Sandpoint library leaders eyeing policy amendment after upset over petition-gathering

By Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff

Some area residents are upset over petition-gathering at the Sandpoint Branch of the East Bonner County Library, triggering a minor social media furor after former-Dist. 1 Sen. Scott Herndon posted on Facebook Jan. 24 that “pro-abortion activists are collecting signatures for a ballot initiative to make all abortion legal in Idaho.”

According to both Herndon and EBCL Director Vanessa Velez, two individuals gathered outside the front doors of the library to gather signatures for a petition to put the Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act on the Idaho ballot as a citizens’ initiative. 

Herndon, who is also president of the Bonner County Republican Central Committee and announced last year that he would seek the Dist. 1 Senate seat currently held by Sagle Republican Jim Woodward, went on in his Jan. 24 post to state:

“They are doing this on the taxpayer funded property right at the doors of the library at the expense of Bonner County’s taxpayers.

“The doors are at least 100’ into the library property.

“Will the public library taxing district file an in-kind donation to the organization collecting these signatures?”

In a Jan. 29 email to the EBCL Board and shared with the Reader, Velez wrote that the petition gatherers “had not reached out to me ahead of time, so I was unaware of their presence until alerted by staff. When I spoke to them, they told me they thought their supervisor had obtained permission for them to be there.” 

Going on, Velez wrote, “After understanding they were exercising their First Amendment right to petition, I provided a copy of our Code of Conduct and reviewed the relevant section with them. I did not ask them to leave library property as petitioners have always been allowed in the past and disallowing any based on their viewpoint would be discriminatory.”

According to Velez’s email, petitioning is addressed in the library’s Code of Conduct, specifically that, “petitioning, soliciting, conducting surveys or selling merchandise on library property” is not allowed without the “express permission of the director or their designee.”

If permitted, petitions on library property are prohibited from blocking, hindering, or otherwise interfering with visitors and staff wishing to access or leave the buildings, “nor intimidate patrons or staff into signing a petition or accepting information.”

However, Velez wrote, the policy is problematic in that “it implies that the ‘director or their designee’ has the authority to deny expressive activities protected by the First Amendment. It also implies that petitioners on library property are ‘approved’ by the library, when they have no affiliation with or connection to the library.”

Because of that, she told the Reader that she plans to propose amending or drafting a new policy at the Monday, Feb. 9 EBCL Board meeting, which is scheduled for 4 p.m. in the Community Room at the Sandpoint library (1407 Cedar St.).

Velez’s recommended amendment states:

“Visitors may not engage in petitioning, leafleting, soliciting or conducting of surveys (collectively ‘petitioning’) inside any library building. Petitioners on library property must remain 15 feet from all entrances and may not block, hinder, or interfere with patrons or staff wishing to enter or exit the buildings, nor intimidate patrons or staff into signing a petition or accepting information. Anyone wishing to engage in petitioning shall inform library staff during normal business hours of their desire and intent to petition.”

Meanwhile, those upset by the petitioning activities have sent out a rallying call for attending the Feb. 9 meeting, writing in part, “Families (including children) were pressured and accosted while trying to enter a public, taxpayer-funded building.”

The petitioning incident isn’t the first time the library entrance has been political, with People’s Rights protesters gathering there in tense confrontations with library staff over COVID-19 masking and social distancing policies in 2020. Several other demonstrations and political gatherings have taken place on the Division Avenue sidewalk abutting the library and in the library’s garden space.

Go to ebonnerlibrary.org/events/monthly-board-meeting for more information.