Judge urges parties to resolve Moniteau County library issues

Wood Place Library is located at 501 S. Oak St., California.
Wood Place Library is located at 501 S. Oak St., California.

CALIFORNIA, Mo. - Special Judge Donald Barnes on Friday urged all parties involved in the ongoing Moniteau County Library District case to work out the problems to continue library services.

Barnes ordered "all parties to appear" Aug. 10 to "work this out and see that library services continue" for the people of Moniteau County.

He said a final, comprehensive settlement of all claims and issues should be reached by Aug. 24, and if the matter can't be resolved, it will continue to be litigated for the next two or three years and "will use up a substantial part of the money which should go for library services."

Barnes' comments came during a hearing in the Moniteau County Courthouse originally convened to determine if he should approve a motion by Clarksburg Mayor William Larry Carpenter to create a class of taxpayers to fund the district.

Barnes ruled Feb. 21 the district had not been created legally, so it never officially existed even though it operated nearly 20 years.

Carpenter, represented by Jefferson City attorney Stephen Sokoloff, wanted the judge to create a class for the Western Subdistrict taxpayers who paid a library tax to the county collector for operations of the library district.

However, Barnes ruled Friday, state law already has steps for taxpayers to follow in any effort to recover money paid for taxes, which a taxpayer thinks should not have been collected.

He said "separate equitable action," such as class action, are not in the statutes.

However, he stayed imposing his order until Aug. 24.

H. Ralph Gaw, the retired attorney named to serve as receiver for the library district, told Barnes on Friday there is just about enough money available to pay the library district's bills and salaries - unless Carpenter's motion for a class action is approved.

The judge set a Sept. 13 hearing for another motion by Gaw, to determine if the building and contents of the Wood Place Library in California are a part of the district receivership as he claims - or if they are excluded from the receivership by Barnes' ruling the district was never an official entity.

Barnes said, if he should make a ruling the California library building and contents fall under the receivership, "it puts the library out of business. This should not happen."

In 1996, Moniteau County commissioners created a public library district and asked voters to approve a proposed property tax levy to run the district.

If passed, the district was to operate with two subdistricts - Eastern and Western. Barnes said that proposal had to pass with a majority of the votes in the entire county. The Western Subdistrict was defined by the borders of the Tipton, Latham and Clarksburg public school districts, while the Eastern Subdistrict covered the rest of Moniteau County.

In the 1997 election, only the voters in what was to be the Western Subdistrict approved the tax - but the district was declared as having been created.

In 2004, a vote inside California's city limits also approved a library tax.

The county library board contracted with the Wood Place Library in California and the Price James Library in Tipton to provide services.

That changed in December 2013, when the library board accepted a donation of California's Wood Place Library and renamed it the Moniteau County Library at Wood Place.

In October 2015, a lawsuit was filed arguing state law required voters in each subdistrict to approve imposing the tax within five years of the commission's 1996 action - but that approval came only in the Western Subdistrict.

The city of Tipton and three individuals brought the lawsuit, claiming only the Western Subdistrict was valid and the 2004 California city vote was not valid because county commissioners had not authorized it, and it came more than five years after the 1996 commission decision to create the library district.

The lawsuit also argued the district was no longer supporting Price James Library operations as well as those at Wood Place.

The two sides were asked to get together and settle the issue.

However, Barnes said, "Someone got together and did not want (an agreement) to pass."

He ultimately ruled Missouri statutes say there has to be a majority of the votes in the county for a tax levy to pass.

In his Feb. 21 ruling, Barnes wrote: "The total number of votes in favor of passing the district in 1997, between both subdistricts, was not a majority of the individuals who voted. Therefore, the entire measure failed."

Finding the district was not created legally, he ordered it dissolved and ordered a receiver be appointed to oversee the operations.

There now is no Moniteau County Library and no tax to be collected legally.

Tipton has a city library tax on the August ballot to support the Price James Library.

The Elia Wood Paegelow Foundation, which made the Wood Place donation in 2013, is supporting the current Wood Place Library operations and actively is raising funds to keep the library going until the possibility of a library tax in California is decided.