MEREDITH — Despite a discussion at Monday night selectmen’s meeting about a perception that the board is trying to control the library trustees’ recruiting for its board, the board and the trustees are in agreement on the issue, according to Board of Selectmen Chairman Miller Lovett.

“There was a discussion on that based on past issues, but we all understand what the laws are and we are in full agreement (with the library trustees on their recruiting process),” Lovett said.

Earlier this summer, there was a misunderstanding that has since been resolved between the two boards over hiring library employees, which, by law, falls under the library trustees’ jurisdiction.

In an exchange of letters between the two boards last month, there was some confusion about the trustees’ process in filling two open seats on the library trustee board, Lovett said.

A letter from Town Manager Phil Warren to the library trustees on July 24, said the Board of Selectmen wanted all nominations for the vacant positions to be forwarded to it, and said the selectmen wanted to discuss the method used in seeking volunteers for the positions.

In a letter to the selectmen on July 27, Rhetta Colon, chair of the library’s board of trustees, said the email from Warren was “confusing.”

The library board had been seeking library trustees and wondered “why the (board of selectmen) wishes to become involved at this point or why they wish to alter several weeks of effort on the part of the library trustees.”

“In the experience of the current trustees, candidates have not been interviewed by the board of selectmen, not have the selectmen ever questioned this process. … We hope you can clear up this ambiguity and that we can move forward in filling our vacancies,” Colon wrote.

At Monday night’s selectmen’s meeting, a library trustee expressed his feeling that the selectmen were trying to control the library trustees, Lovett said.

“That was the subject of one discussion, but we know what the law states, and it is (the library trustees) process, not ours, we just give final approval,” Lovett said, adding that only two candidates have been found by the library trustees for the two vacant positions, making the discussion moot.

“All we had hoped was that they would cast a wider net in advertising the open seats, maybe putting them on the town’s website, but we’re all in agreement now, it’s over,” Lovett said.

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Dan Seufert may be reached at dseufert@newstote.com.