With St. Tammany Parish Library Director Kelly LaRocca planning to step down at the end of the month , religious and political organizations are starting to look at who will steer a library system that for more than three years has been enveloped in controversy over books with sexual and LGBTQ+ themes.

"It will be a difficult battle to appoint a director with Christian conservative values," the Slidell Minister's Association wrote in an August newsletter . "SMA must be involved in the process."

Chuck Branton, president of the appointed board that oversees the library system, the Library Board of Control, told the Republican Parish Executive Committee in August that his approach to the director's selection has nothing to do with political parties and that he wanted to pick the most q

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