One member of the Daviess County Public Library board has stepped down from his position. The process for filling the unexpired term has begun, and applications are now open for those interested in filling the vacancy.
Chris Gendek confirmed Wednesday night that he informed the board and DCPL Director Erin Waller of his resignation, though he declined to tell Owensboro Times the reasoning behind the decision.
Anyone interested in filling out an application need to email [email protected] or visit the DCPL website and click “Board of Directors.” To learn more about the process visit Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives website.
Judge-Executive Charlie Castlen spoke to OT on Wednesday evening, saying he had been informed of Gendek’s resignation.
Castlen said that due to some confusion that arose during the process of filling an unexpired library board position earlier this year, he spoke with Daviess County Director of Legal Services David Smith about the correct procedures.
The key difference in filling an expired versus unexpired term is who chooses the candidates to present to a county’s judge-executive.
For expired terms, candidates apply to the library board, which vets the applicants and chooses a pair to send to the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives (KDLA). KDLA then passes those names on to the judge-executive.
For unexpired terms, the library board is essentially not involved at all. Instead, interested candidates can apply directly to KDLA, which then vets and chooses two names to submit to the judge-executive.
In both cases, the judge-executive has the power to choose one of the candidates to present to Fiscal Court, which then votes on whether or not to make the appointment.
Alternatively, the judge-executive can reject both of the candidates. In that case, the process starts over with opening the application process and eventually having KDLA submit two more names to the judge-executive, who can again either choose one name to present to Fiscal Court or reject both applicants.
If both sets of applicants are rejected, the judge-executive can then choose a person, regardless of whether they officially applied, to present to the Fiscal Court for a potential board appointment.
The law does not require a judge-executive to provide any reasoning for their decision on rejecting names.
The statutes (KRS 173.490 and 173.730) involving library board appointments were amended in 2022 and went into effect on January 1, 2023.
This is the second time the new regulations for library board appointments have come into play in Daviess County. The first came when Harry Pedigo stepped down from his DCPL board position near the end of 2023, eventually leading to the appointment of Kathi Mattas in April 2024. (Read our coverage of that process here.)
