Library book freedom may be issue with Murfreesboro decency law: 'Is that what we want?'

Murfreesboro Vice Mayor Bill Shacklett worries that freedom to choose library books might be diminished if deemed harmful to children because of a community decency standards ordinance.

"Imagine a policeman coming through the library and somebody saying, ‘I want this out of our library,’" Shacklett said June 15 before voting against the ordinance approved by the Murfreesboro City Council.

"Is that what we want?”

The other five present council members, including city Mayor Shane McFarland, however, agreed to the ordinance that includes punishments for violators exposing children on any city property to "public expressions appealing to prurient interests or that are offensive to prevailing community standards."

“It reflects the legislative judgment of the council," McFarland said before voting with the majority. “The council is the one who determines those decency factors inside a community."

The council enacted the ordinance, following a BoroPride LGBTQ+ festival with a drag show in September. Murfreesboro City Manager Craig Tindall responded to event organizers with an October letter saying he'd reject future permits and accused them of exposing “children to a harmful prurient interest.”

Other cities have debated similar ordinances.

City officials in nearby Franklin, Tennessee, decided to withdraw a community decency policy because of legal concerns over violating the First Amendment.

The Murfreesboro vice mayor said he supports the council's intent to protect children, "but I’m not sure this ordinance tomorrow makes us a safer community.”

"There might be some unintended consequences," Shacklett said.

The Murfreesboro ordinance states it's adhering to what the First Amendment allows by restricting "nudity, public indecency, and lewd and sexually explicit conduct" in parks, streets, public squares, sidewalks, plazas, public buildings and city buses, or where children may be present.

The new ordinance also cites protecting children from behavior, materials and events that predominantly appeal to prurient interests, are patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole, and lack serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

Enough to ban it? BoroPride, drag show complaints total 5 prior to 2022 event, public records show

LGBTQ+ supporter questions community decency ordinance

The June 15 agenda report on the issue covering pages 140-144 includes a memo to the council, addressing the ordinance.

The document describes the ordinance as a supplement to "existing civil and criminal sanctions for indecent behavior, barring persons who engage in prohibited conduct from sponsoring events on a public space for two years and increasing to five years where the prohibited conduct occurs in the presence of minors."

The ordinance concerns Shae Crowell, the board president of Rainbow Rutherford, a local LGBTQ+ support group.

"This local issue mirrors a national climate in which those intolerant to LGBTQ+ existence are weaponizing that existence to attack the LGBTQ+ community and long-standing community institutions," Crowell said.

Crowell also worries about the ordinance giving unelected bureaucrats the authority to enforce the community decency standards with unintended consequences for any group wishing to use city property.

"The BoroPride issue, where the city manager chose to ban an entire organization from using city property based on the actions of one independent performer, was really a test case for how this consolidation of power might work in Murfreesboro," Crowell said.

'There are real human lives at stake': Trans Life Q&A event counters Saturday Teens Against Gender Mutilation rally

Those accused of violation can request hearing with city official

Murfreesboro City Attorney Adam Tucker spoke about how the crafted ordinance offers more clarity on community decency standards.

“We’re defining what constitutes indecent behavior and indecent material," Tucker said.

The city attorney also mentioned the consequences for violations of the ordinance.

"There is the civil penalty of forfeiting a right to get a permit for an event on city property if after going through a due process proceeding," Tucker said.

The due process pertains to a hearing that a group or person accused of violation can request before the city manager or an employee designated by the city manager. The official presiding will issue a final written decision based on preponderance of evidence, according to the ordinance.

Tindall: Council funding not to be spent on age-inappropriate books

The ordinance also has an expectation of how city funds can be used.

“A person who misappropriates city funds in violation,” Tucker said, could “face criminal or civil penalties under existing law.”

The city's budget for the new fiscal year that started July 1 provides over $1.3 million to subsidize a part of the Rutherford County Library System, which includes a Linebaugh Library that's adjacent to Murfreesboro City Hall in the downtown area.

Tindall, the former city attorney before he became city manager, also talked about how the ordinance requirements on using funds allocated from the majority of the elected officials.

“Council has a right to decide how it wants a limited resource such as the appropriation it gives the library to be expended on something” Tindall said. "This is a statement that it’s not to be spent for the type of books for minors that are specifically outlined in the ordinance itself.”

LGBTQ+ festival issue: Mayor McFarland tells BoroPride supporters to 'find a way to compromise'

Library system supported by other local governments

The library system serves more than just Murfreesboro. The Rutherford County Commission agreed to appropriate nearly $2.1 million to the library operation for the next fiscal year that starts July 1. Smyrna is contributing $423,450 in funding for its library branch while Eagleville is providing $47,977 for the small city's library branch on the far southwest side of the county. La Vergne operates a library that's separate from the county's library system.

The governments contributing to the Rutherford County Library System have appointed representatives serving on the library's board, including Murfreesboro City Councilman Shawn Wright.

A supporter of the ordinance, Wright said he expects the library board to be the first level to examine any complaint about inappropriate book before city officials would get involved at more of an appellate level.

The city manager agreed that he expects the library board to handle the initial complaints.

The council or the city manager doesn’t prosecute anyone, Tindall said.

“It goes to our justice system," said Tindall, whose government includes City Court presided by Judge Ewing Sellers.

BoroPride wants to keep festival: Murfreesboro pride group says they're 'about love and acceptance,' amid controversy

Shacklett: 'Trying to control what is in the public library is not a good move'

Vice Mayor Shacklett also worries the ordinance will require the city manager and Police Chief Michael Bowen to be involved with complaints about library books that could lead to criminal charges.

