Library Board Reinstated After Two-Year Struggle

The Monterey Park City Council has reinstated the city’s library board, ending a two-year controversy that included charges of racism in the ethnically diverse San Gabriel Valley community.

In making its decision Monday, the council chose not to contest a ruling by the state Court of Appeal, which earlier this month concluded that the council had acted improperly by replacing the board with a less powerful advisory commission.

Three of the ousted board members and a volunteer group, Friends of the Library of Monterey Park, had sued, and in May, 1988, a Superior Court judge ruled in their favor.

The case included charges that some council members, including Mayor Barry L. Hatch, had racial motives in disbanding the board.

Hatch, who advocates a temporary ban on immigration into the United States, had complained that the library was acquiring too many foreign-language books.

In Monterey Park, more than half of the residents are of Asian ancestry and another third are Latino. But Hatch said the sole issue in the library suit was board accountability and library operations.

“What the board really wanted was power,” said Hatch, whose term as mayor ends next month. The board, its supporters and “those representing the new immigrants,” he said, used the charge of racism as an “ugly, rotten tactic.”

He criticized People for the American Way, a Washington-based constitutional rights group founded by television producer Norman Lear. “They think anybody who opposes them is a racist,” Hatch said.

But Mary D. Nichols, a lawyer for the organization’s Los Angeles office, said the three council members who originally ousted the board were biased.

“I don’t think there is much argument on that,” she said.

Michael Eng, board president when it was disbanded and husband of council member Judy Chu, said the decision is good news for libraries throughout the nation.

“It epitomizes the idea of a grass-roots library board,” he said. “And it takes politics out of the day-to-day running of libraries. The council still has ample power. They appoint the board and approve the library budget. I hope we can all work together now.”