1.  Town Treasurer Keeps Public Library Accounts.  May public Library Trustees keep their own accounts and write their own checks on orders drawn by the board?  The simple answer is "no".  A public library is a department of the town.  Although the     trustees are given, by statute, full power to "manage the public library, make bylaws, elect officers, establish a library policy and receive, control and manage property which shall come into the hands of the municipality by gift, purchase . . . for the use and benefit of the library," this statutory language will not permit the Trustees to keep its own       accounts.  Rather, in the same way that a   selectboard (who has similar authority to manage the business of the town) must draw orders for payment on the Treasurer, so must the Board of Trustees.  24 V.S.A. § 1571 & 1576 ("treasurer shall pay orders drawn on him or her by officials authorized by law to draw such orders.")  Note that the Treasurer may put the library money in a separate account - particularly since the    library may receive special gifts designated for support of the library.


2.  Selectboard Prepares Budget For Town - Unhappy Board May Ask Voters For Additional Money.  May the selectboard disregard the Library Trustee's budget        request when it prepares the budget for town meeting? The selectboard is charged with preparing a budget for town meeting.          17 V.S.A. § 2644.  If the board chooses to   reject the proposed budget of the Library Trustees the only recourse for the Trustees is to deliver to the Town Clerk, not less than 40 days prior to the election, a petition signed by 5% of the voters, to place on the warning an article requesting the additional amount desired by the trustees.  Let the voters decide what to fund.  17 V.S.A. § 2642.

   

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Vermont Secretary of State
Opinions    Volume 1 Number 1   February 1999