Moniteau County Library still defending in lawsuit

Moniteau County Library @ Wood Place
Moniteau County Library @ Wood Place

Although a judge recently denied the request for a trial setting, the case of Tipton versus the Moniteau County Library District continues.

The legal battle began last fall, when the city of Tipton and three members of the James Price Library board sued the Moniteau County Library District and three members of its board over several issues - including the Moniteau County Library District's right to exist.

Judge Kenneth Hayden denied the plaintiffs' motion to set a trial date during a July 15 hearing.

"It just means that the judge thought the case wasn't ready to set for trial, because the defendants are going to respond to the petition, and there may be other motions filed," said Annie Willis with the Missouri Law Center, representing Tipton.

The plaintiffs will ask again for a trial date in the future, she said. And they will argue against the defendants' motion to dismiss, said Kent Brown, an attorney also representing the Tipton group.

The 12-page civil suit argues a countywide library district doesn't exist legally because voters in the Eastern Subdistrict never approved a property tax for it, Willis told the Jefferson City News Tribune last October.

The library is represented in this case by Versailles attorney Steve Grantham. Attorney John Kay, who is the library district's counsel, is not part of the litigation because he is a law partner with Tipton's city prosecutor, Jeff Green, he said.

Judge Hayden has directed the defendants to file their response to the petition by Aug. 15, said Nanci Gonder, spokeswoman for the Missouri attorney general's office.

The attorney general became involved in May, after the first lawsuit, filed Oct. 6, was dismissed based on private entities not being able to sue public entities, Moniteau District Librarian Connie Walker said.

The plaintiffs contacted the attorney general's office, which gave no opinion but agreed the matter should be resolved.

The Tipton case was refiled June 20. The current case, signed by Judge Hayden July 15, lists the city of Tipton, Joe Ed Hartman, Cindy Dix Suddarth and Leroy Knipp as plaintiffs. Defendants are the Moniteau County Library District, Moniteau County Library Board, and library directors Marion Gish, Lee Longdan and Elaine Proctor.

The plaintiffs want the court to:

Dissolve the library's Eastern Subdistrict and declare "the Western Subdistrict is the only validly-created entity" to be called the "Moniteau County Library District."

Require the library district to pay Tipton "all monies collected in 2014 within the Western Subdistrict, for the sole purpose of funding the Price James Memorial Library."

Invalidate the 2013 transfer of the Wood Place Library in California to the district.

Remove any district board members who don't live within the Western Subdistrict.

Require the library district to operate only in the western part of Moniteau County.

Western Subdistrict voters approved a library property tax in 1997. Eastern Subdistrict voters have not, the lawsuit says.

The Moniteau County Library District was established Dec. 30, 1996, by the Moniteau County Commission, when subdistricts were established as eastern and western. California voters in 2004 approved a library tax.

State law requires a property tax rate to be endorsed by voters "within a five-year period from the establishment of a library district, or such library district shall be dissolved," the lawsuit cited.

Before 1996, the county was served only by two non-governmental, not-for-profit libraries - the Price James Memorial Library in Tipton and the Wood Place Library, willed to California in 1978.

When the County Commission created the district, it contracted with the two libraries "to provide free public library services to patrons within each respective subdistrict," the document says.