The Brown Library Board of Trustees now has seven members.

During its March 13 meeting, the Washington City Council unanimously voted to increase the board’s membership from six members to seven members, in part to avoid tie votes. The council accepted the board’s unanimous recommendation to amend the city’s code of ordinances to allow a seventh member.

Trustees are appointed by the council and serve three-year staggered terms. The board’s members are Stephen H. Moler, Leesa Payton Jones, Dr. Mara V. Graves, Barbara Grimes, Crissman H. Blackstone and Rick Gagliano. The seventh member has yet to be appointed.

The board used to meet upon the call of the chairman, but that changed after Council Doug Mercer recommended a change to the proposed amendment, which called for the board to meet on the third Thursday of each month at 4 p.m.

“Section 2 of the proposed ordinance states that the board will meet on the third Thursday of each month at 4 p.m., which means that you’re setting the time and the date in the ordinance. If they want to vary that time in any way, it’s got to come back and the ordinance has got to be modified,” Mercer said. “May I suggest rather than highlighted yellow line there that says on the third (Monday) that trustees shall meet on a schedule that shall be adopted each December and published. That way they can establish the meeting schedule each December and we won’t have to change the ordinance every time they want to change the meeting date.”

The board’s duties include, but are not limited to, formulating policies, programs and regulations for governing the library; make recommendations to the council concerning building improvements and construction regarding the library and related structures; make recommendations to the city manager regarding the appointment of the library director and other library employees and participate in preparing the library’s annual budget. The board is required to make an annual report on the library’s operations to the council and an annual report to the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.