MAXIMUM TERM OF LIBRARY BOARD. Letter, September 4, 1964, to Mr. Leroy Fox, State Librarian, Topeka, Kansas.
You have forwarded to this office a query from the librarian of Gypsum Public Library asking whether it is lawful for a member of a library board to hold office for twelve (12) years or fourteen (14) years.
Since the request did not include reference to the law under which this library was founded, it is difficult to give a certain answer. However, by examining the current law relating to terms of library board members, together with the former statues, we can give you an educated guess.
The present law governing library boards establishes two four-year terms as the maximum consecutive time a board member may serve. K.S.A. 12-1222. The prior law did not specifically establish a maximum consecutive time limit, but it does speak of board members holding four-year terms "until their successors are appointed." G. S. 12-1203.
We do not deny the fact that it could cogently be argued that the old law would allow a library board member to succeed himself in perpetuity. However, it is the opinion of this office that the legislature has created new public policy by placing on library boards the two four-year term maximum consecutive time limit. If applied, this public policy should be retroactively applied to library boards established under the old law. Therefore, a library board member should not be allowed to serve more eight years.
- Quoted from Kansas Public Library Laws, Attorney General’s Opinions and Rules and Regulations, State Library of Kansas, March 1979.
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