LaQuita Stec, the Crook County Library Board chair who publicly accused a fellow board member of sowing seeds of hate in the community, was removed from her position during a Crook County Court meeting Wednesday morning.

The three commissioners voted unanimously to remove Stec, considering her comments about board member Cheyenne Edgerly during a March 9 board meeting unprofessional.

“It’s not the right place for you to air somebody else’s dirty laundry that you think they have in a meeting like that,” Judge Seth Crawford said during the meeting, later adding, “I don’t see how we move forward with her.”

The 76-year-old Stec, formerly a municipal judge and recorder for the city of Jefferson, was unable to attend the meeting Wednesday, though if she had attended, she wouldn’t have been allowed to defend herself. No public comment was allowed during the County Court meeting.

Stec told The Bulletin she was still too angry to speak sensibly on Thursday morning, but in a statement that afternoon, she wrote: “I call it speaking truth to power. I believe Cheyenne used her appointment to the Library Board of Trustees for her own purposes.”

During the March 9 meeting, Stec asked Edgerly, who is also secretary and co-owner of Prineville Funeral Home, to step down from her position.

Stec spent nearly 30 minutes recounting Edgerly’s attempts to segregate LGBTQ+ books at the public library during the past two years. At one point, another board member interrupted her to ask a question about naming members of the public, and Stec said the member was out of order, then continued. Stec also said Edgerly had used her position on the board “to promote her personal agenda, stir up hate and discontent within the community and not for the benefit of the library, its patrons, nor the citizenry of the county in general.”

After Stec called on Edgerly to resign, she said that if she did not do so by the April 13 board meeting, Stec would call on the board to recommend her removal. Stec also noted that everything she had said was from her own research, as well as information provided to her by others.

Edgerly was not given a chance to respond, as the meeting was adjourned after Stec finished reading her statement.

The order to remove Stec was added to the agenda on Tuesday, the day before the county court meeting, Crawford told the Bulletin Wednesday afternoon.

Stec said she will likely follow up with the county regarding public notice requirements and amended agendas, especially since she noted the order to remove her was added after the agenda had already closed.

“It was how she delivered her 7-page declaration, or whatever you want to call it,” said Crawford, regarding why Stec was removed. He later added that if Stec had delivered different content with the same tone, the commissioners would have had the same response.

Eric Blaine, the county’s legal counsel, did not wish to comment on Stec’s removal.

Crawford was unsure whether Edgerly will be stepping down from her position as library board member.

In a phone call from Idaho on Friday afternoon, Edgerly said she was, “unable to comment or say anything.” She was babysitting while a family member was in surgery, she said.

Library board member Jerry Bishop told The Bulletin he approached Stec after her March 9 comments to tell her that her behavior was inappropriate. He said Stec responded that she didn’t care and didn’t want to engage in conversation.

“LaQuita publicly stated her private opinion from her position as chairwoman of the board. She attacked another board member,” said Bishop.

April Witteveen, previous Crook County Library director of library services and currently library director at Oregon State University-Cascades, defended Stec in a statement. She called Stec a dedicated civil servant.

“Ms. Stec is being vilified as unprofessional, when in actuality she is keeping the vision, purpose, and ethics of professional library services at the forefront of her work as a library trustee,” said Witteveen. “Her attention to the issues of bad faith presented by Cheyenne Edgerly’s actions against the Crook County Library should not be taken lightly.”