Milwaukee Legislators Propose Legislation Relating to Public Library Boards in a First Class City

Senator Spencer Coggs and Representative Pedro Colon propose the following, in order to improve the ability of the Milwaukee Public Library Board to attain a quorum at its monthly meetings

1. Expand the territory from which the County Executive can appoint his or her designee. Currently the County Executive’s designee must reside within Milwaukee County, but not within the City of Milwaukee. Typically, the designee has been a County Supervisor. This change would give the County Executive an expanded number of County Supervisors from which to make the appointment, to include those who are city residents. The County Executive supports the change.

2. Alter the current quorum requirement of 7 of 12 members to instead be a majority of the filled seats. With vacant seats, it has been very difficult to attain a quorum at many meetings. This change would allow the Board to more efficiently conduct library business, especially during extended periods of vacant appointments, such as have been recently experienced.

At this point, Coggs and Colon are looking for co-sponsors to their proposed legislation.

(I just talked with Mike Cross, Director of Public Library Development for the DPI Division of Libraries, Technology and Community Learning, and he didn't raise any red flags over these 2 proposals.)