When Patty Hector, former director of the Saline County Library (SCL) in Benton, AR, was fired on October 9, it didn’t come as a surprise. A decision to shift control of the library from its board to county officials, driven primarily by Hector’s refusal to comply with a resolution to move certain books containing content about racism, LGBTQIA+ subjects, and sexual activity from areas where anyone under the age of 18 could access them, was proposed in April and passed in August. In the months leading up to her firing, Hector became the target of a harassment campaign by local politically conservative groups, which ranged from social media posts to billboards along the highway.

What may surprise some, however, is that Hector has thrown her hat in the ring for a spot on the Saline County Quorum Court, the same body that had her terminated.

CHALLENGING AUTHORITY

In 1978, the five-member Saline County Library board was created by an ordinance that gave it “full and complete authority” over the library. The ordinance stood unchanged for 45 years until last August, when the Saline County Quorum Court voted 11-2 to amend it, replacing the board’s exclusive right with the phrase “subject to oversight by the Saline County Judge.”

According to County Judge Matt Brumley, the original ordinance conflicted with Amendment 55 of the Arkansas Constitution, which states that “A county acting through its Quorum Court may exercise local legislative authority not denied by the Constitution or by law” and that the county judge had hiring power over “county employees, except those persons employed by other elected officials of the county.”

Each of the 75 counties in Arkansas is governed by a quorum court, members of which are called justices of the peace (JP). Quorum courts rule on matters such as levying taxes, establishing compensation for and managing officials, and appropriating funds for county roads, bridges, buildings, vehicles, and other county government entities, including libraries. JPs are elected by county voters in the general election held in even-numbered years. The Saline County Quorum Court has 13 JPs; Hector will stand for election in November 2024.

The change to library governance policy, granting Brumley control over the library’s staff, budget, and operations—and giving the Quorum Court the power to remove books from library shelves—was originally brought forward in response to the recently passed Act 372, which criminalized the distribution of “obscene content” in libraries. At a packed April meeting, residents debated whether the library should move the books in question, ultimately resolving that they should be relocated.

“My answer was, ‘Well, we already comply with Act 372, because we don't have obscene materials,’” said Hector. “But their definition of obscene, of course, is not the legal definition.” (The bill was ultimately blocked by a federal judge at the end of July, three days before it was scheduled to go into effect, largely through the efforts of a lawsuit mounted by a coalition of Arkansas librarians, booksellers, and customers.)

Library policy provides a process for challenging books; however, no formal challenges were ever submitted for the contested titles. The individuals who objected to them “didn't have library cards—they came in with list of books, which they would not share with the library people,” said Hector. Instead, they began posting about the materials, and took their complaints to Quorum Court meetings.

Hector refused to comply with the court’s resolution to move the materials. “That just angered them so much,” she said—particularly Brumley, who “came to a library board meeting and spent 45 minutes castigating me about the horrible stuff we were doing.”

Throughout the spring and summer, she and her staff were harassed and labeled “groomers” and “pedophiles” on social media. “They FOIAed me 90 times,” said Hector. The requests “would come in batches of 10 to 12, and it would take us forever to do them.” A billboard was erected off of Interstate 30, the main road into Benton, by a local group, Saline County Republican Women (SCRW), that stated approval for the Quorum Court’s passage of the resolution; a second billboard, put up in May, read “Stop X-Rated Library Books” and gave the address for a website listing the contested books under a banner with the message, “Director Hector MUST GO.”

David Gibson, chairman of the Saline County Republican Committee, called on the library board to remove Hector after she spoke to several news outlets stating that she would not comply with the resolution. When the board refused to fire her, the court chose to amend the 1978 ordinance to shift the balance of power. The resolution passed, Hector told LJ, without the Quorum Court ever talking to her about it or allowing her to speak at the meeting where it was discussed.

Two library board members resigned in June; the Quorum Court filled one of the open seats that month, and the second in September. One of the new library board members appointed by Brumley reportedly floated the idea of waiving the requirement that the next director should have an MLS degree from an ALA-accredited institution, said Hector. However, that would disqualify SCL from receiving some $200,000 in state funding.

Even before Brumley came to the library to tell Hector that her services would no longer be needed, “My office was packed up,” she said. “I knew that as soon as he got control, he would be over there in my office firing me. He was not a person that would accept a challenge from an employee, especially a woman. And that's what he saw me as—challenging his authority.”

THE CAMPAIGN BEGINS

On November 14, Hector filed to run as the Democratic candidate for the District 13 Quorum Court seat. She is up against Republican Karen Crowson, a real estate agent and longtime Saline County resident. Hector will spend much of the next year campaigning—although, as she pointed out, “in Benton I'm pretty well known because of the billboard.”

The Quorum Court currently skews conservative, she noted, with several members of the Saline County Republican Party up for contested seats next fall. Although the court has stated that it doesn’t plan to defund the library, Hector is concerned that if the open JP seats go to right-wing extremists, that could change. A number of Democrats and moderates are running against them, however, spurred by the library controversy and supported by the Saline County Library Alliance, a nonpartisan grassroots group established to defend the library. “I think democracy demands that there be more than just one party controlling our local government,” she told LJ.

After Hector was fired, the Saline County Library Alliance thanked her and her staff in a Facebook post, writing, “Though we are incredibly saddened to see such an incredible leader removed from her position over partisan politics, we are also confident that she will continue to be of immense benefit to the community regardless, as too will be the Saline County Library itself.” The group has stated that it will continue to stand up for the library.

County Library Manager Leigh Espey currently serves as the system’s interim director. She and Hector worked together during Hector’s seven years as director, and Hector feels that Espey will do well if offered the position. “I don't get from the Quorum Court or Brumley that they are that concerned about the books like SCRW is,” Hector said. “I think their problem was specifically me, and the fact that I challenged them—not the books per se.”

And if Hector wins a seat on the Quorum Court and still finds herself outnumbered? “I'll be a thorn in their side, the pebble in their shoe that won't go away,” she says.