Library spat spawns Whitefish lawsuit

Members of the Whitefish Library Association are suing the Flathead County Library Board, library Director Kim Crowley and the county in connection with the closure of the county library in Whitefish.

The library association is a nonprofit group organized “for the sole purpose of supporting the Whitefish library,” according to the complaint filed Wednesday in Flathead County District Court. The association is not the same group coordinating the changeover from a county branch library to a city library. Rather, the association works to supplement funding and operational needs of the Whitefish Community Library.

The Whitefish Library Association has asked for a temporary restraining order, a provisional injunction and a permanent injunction to ensure that all the materials that were housed in the Whitefish facility on March 1 remain in the building when the transfer takes place at the end of the day June 30.

They want the library to remain open through June 30, as called for in the operating agreement.

The library association seeks assurance from the court that the defendants be compelled not to interfere with the changeover of bar codes and computer identification, so that on July 1 all the materials will be under the control of Whitefish library personnel.

They want the court to order that all materials purchased for the Whitefish Branch Library over the years be returned to the Whitefish building and the library association be paid for any such materials that were destroyed, as they claim occurred.

And, they ask that the actions of county and library officials be determined “wrongful, ill-motivated and in disregard to law and agreement.”

The complaint also asks that the Whitefish group be awarded attorney’s fees and any other relief the court finds proper.

The county has operated the branch library in Whitefish since 1976 when the county and city entered into that arrangement. Prior to 1976, the city of Whitefish had its own library.

The county uses a $2.3 million building owned by the city of Whitefish as the library. The county doesn’t pay rent for the building, according to the complaint.

Last November, the Whitefish City Council voted to terminate the city’s agreement with Flathead County at the end of this month and to operate an independent city library. County library officials have said they’ll close the Whitefish library on June 18 so they can remove county-owned materials from the building.

The complaint alleges that county and library officials have interfered with operation of the Whitefish library. It also claims the “defendants have unilaterally stripped and are stripping shelves of books.” It alleges that on June 18 all library patrons will be locked out “in order to permit their crews to further strip the Whitefish library of property which must remain at the Whitefish library.”

“Defendants are engaged in subterfuge by exchanging the ‘Whitefish books’ with other books from the central office or other branches, all with the intent of depleting the shelves in the Whitefish facility without legitimate cause and for no conceivable public good, so as to cause undue hardship on the taxpayers of the Whitefish area as though the citizens had never paid their fair share of library taxes in prior years.”

The Whitefish Library Association takes exception to the county’s position that Flathead County owns the books and printed materials housed in the Whitefish library. Rather, the complaint states, the materials “are owned by the people and by the public whereby the state of Montana has ultimate ownership.”

The library association is represented by Kalispell attorney James Bartlett. No county official had been served in the lawsuit by mid-afternoon Thursday, according to Deputy Flathead County Attorney Peter Steele. Once the county is served, it has 10 days to respond to the complaint.

Reporter Shelley Ridenour may be reached at 758-4439 or sridenour@dailyinterlake.com.