Judge-Executive Charlie Castlen has about a week left to present a new name to fill the vacant seat on the Daviess County Public Library board. While he said he’s had the names of the two candidates for weeks, Castlen said he was only given their applications and resumes earlier this week due to difficulty in the process at the state level.
Castlen rejected both of the initial candidates for the vacancy in February. That essentially restarted the process, where people could apply for the vacancy and two names would be chosen to send to Castlen.
He received the second set of candidate names — Elizabeth Ewing and Teudis Perez, both of Owensboro — on March 13 from the Kentucky Department of Library Administration (KDLA). But that’s essentially all he was given.
“When the first two people were given to me [in February], I was given resumes and the actual application they filled out, and so I expected that again. When (the two new ones) came in, I had nothing but the two names and their addresses,” Castlen said.
Castlen said his administrative team tried for a week to get more information to no avail. The next week, the Kentucky Public Library Association met in Owensboro. A member of Castlen’s staff went to the conference to try to resolve the issue.
After contacting someone from KDLA, Castlen said a Freedom of Information Request was needed to receive the information. After an additional 3-4 days, Castlen could view the applications. However, all points of contact were redacted.
“I had the application. That’s all it was,” Castlen said.
He said the complete documents did not arrive in his office until April 10, when Library Director Erin Waller delivered them.
Now, Castlen has 10 days left to pick a candidate to present to the rest of the Fiscal Court, which must in turn approve the appointment.
Castlen could alternatively not choose either of the two candidates, at which point state statute allows him to pick someone of his choosing — regardless if they applied — to fill the seat.
As of Thursday’s Fiscal Court meeting, Castlen had not made a decision on how to proceed.
