Library board member encourages diversity on city commissions

Jul. 24—The library board member whose reappointment to the board sparked weekslong debate shared his ideas about improving city commissions on Monday at the city council meeting.

Brian Kirk's reappointment to the library board was paused in June due to protests over his support of the LGBTQ community.

During public comment, Brian Kirk, who is openly gay, thanked Mayor John Josendale for staying in communication with him and commended his efforts for making the board application process more transparent and public, but Kirk wanted to address the need for diversity on city boards and commissions.

"I would agree that more people serving and more diversity of the people serving on boards and commissions is what is best for our community. We should have a goal of making our boards and commissions and our city council reflect the diversity of our community as best as possible," Kirk said. "I would also agree that removing one of the few queer people serving on one of the boards in our city is not exactly the best way to achieve diversity."

He added that it's encouraging for more people to know they can serve on boards because it can help attract people of all backgrounds to serve.

"I would suggest that what we need is more queer people serving on more commissions," he said. "We need more Latinos serving on boards and commissions. We need more African Americans, more females. We need more working-class individuals, more neurodivergent, more differently-abled persons. And certainly, more young people."

Kirk said it was important for the council to hear and see him personally. He said the library board holds public meetings, and the public is always welcome because they can learn about what the library board handles. In addition to deciding some policies, members work on finances and budgets.

"We just passed some policies about what age the children could check certain materials out, so we don't have any say over the content in the library or programing that happens at the library," he said. "That's all the work of librarians."

While Kirk is still a member of the library board, he had to step down as vice president due to the uncertainty surrounding his reappointment. He plans to attend the next few city council meetings until the library board reappointments are resolved.

"I really do hope this is resolved at the end of August, because that's when the council has other appointments to vote on," he said. "And since these are past due, the three that are open for the library board, we would hope that by then they will have made a decision."

Other notes from

the meeting:

The council passed an emergency bill to enter an agreement with Missouri Western State University for public use of the Thomas Eagleton indoor pool.

The council is also addressing infrastructure needs at Bode Ice Arena and the Remington Nature Center.

The city is purchasing $286,465 worth of equipment to replace the Bode Ice Arena's refrigeration system from Trane U.S. inc. after the resolution was adopted on Monday. The resolution was on the consent agenda, which passed 7-0.

The council also approved a bill for second reading to enter a contract with IHP Industrial to replace the ground source heat pump at the Remington Nature Center with updated HVAC.

The contract with IHP is for an amount not to exceed $715,450. The bill also includes an amendment to the city's general fund to transfer $375,000 from the 2011 hotel/motel guest tax program to provide additional funding for the project.