Fairhope's public library board has a new member. On the night of Monday, March 9, Fairhope City Council approved the addition of Gustavo Douaihi to the city's library board.

Douaihi was one of 10 applicants who were screened and interviewed by the library board, with the board rating each applicant by points. According to city ordinance, the library board must consist of five members, with all vacancies being filled by the mayor and the city council.

His appointment was the last item on the agenda that the city council discussed, with council subsequently approving him to a four-year term by a vote of 4-0. He is set to replace Debra Langham, who declined to continue serving on the board after her term recently expired.

Councilwoman Adrea Faust Booth, who also serves on the library board as the city council liaison, said Douaihi was "hands down the No. 1 pick" because "he is very passionate about our library, he attends our library with his son quite frequently, and they just felt like he was a good fit."

The appointment comes as the Fairhope Public Library no longer receives state funding after the Alabama Public Library Service (APLS) said the library houses sexually explicit material in sections for minors. Douaihi has previously spoken against the APLS at multiple public meetings during the dispute between the library and the state board.

"In 1998, an authoritarian, socialist government took power in Venezuela; a power that they hold to this day," Douaihi, who was born and raised in Venezuela, said during a public comment period at a city council meeting last year. "In Venezuela, they stripped every freedom we take for granted in the U.S. …In a free society, there must be a free exchange of ideas, so you might imagine that after escaping that authoritarian socialist government and moving to the Land of the Free, I am deeply saddened to see fellow residents of Fairhope advocate for censorship by using the exact same rhetoric and tactics of the country where I was born."

Councilman Joshua Gammon abstained from voting, saying he needed more information about Douaihi and the library board's voting process before he could make a decision.

"I want to understand who I'm voting for and what I'd say makes the library board different from other boards that we very quickly appoint is that there was obviously considerable problems, or different things that have come up in the past with the library board that have made national headlines and made city news, and has been a source of discussion for months and months on end," Gammon said. "…In my opinion, we want to make sure that somebody being appointed to the board is matching the opinions of the council, or at a minimum, the opinions of the city. When you have a strongly contentious area, I think it warrants a little more scrutiny of the council."

Other council members were more comfortable with the library board's recommendation of Douaihi.

"Gustavo has spoken before this body many, many times," Councilman Jack Burrell said. "So, for me, I am familiar with him and how eloquent he speaks and how educated he strikes me as being, and that is why, me personally, I'm comfortable. I don't feel like I'm voting based on the recommendation of the library board so much as I am familiar with this gentleman."

Councilman Jimmy Conyers cited Douaihi's process of examining recently challenged books as his reason for supporting the nomination.

"I don't know Gustavo well, but I do know that when there was some kind of controversy in the library, to my knowledge, he's the only person who read every single book on the list, and then he came before the library," Conyers said. "He actually said 'You know a couple of these may need to be moved, a couple don't even need to be in here.' He didn't come in with a pre-conceived notion. I took him to be very fair-minded."