City, county settle library dispute

A dispute between the Whitefish Library Association and the Flathead County Library System was settled last week after two days of court-ordered mediation led to a settlement agreement. As part of the agreement, a lawsuit filed by the library association has been dismissed and ownership of thousands of books was determined.

The controversy arose last summer when the newly formed Whitefish Community Library was transitioning from a county-run to city-run facility. The Whitefish City Council voted in 2010 to terminate the city’s agreement with Flathead County and open a city library.

The county removed thousands of books and other materials from the building leading up to the transition date. The Whitefish Library Association argued some of those materials belonged to the city, prompting the association to file a lawsuit against the county in June last year. The Whitefish Community Library officially opened in July.

Topping the list of items to be returned to the Community Library is a microfilm archive of Whitefish Pilots. The county removed the archive despite already having a set of Pilots on microfilm. The microfilm reader previously housed at the Whitefish library will also be returned.

Cash donations totaling more than $7,000 that were given to the library specifically for the Whitefish branch or by a Whitefish resident was also directed to the Community Library.

Also to be returned are any books and audio or visual materials that have been marked as a gift or memorial to the Whitefish library. The county agreed to continue to set aside any books marked as such, but is not obligated to search their archive for those materials. Officials from the Whitefish library, however, could search the county archive at its own expense.

The Community Library is entitled to 60 percent of the estimated 6,380 materials removed from the Whitefish facility prior to the split. The remaining 40 percent stay with the county. The estimated 6,000 materials removed after the split will be shared equally.

About 30 pieces of furniture removed by the county that were at the facility prior to the split is also to be returned. Those items include book trucks, easy chairs, a coat rack, fax machine, tables, typewriter, wall clocks and a world globe.

Mike Collins, chair of the Whitefish Library board, said the settlement was a good deal for Whitefish.

“It sort of vindicated that our original positions were accurate,” Collins said. “We’re just sorry to see that it took so long to get resolved.”

Connie Leistiko, chair of the county library board, said the city and county likely could have come to terms without the court-ordererd mediation. Litigation, she said, is wasted time and money.

“Had this lawsuit not been filed, [Whitefish and the county library] likely would have worked out the issues sooner with less contentiousness,” Leistiko said. “However, because a lawsuit was pending at the time of separation, issues that had been resolved and resources whose ownership were not in dispute were left hanging.”

Collins expects most of the materials to be returned will be back with the Community Library within six months. Even without those materials, the library shelves are filling up.

“We brought in 9,000 books already,” he said. “It’s looking a lot fuller than it was.”

With the dispute behind them, Collins said the board can get back to doing what they do best.

“Which is running a library,” he said.