League City council members approve review committee for challenged library books

LEAGUE CITY, Texas (KTRK) -- In League City, the public library's board of trustees is currently tasked with things like strategic planning and capital campaigns, but they also handle any challenges to books in the library and how they're classified.

Tuesday's 5-3 vote will create another board with the sole task of reviewing challenged books.

After two hours of public comment, council members went into more than an hour of debate. The back and forth was mostly over whether two library boards were necessary or redundant.

After some amendments to the original proposal, Mayor Nick Long called for a vote on a Community Standards Review Committee made up of three library board trustees and four other people who he would appoint. Confirmation would be contingent upon council approval. These people would be required to have a background in childhood education.

The committee would also be responsible for creating the challenge form. A separate committee that looks at redundancies in city government would review this new committee before the end of the year.

The motion passed with Councilmembers Chad Tressler, John Bowen, and Tom Crews voting against it. It was a relief for people concerned about kids getting their hands on content they don't approve of, but others in the community said it still presents a threat for people in marginalized communities looking for representation in their library books.

Saultczy Bleu has been organizing the community to take action against the committee.

She said, "It sucks. I know what the intention was behind the origination of this. That intention has not changed. That intention is still there... It's insane. They're trying to play with words and trying to make people think they're not doing what they're doing. What they're doing is trying to go after the LGBTQ community," she said.

Challenged books will be pulled while members make a decision on what section they belong in. Any challenger unhappy with the committee's decision can appeal to city council who would make a final decision.

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