Victoria mayor says library will not be evicted amid LGBTQ book controversy

Victoria’s mayor said the public library will remain in its building at a Tuesday council meeting, a day after county commissioners said they could evict the library unless a complaints about controversial LGBTQ books were reviewed.

With several citizens speaking about the library to the Victoria City Council, Mayor Jeff Bauknight addressed the comments from the Victoria County Commissioners Court’s Monday meeting and assured those in attendance the library wasn’t at risk of eviction. Bauknight also said the city council would discuss possible solutions at the next meeting.

The Victoria Public Library resides in a building at 302 N. Main St. that is owned by the county.

Citizens’ comments included praise for the library for creating an inclusive environment, requests to tone down the rhetoric around the controversial books as decisions are made and concerns for what children are exposed to at the library. Some citizens said parents should be responsible for what their kids read in the library.

“There is zero interest in evicting the city or the library,” Bauknight said, noting County Judge Ben Zeller talked to city officials that morning saying the county would not be evicting the library from the building. “The county was just made aware of these books yesterday and feeling impudent. I’m sure heated comments were made.”

In 2021, 44 books were requested to be banned from the Victoria Public Library, including 21 reevaluated by the library’s advisory board. A group of parents attended the July 19 city council meeting, complaining that some LGBTQ books at the Victoria Public Library were pornographic and harmful to children.

A group of Victoria residents had originally submitted 43 formal citizen request forms for reevaluation of library materials in the summer of 2021. The library’s director denied the requests to remove the materials or move them to a designated area in the library.

All of the books held by the library require a child’s parents to sign them out, Victoria Library Director Dayna Williams-Capone previously said. She said the library needs to retain such books because they are written for often-marginalized communities in Victoria.

The council will discuss possible solutions to address the controversial books at their next meeting, Bauknight said.

One solution Bauknight would like to see discussed is an updated policy on books categorized in sections for readers 17 years and younger with library staff developing and presenting it to the library advisory board, he said.

Bauknight had no standing opinion on Tuesday but suggested there be an updated policy in place by the end of September. If that time frame is not met, Bauknight said the council could consider a resolution to freeze additions to the library’s collection.

“We can all decide on what’s appropriate or not, and we may have differing opinions on that, but we still need a written definition on what those books mean,” he said. “We also have to make sure we don’t trample over First Amendment rights, but we need to do it in a manner that protects our children. That’s what this is about — being the adult in the room and providing guidance and protecting children.”

In other action, the city set public hearings for the 2022-23 budget for Aug. 30 and Sept. 6 with a proposed property tax rate of $0.5582 per $100, a 3-cent decrease from the previous rate and a 5.1% saving, said City Manager Jesús Garza.

The city council also approved the appointment of David Brown, former Citizens Medical Center CEO, to the building and standards commission.