Riley Gaines begins her war path against our libraries, but Sumner County residents are fighting back.
- Indivisible Sumner
- Oct 23
- 4 min read
A shady back-door deal to seat Riley Gaines as chair of our Sumner County Library Board has exposed county commissioner Jeremy Mansfield as a charlatan and State Representative Johnny Garrett as a liar.
Another day goes by where Sumner County residents are forced to wonder, "Do our local representatives not care about the rules or not understand them?". Since news broke on Tuesday morning that Riley Gaines was appointed to our library board at midnight on a Monday, more details have come to light. Some of which reveal incompetency at best and outright lies and manipulation at worst.
In order to paint an accurate picture of how this has played out, let's layout a timeline.
Oct 20th, 2:04 PM (5 hours before the County Commission meeting begins) Riley Gaines makes this post on X (twitter).
October 20th, 4:30 PM The Sumner County Library Board has their last meeting with Joanna Daniels as their chair. Daniels has had a long run of destabilizing our libraries and attempting to ban books. Her term is up.
October 20th, 7:00 PM The Sumner County Commission meeting begins. On the agenda, there is no mention of nominating appointees to the library board. Only an agenda item to reduce the library board size from 9 to 7 members.
October 20th, 11:40 PM-11:50 PM County Commissioner Jeremy Mansfield argues that the board should be kept at 9 members, and foreshadows that Matthew Shoaf will be introducing an amendment to appoint Riley Gaines and Steve Wasilowski to the library board. The introduction of this amendment at the 11th hour has left no room for public comment on the matter.
October 20-21st ~midnight Commissioner Shoaf makes a motion to keep the board at 9 members and appoint Riley Gaines and Steve Wasilowski.
Oct 21st, 12:30 AM- County Commissioners vote to fill the seats with Gaines and Wasilowsi.
Yes: 16 | No: 4 | Abstain: 1 | Total present: 24 | Votes: 21
TUESDAY Oct 21st, 7:37 AM FOX 17 Nashville publishes a story about Gaines' appointment to the board, which happened in the middle of the night a mere 7 hours earlier. It was shocking to see that it had already made headlines even to members of the community that had attended the meeting. Here's the article.
Oct 21st, 9:22 AM Gaines posts on X about her new position on the library board.
Oct 21st, 9:49 AM Gaines makes another X post in which she displays screenshots of a school board member's response to her appointment on the library board. Gaines' tweet reads: "My appointment to the Sumner County Library Board has made all the right “Republicans” mad. Seriously, just read this. The only people damaging our county’s reputation are those like Meghan who protest our flag, try to remove God, and push harmful ideologies onto our children." . The tweet shows the school board member's full name and city of residence.
October 21st 3:42 PM Mansfield posts about the school board member's email on his own social media. The post is a whole carousel of photos. Their intent appears to be to inflame Mansfield and Gaines' bases and create a dangerous environment within the county for this school board member.
Both of the above images are from Jeremy Mansfield's post.
Oct 21st 9:00 PM The Sumner County Commission website lists Riley Gaines as chair of the Sumner County Library Board. Per state law, TCA code 10-3-104, "The members of the library board shall organize by electing officers and adopting bylaws and regulations." Therefore, assigning Gaines a position without a vote by the library board is violation of TN state law. While commissioners appoint library board members, they CANNOT assign them as chair, vice chair, etc.
By 11:30 AM the next day, Wednesday 10/22, the commission website has removed the title of chair by Gaines' name, after multiple residents have pointed it out via social media.
October 22nd, 1:22 PM State Representative Johnny Garrett (of state district 45, which is my district in Hendersonville) posts this reel on his "Johnny for Congress" FaceBook page.
Staff that were there at the time of Garrett's visit to the library openly question Garrett on his social media, explaining that Garrett came into the library specifically asking for this book. Librarians had to retrieve it from a closet for him. The book was not in circulation.
When you stitch it all together, it appears as though Mansfield, Shoaf, Gaines, and possibly even Garrett have coordinated an attempt to shepherd Gaines in as chair, ignoring many rules and procedures in the process. Not only does Gaines not appeared qualified in the least bit, she is a contentious political figure. It seems wherever she decides to point her fan base's wrath, bomb threats follow.
The only reason they wants Gaines to serve on the board? To ban books. If you are passionate about protecting our libraries and preventing censorship, please sign this petition:
Stay engaged,
Mandy Cook
Indivisible Sumner
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