl is willing to wait and see how the review process goes with the rest of the books.”

Despite this, some speakers urged the council to formally press the board to follow the APLS administrative code adopted last year, which advises libraries to reshelve books with “sexually explicit” material from youth to adult sections.

The meeting was the first one since a three-hour public hearing on April 29, focused on the library controversy that has divided Fairhope for over two years.

“Every other library in the state has gone along with the APLS administrative code, and it’s come to the point now where Fairhope is losing $42,000 a year,” said attorney Brian Dasinger, leader of several conservative groups including the Faith, Family, Freedom Coalition of Baldwin County. Dasinger has been a longtime critic of book placements at the library, and was addressing a loss of state funding to the library for not reshelving books deemed “sexually explicit.”

“At this point, I just believe it’s a no brainer to go ahead and basically issue a resolution to make your library board basically follow the APLS,” he said. “Then you get your $42,000.”

Fairhope resident Don Manuel urged the council to “do something” amid what he said is “bad press” about the controversy in national media.

“I don’t know how to get it behind us,“ he said, urging compliance with the APLS. ”Something needs to be done.”

Different views

In March, the APLS board revoked state funding for the Fairhope Public Library—a first in Alabama—after Rebecca Watson, a Moms for Liberty activist and Fairhope resident, read excerpts to board members from books she argued should be restricted to adult sections.

Most of the library’s roughly $1 million annual budget comes from the city. Officials have said the council has no plans to defund it.

“The simple fact someone challenges a book doesn’t mean it needs to be removed,” said Councilman Jack Burrell, who criticized the APLS board for cutting funding without notifying the city nor allowing due process.

Burrell added that the Fairhope library board is “going through a long process to (tell) the person who is challenging (books) that we are following the law.”

Wahl has said the funding for Fairhope remains temporarily paused while the review is conducted.

But questions continue over how the APLS is interpreting what constitutes “sexually explicit” and what type of content should be withheld from teen sections.

The APLS has since posted a definition on its website that considers “sexually explicit” as any visual, written, or audio content depicting sexual conduct that includes sexual intercourse, excitement, nudity, bestiality, masturbation, sadistic or masochistic abuse or lascivious exhibition.

Differences exist between what conservative activists view as “sexually explicit” versus how others may view it, including Republican politicians and residents of Fairhope who overwhelmingly support GOP candidates during elections.

“Despite the people wanting the books moved trying to paint us as ultraliberals, everyone on this dais is a conservative,” Burrell said, referring to the five members on the council who are elected in non-partisan elections. “I was upset someone could just go to Montgomery, raise an objection and pause our funding without even calling us. I’m not trying to change their mind … there is a divide. There is a difference of an opinion on what someone finds acceptable to their teenager versus someone who might not believe is acceptable to their teenager.”

The Fairhope Library Board, during a meeting last month, decided the books “Sold” and “Grown” were appropriately shelved despite being challenged by Moms for Liberty. Board members said neither book, in its full context, contains obscenity as defined by federal law, nor do they violate community standards on what can be displayed inside the Fairhope Public Library.

Conyers said he’s read “Sold,” which is a book about sexual slavery in India. He said while the book touches upon “tough subject matters,” he said he believes its shelved correctly.

Burrell said the city can “take the easy way out and reshelve everything” that activists ask for. But he said there are people in Fairhope who share a different belief and should also be heard.

Controversy

The dispute in Fairhope has generated national attention, including a recent article by The New York Times and coverage by Fox News. Council members agreed that they would like the controversy to get behind the city, but emphasized that they wanted the process to play itself out.

They also defended the Fairhope Public Library by recognizing that the six books have been reshelved this year.

Councilman Jay Robinson said he believes the issue has been “oversimplified” to focus on two books, but he doesn’t believe the library board is being “openly defiant” toward the APLS.

He, like other council members, said it was not council’s responsibility to vote on a resolution ordering the library board to reshelve all books that are challenged before the review process is completed.

“A resolution from the city council of where a library book goes has no impact,” he said. “We don’t make that decision. It’s never been this group’s prerogative.”

He said the only authority the council has is to “shut down the library,” which he doesn’t believe is an appropriate reaction when the controversy revolves around a handful of books.

Dasinger noted that Spanish Fort recently adopted policies adhering to the APLS definition of “sexually explicit,” and were not at risk of losing state funding nor were garnering national media attention for combatting the state.

Fairhope’s library governance is structured different from Spanish Fort. In Fairhope, a volunteer library board is appointed to administer the public library under a system that has been in place for decades. In Spanish Fort, the elected city council oversees the library.

As Fairhope Mayor Sherry Sullivan said, she doesn’t have the authority to “direct staff nor have anything to do with the operations of the staff.”