PALMER — A proposal to remove materials depicting sexual acts from Mat-Su Borough libraries, block their future purchase, and bar users from accessing similar items from the state’s library network will not be considered by the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly after its sponsor removed it from the agenda during a regular meeting Tuesday.
Assembly member Michael Bowles proposed the measure because individuals in his district requested it, he said. Bowles represents District 1, which includes Butte, Sutton, and portions of Palmer.
If approved, the proposal would have banned the borough from shelving books, movies and other material in the adult and childrens’ sections that depict “actual or simulated … sexual penetration; the lewd touching of a person's genitals, anus, or female breast; masturbation; bestiality; the lewd exhibition of a person's genitals, anus, or female breast; or sexual masochism or sadism,” and which the borough manager determined was “harmful to minors,” according to the legislation.
The proposal was intended to prevent the borough from spending taxpayer money on materials some residents consider obscene and to block children from accessing those items, Bowles said in an interview Tuesday. It would have barred such items from appearing in any section of the borough’s five library branches while giving borough staff broad discretion to determine which content to block, according to the measure.
State law bars adults from distributing “indecent material” to minors age 16 and under. The proposal was the latest development in a years-long debate involving the Mat-Su Borough, school district, and the Palmer and Wasilla city councils over what materials meet that benchmark, how children access materials in local libraries, and whether certain books should be shifted to the adult section or removed from circulation entirely.
Bowles said he removed the proposal from the agenda because of pushback from a wide range of residents, including some he described as conservatives, and because he felt it created too much new government oversight.
“The majority of people that reached out were against this — and some of those were actually on the conservative side of the issue,” he said. “It goes too far — and for that reason, it’s a bad bill.”
Bowles said he does not plan to develop an alternative version of the measure and instead will work with borough officials to publicize existing rules and review steps already in place. That includes a recently updated policy allowing the borough’s volunteer library board to screen and file objections against materials before they are purchased, and a system that allows parents to receive email alerts when their children check out books, he said.
“There are things happening already in the borough … that I have come to learn, that I don't think a lot of people really know about,” he said during the meeting. “So I think the proper approach, rather than more regulation, is actually education, awareness and just involving the community. And so, I don’t think we need to add more law.”
Bowles said he requested the legislation from the borough attorney and approved the language before it was published to the agenda Jan. 27.
He said that while he was concerned the new rule would add too much oversight, he ultimately pushed it forward to respond to a request from district residents. He decided to pull it after a large group of residents objected during a Sutton Community Council meeting Jan. 28, he said.
“Pretty much everybody there at the Community Council meeting was like, ‘We don't like this, this is why, it goes too far. It's too much government overreach,’” he said in an interview. “And I agree — I'm a less government person.”
A separate measure approved unanimously by the Assembly on Tuesday disbanded a citizen library committee created to review library materials flagged by community members as obscene. That task will instead fall to the library board, borough officials said.
While several community members testified early in the more than five-hour meeting Tuesday that they support blocking materials that contain sexual acts from libraries because they believe it creates needed safeguards, dozens of others spoke against the proposal, saying it amounts to censorship. Some members of the audience also held up and waved "we love our libraries" signs during public comments.
Bowles said during his closing comments Tuesday that he felt some of the public comments made against the ordinance were “negative toward Christianity.”
“We have multiple Christians here on the Assembly, and so we have a very large Christian presence here in the borough, and these are valid concerns,” he said. “As a fellow Christian of those with concerns, I will continue to be a voice for you.”
This story originally appeared in the Mat-Su Sentinel and is republished here with permission.
