Return of Library Board Is Upheld

An appeals court has upheld a ruling reinstating the Monterey Park Library Board that was ousted by the City Council in 1987 in a dispute over control of the library--a dispute that some say was tinged with racism.

Supporters of the board called Friday’s ruling “a defeat for the forces of bigotry and intolerance.” However, city officials said the case had absolutely nothing to do with racism but instead dealt with the council’s need to control the library and its finances.

The council had replaced all five board members with an advisory panel that had less authority.

Mayor Barry L. Hatch disputes charges that the move was part of an attempt to limit the number of foreign-language library books in the ethnically diverse, San Gabriel Valley city.

Denies Charges

“They said we’re burning books and throwing Chinese books out the door,” Hatch said, referring to the ousted board members and their supporters. “They’re full of damn lies and deceit.”

Michael F. Eng, president of the board before it was disbanded, said the dispute centered on control of the library.

“It’s a great victory for the independence of public library boards across the nation,” said Eng, an attorney. “This ruling will be cited as an affirmation for a grass-roots library system in which public appointees are going to be shielded from politics.”

Hatch, who as mayor has become known for his outspoken desire for a temporary ban on all immigration to the United States, decries people he considers opportunistic outsiders meddling in Monterey Park affairs. On Friday, for instance, he cited People for the American Way, a Washington-based constitutional rights group founded by producer Norman Lear, which entered the case on behalf of the Library Board.

Thinly Veiled

Mary D. Nichols, a lawyer with the group’s Los Angeles office, said in a prepared statement: “The library takeover was a thinly veiled effort to punish the Library Board for reaching out to the non-English-speaking citizens of Monterey Park.

“Perhaps now the library can go back to the business of serving its community without the mean-spirited interference of those who believe libraries are places to practice divisive politics.”

The lawsuit began in January, 1988, when the Friends of the Library of Monterey Park and three of the ousted members of the board sued the city for reinstatement.

In May, 1988, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the board members, saying the state’s Education Code required the city to operate its library with a board having managerial powers. But Monterey Park officials claimed that the state Government Code allowed the city to have the less-powerful advisory panel.

No Authority

In the ruling issued Friday, the Court of Appeal said the City Council’s abolishment of the board amounted to the council’s assuming management of the library. State law, the court ruled, calls for the library to be overseen by a board, and the council had no authority to eliminate it.

Although the suit centered on technical issues of state laws governing library boards, J. Craig Fong said the “underlying issues were clearly linguistic and racial.” Fong is the supervising attorney with the Los Angeles-based Asian Pacific Legal Center that assisted the ousted board members in the case.

City officials have not decided whether to appeal.