The governing body of any city or county upon petition of not less than fifty-one percent of the qualified electors of the city or county as determined by the total number of votes cast at the last general election or upon a majority vote of the qualified electors thereof voting on the question shall establish and maintain public library service within its geographic limits by means of a public library and reading room or other public library service, either singly or in cooperation with the state library, or with one or more cities or counties, or by participation in an approved state plan for rendering public library service under the Library Services and Construction Act [20 U.S.C. 351-358], and acts amendatory thereof. Such question shall be submitted to the qualified electors upon resolution of the governing body or upon the petition of not less than twenty-five percent of that number of qualified electors of the city or county that voted at the last general election, filed with the governing body not less than ninety days before the next regular election. Library service may be discontinued within any city or county by any of the methods by which library services may be established, except that once established, such service shall not be discontinued until after it has been in operation for at least five years from the date of establishment.
40-38-02. Library fund - Financial report - Levy - Kept separate - Exemption for city levying tax - Increasing levy. 1. For the purpose of establishing and maintaining public library service, the governing body of a municipality or county authorizing the same shall establish a library fund. The library fund shall consist of annually levying and causing to be collected as other taxes are collected a municipal or county tax not exceeding the limitations in subsection 6 of section 57-15-06.7 and subsection 4 of section 57-15-10 and any other moneys received for library purposes from federal, state, county, municipal, or private sources. In the year for which the levy is sought, a library board seeking approval of a property tax levy under this chapter must file with the auditor of each participating municipality or county, at a time and in a format prescribed by the auditors, a financial report for the preceding calendar year showing the ending balances of each fund held for the library board during that year. 2. The city auditor or county treasurer shall establish and maintain the fund to account for library revenues and shall make payments from the fund for invoices that have been submitted and approved by the governing body of the library. In the case of a contract with another library for service delivery, the city auditor or county treasurer shall promptly transmit all funds received to the established library fund of the agency delivering service. On request of the city auditor or county treasurer and during an audit, the governing board of the library shall supply its records. The records must be provided on a timely basis. The fund may not revert to the governing body of the city or county at the end of any fiscal year. The fund must be used exclusively for the establishment and maintenance of public library service. 3. The governing board of the library may request annually from the governing body of a city or county a tax not exceeding the limitation in subsection 5 of section 57-15-10. Such tax may be levied by the governing body of a city or county. 4. If a county levies for county library service and a city levies a tax for public library service under this section the county tax levy within that city must be reduced so the total levy in that city does not exceed four mills. If the city has been totally exempted from a county library service levy under this section, the phrase "not less than fifty-one percent of the qualified electors of the city or county as determined by the total number of votes cast at the last general election" as stated in section 40-38-01 shall mean fifty-one percent of the total number of votes cast at the last general election in the county less the total number of votes cast at the last general election in the city. If an election on the question is held, the qualified electors of any city so exempted from the
county library tax shall not be entitled to vote on the establishment or discontinuance of the county library service. 5. Upon motion of the governing body or upon petition of not less than twenty-five percent of the qualified electors in the last general election of any city, school district, township, or county, filed not less than sixty days before the next election, the governing body shall submit to the qualified electors at the next election the question of whether the governing body shall increase the mill levy a specified amount for public library service above the mill levy limitation set out in this section. The governing body may call a special election at any time for the purpose of voting on the question, and the election shall be called, conducted, and certified as are other elections in that political subdivision. Upon approval by sixty percent of the qualified electors voting in the election, the governing body shall increase the levy for public library service in the amount approved by the qualified electors.
40-38-03. Board of directors - Appointment - Term of office - Compensation - Filling vacancies - Organization. 1. The governing body of a municipality that has established a public library and reading room, or the board of county commissioners for a county library, shall appoint a board of five directors who must be residents of the municipality or county, as the case may be, to govern the library and reading room. One member of the governing body of the municipality or designated representative must be a member of the board of directors of a municipal library, and must be a resident of the municipality that establishes and maintains the municipal library; and one member of the board of county commissioners or designated representative must be a member of the county board of directors. 2. The terms of office of the members of the first board of directors must be established so one member holds office for one year, two members hold office for two years, and two members hold office for three years. The members, at their first meeting, shall determine the length of their respective terms by lot. Thereafter, the number of directors required to fill expired terms must be appointed each year, and each director may hold office for a term of three years from the first day of July in the year of appointment and until a successor has been appointed. No member of the board may serve for more than two consecutive terms, after which an interval of one year must elapse before the same member may be reappointed. All vacancies on the board of directors must be reported by the board to the governing body of the municipality or the board of county commissioners, as the case may be, and must be filled thereby. An appointment to fill an unexpired term may be for the residue of the term only. 3. The appointing authority shall establish the rate of compensation for directors and actual expenses incurred by directors may be reimbursed at the official reimbursement rates of the appointing authority. 4. Immediately after the appointment of its members, the board of directors shall meet and organize by electing a president. The governing board of a municipality or county establishing public library service may, in lieu of appointing a library board, contract directly with a library board established by another governing body of a municipality or county for the purpose of extending public library service.