Mayor Stockford and council members at a meeting. Josh Hypes | Collegian

[EDITOR’S NOTE: This article has been corrected since publication. A quote said the Hillsdale County Democrats published a controversial video, but individuals, not the party, did so.]

The Hillsdale City Council will vote on an amendment to change the makeup of the city’s library board, as well as consider the city’s annual budget, on May 1.

The proposed amendment to the city ordinance, if passed, would remove a requirement for a member of the Hillsdale Community Schools Board of Education to serve on the library board. The council will also consider the proposed city budget for fiscal year 2023-24, which boasts a surplus of nearly $28,000.

Councilman Joshua Paladino ’18 of Ward 4 introduced the amendment on March 8, during a meeting where the council rejected a nomination for Daniel LaRue, a member of the school board. Mayor Adam Stockford said during an April 3 council meeting the school board would not nominate another of its members for the position.

Stockford said the council had three options. It could amend the city ordinance so the council can appoint someone to the library board, reconsider LaRue’s appointment, or push the school board to reconsider its plan to nominate another board member.

“I know we’re all stressed about this, but we’ll get through it,” Stockford said.

Ward 3 Councilman Bruce Sharp called on Paladino to resign from his library board position during the council meeting on April 3.

“Board members are to promote the library, but what he said at the America First meeting back in the fall was ‘We don’t need a library at all if we don’t want to. We don’t have to have books if we don’t want to,’” Sharp said.

Sharp was paraphrasing a quote from Paladino, who denied wanting to close the library. Paladino said some had been sharing a video that depicts him saying things out of context.

“Both by willfully altering the grammar and by removing it from its context,” Paladino wrote in an email, “they snipped a 10-second clip and then attributed views to me that I was explicitly rejecting.”

Paladino said he was describing the libertarian views of his opponent, Penny Swan, in the 2022 city council election.

“I was noting the hypocrisy,” Paladino said. “She maintained that the library must keep a selection of sexual and partisan books in the children’s section.”

Paladino said his larger point was that the library should maintain a selection of books based on their literary merit.

Sharp said he would take Paladino’s seat on the library board if it became available.

Ward 1 Councilman Greg Stuchell said the council needs to consider Paladino’s motion, putting personal disputes aside.

“I think this council needs to be focused on the merits of the amendment and not attacks on Mr. Paladino,” Stuchell said. “The attacks on Mr. Paladino are overboard. Mr. Sharp, you are the last person I would vote for on that library board because this is not a political statement, and you’re the only council member here who has told everyone what your political party is.”