Letter of the Week

According to article 708 of the Newport Beach city charter, the city’s

board of library trustees is charged to “make and enforce such bylaws,

rules and regulations as may be necessary.”

With this in mind, over the past year the five current trustees have

agreed unanimously that an organization using the library’s name,

occupying an office in the library’s building and handling more than $1.5

million donated to the library must exhibit basic practices of sound

financial reporting and, in general, provide an openness compatible with

other elements of the library organization.

The dispute between the trustees and the library foundation concerns

these issues and nothing else. It does not involve a desire to control, a

need to get money sooner or, most ludicrous of all, entry markers for the

Central Library.

These are accusations that have absolutely no basis in fact and only

serve to confuse our differences.

The trustees, along with the entire (and outstanding) library staff,

considers the Newport Beach Public Library an institution of excellence.

We are confident that customers of the library agree with that statement.

The library’s standards of quality have been established over the past 80

years through the concerted and consistent efforts of other like-minded

trustees and dedicated staff members.

It is through the trustees’ sincere efforts to uphold this work to

resolve this dispute, but only in a manner that maintains the Newport

Beach Public Library’s standards of excellence.

JIM WOOD

Chairman, board of trustees

Newport Beach Public Library