LIVINGSTON - The Livingston Parish President motioned not to renew the library director's contract in a late-night vote Tuesday, removing her from the position and causing four other members of the library board to resign. 

The meeting for the Livingston Parish Library Board of Control on Tuesday night came after a private two-hour performance evaluation of Director Michelle Parrish, The Advocate reported. 

Parish President Randy Delatte introduced the motion to not renew her contract, saying there’s been continued problems within the library, and there needs to be a new director. The motion moved forward with a 6-4 vote. 

He said that the board has been switched three times, and the only constant is Michelle.

Former board member Larry Davis, who was removed from the board in January, said Delatte's statement has truth to it.

“The former board and I raised deep concerns about the way taxpayer dollars were being spent and that was met with disregard and no changes were made,” Davis said.

Livingston Parish Library Alliance member Cathleen Hyde said she disagreed with President Delatte’s comment.

“This chaos really predated her, and it affected the previous director who resigned. It affected multiple board members, an entire board was dismissed because of all this chaos. So to say that she is the only constant is incorrect,” Hyde said.

This vote comes after multiple shake-ups in the board and library system, including embattled book bans and budget cuts.

Immediately following the vote, the four members of the board who opposed the motion, including the board's president and vice president, resigned and left the meeting. 

“I think that was really courageous of them. I think that it spoke a lot to their character,” Hyde said.

Davis said it is normal for board members to walk out when they disagree, and he said in this situation the members should have stayed to resolve conflict.

“The way to progress is to work through differences, have compromise, have debates, and not storm out of a meeting. We’ve seen that time and time again and kudos to the board members who stayed,” Davis said.

You can watch the full meeting here.