To everyone who has stood with us to protect the Pickens County Library System: the battle lines have officially shifted, and we need you to act immediately.
Last Thursday night, the Library Board majority completely dropped their masks. In a chaotic public meeting, the interim library director and Trustee Mark Kilburn made a series of stunning admissions on the public record.
First, the director openly admitted that they are operating a shadow pipeline—quietly receiving and executing unvetted book "hit lists" submitted behind closed doors by outside political groups, completely bypassing the county’s official public review process.
Second, Trustee Mark Kilburn openly confessed on the recorded livestream that he is "sick and tired" of the public bringing up constitutional law. He explicitly stated that the board's custom policy deliberately rejects legal definitions of obscenity and refuses to evaluate books "taken as a whole." That is a flat admission of unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.
They have paralyzed our library infrastructure, shut down youth and teen programming across the county, and fired our award-winning director, Stephanie Howard, for trying to uphold legal county protocol. To make matters worse, they just passed a dangerous "Volunteer Policy" with an "Adopt-a-Shelf" clause designed to let unvetted political activists manually police the shelves, while the board majority actively fought against strict background checks for those adults.
We are no longer trying to reason with a rogue board. We are going over their heads.
Under Rule 7.2, Section C of the Pickens County Council Organizational Rules, the County Council has the unilateral authority to remove appointed board members by a simple majority vote for "cause." Cause includes a documentable disregard for procedures, representing special political interests over the public good, and severe neglect of duty. Pinkerton, Kilburn, and Parton have checked every single box.
We have compiled a forensic evidentiary packet of their FOIA logs, internal master ledgers, and recorded admissions to hand directly to the Pickens County Council. We need to back this packet with immense, undeniable community pressure.
We need EVERYONE on this petition to immediately sign our new, targeted petition demanding that County Council vacate these three seats for cause.
Sign the new petition, share it everywhere, and get ready to stand with us at the next County Council meeting. We are bringing the hammer down.
Thank you for refusing to stay silent,
Gus Edmundson and the Pickens County Pro-Library Coalition