"Moving into that area where we’re trying to control what is in the public library is not a good move for this council to make," Shacklett said.

Mayor McFarland told Shacklett that the council provides guidance to the city manager.

“If that city manager doesn’t take that guidance as a majority of the council, then there’s other ramifications that come with that with those decisions," McFarland said. "I think that’s what we’re elected to do.”

The mayor also noted that he's been called a "NAZI or transphobe" because he commented on social media about a recent local event that involved national public figure Riley Gaines. A University of Kentucky swimmer who won All American recognition, Gaines spoke June 20 on private property at the Fountains at Gateway development in Murfreesboro "because she believes that biological males should not be competing against biological females in sports," McFarland said.

Police gear for library security Murfreesboro OKs rally against transgender care

Library system has policies to address patron concerns

Shacklett also suggested that the city manager could be burdened with a list of 350 books to examine.

"Or are we just going to wait until the public says, ‘This one has a rainbow on it, and I don’t think it’s appropriate for it to be in the library?'" Shacklett said.

The vice mayor's wife, Rita Shacklett, is director of libraries for the Rutherford Library System. She oversees operations that include a branch at Patterson Park Community Center by Murfreesboro's Bradley Academy school for children on the southside of the downtown area and a Technology Engagement Center operating adjacent to the city's Hobgood Elementary School on the eastside.

"The library has policies in place to respectfully address patron concerns about any of our materials," Rita Shacklett said. "Our board will be working with the city to further explore the ramifications of the ordinance in regards to the library."

Linebaugh Library gets 44% of its funding from the city and 56% from the county while the branch at Patterson Park Community Center is 100% covered by the city.

LGTBQ+ festival seeks location: MTSU rejects BoroPride application for 2023 LGBTQ+ festival that's also blocked by city

Descriptions in city code of violations: 'Almost felt like I had to take a shower'

Vice Mayor Shacklett said parents ought to be the ones deciding what books are appropriate for their children "because the diversity of our community demands that somebody may not see it the same way as I do.”

The vice mayor also said he's concerned about what the ordinance "says to the community about the value of personal freedom and personal choice.”

The ordinance repeats what's already been in the city code about nudity and obscene actions on public property, Vice Mayor Shacklett said.

“Almost felt like I had to take a shower," he said.

Rally attracts two sides of issue: Opposing transgender viewpoints face off during events at Murfreesboro Civic Plaza

No public hearing held prior to ordinance approval

The vice mayor also questioned why the council declined to hold a public hearing on the ordinance and listen to what the people have to say about community decency standards.

"Let them tell us that we’re NAZI’s," he said. "Let them tell us that we’re narrow minded."

The council might get both sides of the issue, the vice mayor said.

McFarland suggested he'd received no emails from the public about the proposed community decency standards requirements of the city before he joined the majority of the council to vote on approving the ordinance.

“I think it’s important for this body who represents this community to voice what those standards are," McFarland said. “The reason I’m supporting this is it sets penalties that do not exist in any of the legislation that we currently have. It defines, it elevates a penalty that specifically involves minors on public property.”

The mayor also suggested that's he's sought to tolerate others.

“The years that I’ve been up here doing this, I’ve tried to set the standard that we don’t ask you whether you're Republican or Democrat, gay, straight," said McFarland, who won his mayor seat in 2014 and served two four-year terms on the council starting in 2006. "We don’t ask what your ethnicity is when we come and pick up your trash. We provide services.”

2022 city election results: Shane McFarland remains Murfreesboro mayor; Scales-Harris retains council seat

Mayor McFarland questions what's available in library

McFarland also challenged the vice mayor about what's available in the library.

“Bill, I could argue in the library right now, there may be things that I agree with that aren’t allowed in the library," McFarland said. “There’s things that I’m sure I disagree with that are in the library.”

The vice mayor defended freedom as being what a library offers.

"You have free will to choose," Shacklett said. "And simply saying it’s not available to you is not necessarily a strength.”

The vice mayor noted that history has shown that cultures that are limited on ways people must think are led by a despot.

“Books represent thoughts," Shacklett said. “Books represent speech. Books and thought and speech are, in my mind, very similar because that’s how people express their thoughts. That’s how they speak is in a book."

The vice mayor also expressed concerns that the city would deny a book related to religion that officials don't agree with.

"I don’t think it’s healthy," Shacklett said. “You should have the opportunity to be exposed to a variety of thoughts, and that is the strength to our democracy is that we don’t limit thought.”

Costs to protect city during rally: Police overtime totals $10,000 for Murfreesboro teens against transgender care rally

At least four of six council members back ordinance

The other council members who joined McFarland and Wright in backing the ordinance are Austin Maxwell, Madelyn Scales Harris and Kirt Wade.

Council member Jami Averwater was absent for the official vote, but she did oppose the initial draft of the ordinance presented May 25 prior to the amended version adopted June 25.

"I support the general idea of this ordinance, but I also cannot support it as proposed," Averwater said during May 25 meeting.

Reach reporter Scott Broden with news tips or questions by emailing him at sbroden@dnj.com. Follow him on Twitter @ScottBroden. To support his work with The Daily News Journal, sign up for a digital subscription.

Local government funding for Rutherford County Library System

• Rutherford County: $2.1 million

• Murfreesboro: $1.3 million

• Smyrna: $423,450

• Eagleville: $47,977

• Note: La Vergne operates library independent from county system

Sources: Rutherford County, Murfreesboro, Smyrna, Eagleville and La Vergne governments

This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: Library book freedom may be at stake with Murfreesboro decency law