Enterprise city committee meetings don’t usually draw a large crowd, but the Library Committee meeting Monday, Dec. 4, 2023, had a packed audience. Nearly 100 people crowded into the City Council chambers and another 20 or so were online to hear the committee discuss a controversial sex-ed brochure. From left around the table are city Administrator Lacey McQuead, Librarian Liz Cedarbrook and Councilor Brandon Miller.

ENTERPRISE — A controversial sex-education pamphlet won’t be banned from the Enterprise Public Library, but it will be moved to another location in the library, according to a directive issued by the Enterprise City Council’s Library Committee at a meeting Monday, Dec. 4.

“We gave a directive to the library that they will, in working with the committee, have a designated spot inside the library for the long-term brochures,” Councilor Brandon Miller said after the meeting. “It’ll be inside in a space available for anyone who has a brochure.”

Miller serves on the committee along with Councilor David Elliott and Mayor Ashley Sullivan.

Long-term brochures are those that may stay at the library for an extended period of time, as opposed to short-term brochures, which inform the public about community events.

The controversy came about before the Nov. 13 City Council meeting when a member of Christ Covenant Church in Lostine objected to the placement in the library’s foyer of a sex-ed pamphlet primarily intended for LGBTQ+ youth. The low table they were on enabled her young children to look at the pamphlets, the church member said.

Someone later removed the pamphlets without the library’s permission.

Elliott said Monday he does not believe the brochures are “age-appropriate” for young children and the graphics on them appeal to kids.

“Adult content should be in the adult section” of the library, he said.

But he also said he did not want to set rules for what material is not acceptable at the city library.

“Either we let everybody bring in everything or we say what’s not OK and that’s not what a library’s all about,” he said.

Public comment was not allowed at the committee meeting — although a couple of people briefly tried to speak up — but the committee members said they had reviewed the 122 letters written to them on the issue.

Elliott said that in reviewing the letters, most writers were against eliminating information from the library.

Librarian Liz Cedarbrook recommended keeping the brochure, but finding a better location for it.

Elliott agreed.

“As long as it’s in the adult section, I’ve got no problem with it,” he said.

Sullivan, who attended the meeting via Zoom, said the committee should trust Cedarbrook to properly run the library and parents to monitor what their children read.

Cedarbrook pointed out that the brochure was not produced locally.

It was produced by three Portland State University graduate students in the university’s Master of Social Work program. In the pamphlet, the students say they wanted to “provide accurate, unbiased, shame-free sex and gender information to LGBTQ+ youth.” The zine-style publication, titled “LGBTQ+ Sex Ed: Shame Freeeee,” includes information and resources intended to answer questions that LGBTQ+ youths may have about sexuality and gender identification.

The committee will report its directive to the library at the council’s next meeting, which will be Tuesday, Dec. 12. Normally, the council meets on the second Monday of the month.

In another matter, Cedarbrook reported outside of the committee meeting that someone had slashed one of her car tires while she was at work Wednesday, Nov. 29.

Cedarbrook was unsure if the flat tire was an act of vandalism related to the library controversy or who may have done it, but said she was sure it was intentional.

“The tire was slashed,” she said. “I had a tire expert look at it and it was slashed.”

She said the hole was in the sidewall.

“That’s not where you get a nail,” she said.

She reported the incident to the Enterprise Police Department.

Police Chief Kevin McQuead said Monday that he’s not sure it was slashed, although it did go flat. But he added: “I’m not a tire expert.”

McQuead said his department is on alert to see that Cedarbrook and her property are not harmed.

“We’re doing all that we can to keep her safe,” he said.