While a majority voted yes at their June 22 meeting, Tualatin City Councilors still expressed significant dissatisfaction with Washington County Commissioners’ conduct while workshopping their intergovernmental library agreement.
“This is supposed to be a cooperative; this process was not cooperative in any way,” Tualatin Mayor Frank Bubenik said at the meeting.
One part of the agreement approved on June 22 is Tualatin’s participation in the centralized collection project, which aims to unify Washington County Libraries’ physical collections under a single management system.
Since 2024, Tualatin City Manager Sherilyn Lombos and former Tualatin Public Library Director Jerianne Thompson have worked with Washington County on the centralization project. Thompson resigned in April (tinyurl.com/4s88pxju), blaming WCCLS and saying, “The situation with the county has gotten really, really complicated.”
The centralization initiative and Washington County’s oversight had been criticized by city councilors in prior discussions, with councilors pointing to the project’s expedited rollout, WCCLS’s increased authority, the county’s lack of collaboration with commissioners, and the direct correlation between future funding and Tualatin’s agreement with the county.
On June 22, the city council approved both the governing and the operating intergovernmental agreement with Washington County in a 6-1 vote, with Bubenik voting no.
“I feel like we’re in a position where we don’t have a choice here,” Councilor Valerie Pratt said. “I’m really unhappy this couldn’t have been a one-year, but it’s not. I find it fascinating that we’re doing an MOU (memorandum of understanding) after the fact. I have no issue with the government agreement; I think it’s great, but the operating agreement I have concerns about implementation. What’s going on?”
In their objections, councilors referenced the city’s request to commit to the terms of the intergovernmental agreements for one year, then reconvene with Washington County to reassess the results of the operational agreement.
Bubenik said this request was ignored by all but two commissioners, leaving Tualatin locked into the agreement “until such time as this Agreement is wholly or partially terminated,” according to the resolution.
I’m calling out, specifically, the Washington County Commissioners for being tone deaf to the mayors’ requests for a one-year agreement,” Bubenik said.
Included in the agreements was $2,009,850 in WCCLS funding, which, amongst other amenities, would have been withheld from Tualatin Public Library if councilors voted down the resolution.
According to the resolution, “If the Cooperative Agreements were not approved, Tualatin would cease to be a member of WCCLS effective July 1, 2026…beyond the financial implications, Tualatin would lose Access to the WCCLS catalog, which means purchasing and implementing a new catalog software, WiFi, internet, public computer session and print management software, and network; Access to the 1.5 million items in other WCCLS libraries via courier…”
While the funding was secured by councilors’ approval, funding for subsequent years was a consistent concern at prior meetings. At a meeting on April 27, councilors and city staff discussed how unreliable future funding from the county could be.
At the April meeting, Councilor Christen Sacco raised concerns about Washington County’s potential inability to adequately fund the cooperative, given the county’s responsibility for such a large share of the WCCLS fund.
City Attorney Kevin McConnell concurred with Sacco at the April meeting, saying he was concerned about the wording in the dispute and termination clauses of the agreement, explaining that the county could potentially terminate the agreement and leave municipalities on their own.
“The county can terminate it for any and no reason,” McConnell said. “That’s an issue because it affects contractors; the termination affects us much more than it affects the county.”
The operating agreement reads, “the County may terminate this Agreement effective the end of any fiscal year upon sixty (60) days’ written notice if sufficient funds are not available.”
At the June 22 meeting, councilors explained that although they voted to approve the resolution, it was only in an effort to secure library funding for the next fiscal year.
“I don’t want my support to be interpreted as an endorsement of the process itself,” Sacco said. “Given the significance of this matter and the importance that the library has to the city of Tualatin, I would have hoped for a more deliberate and collaborative approach.”
Most councilors agreed that the agreements felt “rushed” and that the process timeline was out of step, souring trust between them and the Washington County Commissioners.
“I do not appreciate the process used by Washington County; it just further deteriorated the trust between cities and the county. Therefore, project planning is not our issue,” Bubenik said. “If they would have pulled their heads out of their butt and got better project planning, this wouldn’t have been rushed in the last minute.”
Councilors explained that the agreement has already negatively impacted the Tualatin Public Library, with Councilor Bridget Brooks saying the city had “lost good people and trust in our community.”
The WCCLS Centralized Collection project will remain in its “implementation and change management” phase until July 2027 and then graduate to “evolution, refinement and knowledge transfer.” According to the agreement, Tualatin Public Library’s physical collection will begin undergoing changes this year, and in July 2027, WCCLS will provide “community-focused collections comprising physical books and media in priority languages to meet local patron needs.”
