Big Horn County faces library governance, staffing and funding questions

Two of Big Horn County’s commissioners attended the April 8 meeting of its library board in Greybull on Wednesday, April 8, with the intention of ironing out a list of issues: board member dismissal, the library director position and published comments among them. Commissioners Bruce Jolley and Dave Neves joined an audience of five concerned citizens, all invited by library board members Nikole Greene, Lea Sorenson and Cari Waterworth.

“There has been a lot of miscommunication with us, as far as I’m concerned, about removal of board members. How do we handle it?” board chair Greene addressed the commissioners. She went on to explain that the present board of three began having issues with one of its members, deduced to be John D. Bernt due to election terms, in February 2025.

“He was harassing us, he was threatening us, he was harassing the librarians. He was going against every standard that we have, period,” Greene said. Reportedly, Greene reached out to commission chair Deb Craft with questions regarding dismissal and was told the commissioners cannot remove board members, the county attorney cannot represent county boards and that the library board would have to change its bylaws to allow for board member dismissal. 

 “So we did. We went into a work session, even with that member that we wanted removed,” Greene said. “We went in, revised all of our bylaws, and he voted to approve them all, which I thought was crazy, but he did,” Greene said.

Greene reported that on June 18, 2025, she sent the library board’s new bylaws to the commissioners, Big Horn County Deputy Attorney Jen Kirk and County Clerk Lori Smallwood. Supposedly under those bylaws, the library board voted to remove board members John Bernt and Bryan Baird due to non-participation in meetings and failure to sign the board’s code of ethics on January 14, 2026. Both Bernt and Baird allegedly had not attended a board meeting in more than four months at that point. 

However, in the February 17 commissioners’ minutes, Greene found that Kirk had indicated that the commission is required to remove board members, not the library board, purportedly using the library board’s old bylaws.

“Right now when we’re in limbo, I don’t know if they’re on the board or if we illegally voted them off the board, or am I going to be fined, am I going to be sued as a volunteer member because I tried to follow the guidelines, and then we changed the guidelines per request of (the county), and now it’s all falling back on us because she’s saying we didn’t change them?” Greene said.

Library board members reported that one of the in-limbo members had threatened to sue them, and police had been asked to attend their meetings on civil standby. 

“It’s very concerning when you’re serving on a board as a volunteer and at the phase I’m at in life, I’m going to be honest, I don’t need this headache,” Sorenson said. She and Waterworth indicated they were ready to turn in their resignation letters if the situation doesn’t come under control quickly.

When the library board moved to change their bylaws, they also attempted to enact bylaws handed down from the Wyoming State Library, which advised them: “County attorneys act as legal council for the county and its officers in their official capacity. Officers typically extends to appointed boards as part of county governance.”

Jolley reported that the Big Horn County attorney does not represent the commission’s boards. It was also found that library board members are not bonded.

“This simply means we need to get another reading on it to determine if the (bylaws) you sent in are acceptable and meet the requirement for whatever our lawyer looks at and if it is good, then we should use those bylaws,” Jolley said. No specific timeline was set, but Jolley stated he would get back to the board.

DIRECTOR RETIRING

Big Horn County Library Director Tina Ely will retire in July. Ely was not present at the April meeting due to a family emergency, but her position was discussed.

Greene addressed comments made at the Basin Town Council’s March 12 meeting, which were reported on in that week’s issue of the Basin Republican Rustler. At that meeting, the council declined to support the Basin library’s utility expenses as previously requested by Ely, as the county owns the library building. Council member Brent Godfrey was reported saying Ely “makes over $40,000 a year to drive to and from the libraries” and had not taken a pay cut while other library staff did for this year’s budget.

“She did not take a pay cut in her pay, but she gave up all of her retirement benefits, she gave up all of her travel time. ... She does it all,” Greene said. “She is the manager of the managers. And I want the public to be aware that this is not factual.”

Ely reportedly cut her hours so that the library would not be required to pay her Wyoming retirement. She also writes grants, coordinates finances with accountant Troy Butler and interacts with the Big Horn County Library Foundation and Friends groups. 

“I really don’t know what Tina does. When we asked her, she said she delivers books. Maybe that’s where this came from,” Jolley said. 

With the county budget expected to be released for the next fiscal year in July, and with further cuts predicted due to property tax changes, how the director position will be advertised was discussed. Jolley suggested looking at contract work or switching the position to part-time. 

“We know money is already an issue for you,” he said. “It just doesn’t look real rosy for the county in general moving forward. ... Could you split up those duties between (current staff members) or have one of them take those duties on and give them an extra buck an hour?”

“We’ve cut our library staff down to the bone. They get no retirement, they’re janitors now, they’re doing everything,” Sorenson said.

“For what it’s worth, we feel your pain,” Jolley said. 

BACK-AND-FORTH IN THE INK 

Library board members alleged the statistics used to justify the Town of Basin decision reported on in the Rustler were not accurate and up to date. The Town of Lovell was approached near the same time regarding building maintenance and utility support, though no official decision has been made.

“I just want to point out that, if this is really how Basin feels, and I would put this bug in Lovell’s ear, you better start trying to become the county seat for the libraries. It’s the most used,” Sorenson said.

This was one of several issues the library board took with newspaper content -- contentious quotes and miscommunications revealed -- over the course of the meeting, with the Town of Basin report and commissioners’ minutes encompassed in major talking points. Jolley added on that Ely has thrown commissioners under the bus with the press surrounding budget cuts that were made across the board. Additionally, Jolley noted that the commissioners had discussed in the past the state requirement for a single library in the county, with Big Horn County currently supporting three, previously five.

“The whole thought process when I brought that up was, by statute, by our legislators, if there was a different formula so that they might have to help us a little bit with our libraries,” Jolley said. “This is a problem for every county that has more than one library.

“If they did change the statute, then that would become kind of a mandate also, on their part.”