Hours after County Commissioners unanimously voted for Kaname “Kenny” Kuniyuki to fill the seat on the Pikes Peak Library District board of trustees that’s been vacant for months, the Colorado Springs City Council overwhelmingly rejected him in a 6-3 vote.
The selection process, which started last August, will go back to the liaisons – two each from City Council and the Board of County Commissioners – who will choose a nominee, before the two local governing bodies vote on the candidate.
Nominees have to be approved by a two-thirds majority on the nine-member City Council and by a majority on the five-member Board of County Commissioners.
It would be better to have someone who has the experience and the financial expertise. – Karla Powers, director, COS Reads
They could choose Kuniyuki again; he told reporters after the vote that he was not going to withdraw his candidacy.
“I think I have a lot of qualities to bring to the board,” he said.
District 5 Councilor Nancy Henjum, who is one of the library liaisons, and Councilor Dave Donelson, who represents District 1, where the PPLD closed Rockrimmon Library last year, said Kuniyuki was not their top choice for the position.
Kuniyuki hedged when Donelson asked if he would commit to not closing neighborhood libraries.
“That would be a decision that the board would have to have a discussion on,” he said, saying he could not commit to vote one way or another on an issue that became a sore spot for many residents of northwest Colorado Springs and several Councilors.
Karla Powers, director of the grassroots COS Reads movement that fought to keep Rockrimmon open, said she was unsure that Kuniyuki has the financial expertise that is needed on the PPLD board.
“He would be joining the board at a difficult time, and it seems like it would be better to have someone who has the experience and the financial expertise and more knowledge about the libraries,” she said.
Only three councilors voted for Kuniyuki: President Lynette Crow-Iverson, President pro tem Brian Risley, and District 2 Councilor Tom Bailey.
