Library Board of Trustees

The L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library is a municipal library established under section 43.52 of the Wisconsin Statutes.  According to 43.54 (1) (a), the Board of Trustees shall consist of nine (9) members except as provided below in 43.60 (3) (a).  Members shall be residents of the municipality, except that not more than two (2) members of the total number of members of The Board of Trustees may be residents of other municipalities.  Members shall be appointed with the approval of the Eau Claire City Council.

According to 43.54 (1) (c), the Eau Claire City Council shall appoint as one of the members a school district administrator, or the administrator’s representative, to represent the public school district or districts in which the public library is located. Not more than one member of the municipal governing body shall at any one time be a member of the library board.

According to 43.60 (3) (a), A county chairperson, with the approval of the county board, may appoint from among the residents of the county additional members to the library board of a public library of a municipality located in whole or in part in the county, for a term of 3 years from the May 1 following the appointment, and thereafter for a term of 3 years, as follows:  “If the annual sum appropriated by the county to the public library is equal to at least one sixth, but less than one third, of the annual sum appropriated to the public library by any municipality in which the public library is located during the preceding fiscal year, one additional member.

The regular term of office for a Library Board member shall be three years from July of the year of appointment, except that the Superintendent of Schools’ representative and the City Council representative serve at the pleasure of the Superintendent and the City Council, respectively.  The City Council representative is appointed or re-appointed annually on the third Tuesday in April. No other Trustee may serve more than two full consecutive terms or six years, whichever is greater.  Filling anything less than a full term is an unexpired term such that a citizen may agree to fill an unexpired term plus two additional and consecutive terms.  A former Board member can be reappointed after a lapse of one year.