Suzy McVay, a Marion County library employee, addresses the Marion County Quorum Court at its meeting on Tuesday, December 12, 2023. McVay was interim manager of the library from December 2, 2024, after library director Dana Scott was arrested, to January 14, 2025, when she resigned. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate)
A North Arkansas library has an entirely new oversight board as of Tuesday.
In December, Marion County Judge Jason Stumph and the county Quorum Court dismissed the existing board, which had four sitting members and one vacancy. Stumph told board members they were being held accountable for failing to supervise Dana Scott, the director of the Yellville library who was dismissed and arrested Dec. 2 for alleged financial crimes.
All Arkansas library systems are required by law to have five-member governing boards confirmed by local governing bodies. Twelve people expressed interest in being on the new board, Stumph’s administrative assistant, Candice Sosnowy, said in an email.
Stumph recommended that the Marion County Quorum Court confirm Marcus Flippin, Danielle Justus, Bonnie Kenney, T.C. Burnett and Dave Dacus Jr. to the library board. The court accepted the recommendations with no dissent at its monthly meeting Tuesday.
Stumph said during the meeting that he spent a month interviewing applicants and appreciated the amount of interest in the library board.
“Before, it was like pulling teeth to find someone to fill a position, and this time people came forward,” Stumph said. “It shows a strong want and will to move Marion County in the right direction.”
Flippin is a lifelong resident of Marion County but had never set foot in the library until Wednesday afternoon, he said in an interview. He also said he anticipates looking at “the books, bylaws and volunteer registry” as part of his new role on the library board.
North Arkansas library director arrested on felony charges after financial misconduct investigation
“I don’t think anyone [on the board] has any animosity toward anyone else,” Flippin said. “We just want to move forward instead of dwelling on all this.”
The Marion County Sheriff’s Office charged Scott with two counts of tampering with public records and one count of failure to pay or file tax returns, according to her arrest affidavit. Both offenses are Class D felonies.
Scott pleaded not guilty on Dec. 10, and the jury trial in the case is set to begin the week of May 27, according to court documents.
Library assistant Suzy McVay became interim library manager after Scott’s arrest. She submitted a letter of resignation to Stumph and read part of it aloud at Tuesday’s meeting, speaking highly of her former boss.
“I have been a witness to her character for the past five years,” McVay said. “She is the kind of person who crosses her T’s and dots her I’s. She has held me to a high standard of work ethic… She would say the people are our first priority.”
Scott’s arrest came after years of scrutiny and criticism of the library from the quorum court, which repeatedly declined to include in the county budget the library board’s recommended merit pay raise for the library director, though the court did approve raises for county employees across the board in December after Scott’s arrest.
Several times last year, then-quorum court member Claudia Brigham asked Scott and the library board for detailed financial documents, both out loud and via Freedom of Information Act requests. She repeatedly criticized what she saw as a lack of transparency, according to board meeting minutes.
Marion County is one of several Arkansas counties in the past few years where libraries have faced scrutiny from their local quorum courts and community members, sometimes over money and other times over library materials. In 2022, Brigham proposed an ordinance to redesignate the library board from administrative to advisory. The proposal saw public pushback over the potential loss of state library funds and did not receive a vote.
McVay said she did not want to face the “unjust, erroneous and discriminatory” treatment from Marion County leaders that Scott faced.
“I will not choose my job over doing what is right,” she said.
Stacy McDaniel, another library assistant, is the library’s new interim manager due to McVay’s resignation.
Library directors must have a master’s degree in library science in order to receive state funding. Since the Marion County Library does not have an administrator with this degree, it has the option of forming an agreement with a librarian in another county that has the requisite education. This individual would handle certain aspects of library administration and allow the local entity to keep receiving state funds, which are crucial to keeping the library’s doors open.
The new library board will be responsible for appointing a librarian to achieve this goal, Sosnowy said. The Arkansas State Library Board distributes state funding to local libraries quarterly, and it will disburse funds from the second quarter of fiscal 2025 at its Feb. 14 meeting.
Flippin said the new Marion County Library board members are tentatively planning to meet for the first time Tuesday and are aware of the library’s need to meet certain administrative requirements for state funding.
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