Uncovered messages obtained by QBurgh show Councilman Bill Krut demanded that Municipal Manager Alex Graziani order the Monroeville Public Library Pride display removed before Pride Month ended, invoked anticipated support of three other council members, and received confirmation after Graziani directed library staff to clear the shelf.
“Shelves cleared,” Monroeville Municipal Manager Alex Graziani wrote to Councilman Bill Krut on June 26, confirming that the Pride Month book display Krut wanted removed from the children’s section of the Monroeville Public Library had been taken down.
“Thank you,” Krut responded.
The exchange is among more than 200 pages of emails, text messages and other documents released by the Municipality of Monroeville in response to a Right-to-Know Law request filed by QBurgh following our earlier reporting on the controversy.
The records show that the removal was not simply a routine transition between seasonal library displays, as Graziani later suggested publicly. Instead, Krut privately demanded that the Pride display come down before Pride Month ended, insisted that the action be taken through Graziani’s authority, and told the manager that three additional council members would be asked to contact him.
Graziani subsequently forwarded Krut’s demand to Library Director Nicole Henline, proposed replacing the Pride display with America 250 material as “our way out of the fray,” instructed Henline to have the display removed, and personally checked that the shelf was empty.
The records do not establish that Monroeville Council formally authorized the removal. No public Council deliberation or recorded Council vote authorized the removal.
QBurgh sought comment from Councilman Krut and Municipal Manager Graziani; neither responded by publication deadline.
“It has to be removed today”
On the morning of June 26, Krut asked Graziani to order the Pride display moved out of the children’s area.
“Also I think you should tell Nicole to move that book display out of children’s area today please,” Krut wrote. “If it is up for pride month, it will be gone by next council meeting and they will have prevailed.”
Krut then invoked three other members of Monroeville Council.
“Adams will call you,” he wrote, apparently referring to Councilman Mike Adams. “I’ll ask Williams and Hyzy to call you also,” referring to council members Bob Williams and Joseph Hyzy.
Including Krut, the four council members would constitute a majority of the seven-member council.
The records do not show whether Adams, Williams or Hyzy made the calls Krut described, what they may have said to Graziani or whether all four had previously discussed the removal with one another. The message nevertheless appears to invoke the anticipated pressure of a council majority while Krut pressed the manager to take action.
When the display had not yet been removed, Krut followed up. “It has to be removed today by your directive not at end of month when they choose to remove it.”
The wording placed the responsibility for issuing the order directly on Graziani. Krut did not ask that the question be presented to the Library Board again or placed before Council for public discussion. Instead, his message called for Graziani to use the authority of the municipal manager to order the removal that day.
Later that afternoon, Graziani confirmed that the demand had been carried out.
“Shelves cleared,” he wrote.
“Our way out of the fray”
A separate text-message thread between Graziani and Henline shows how Krut’s demand was delivered to the library.
Graziani copied Krut’s message into his conversation with Henline and identified it as coming “From Krut.”
He then proposed an alternative display.
“How about the America 250 stuff goes up now, since it’s the week before the 4th,” Graziani wrote. “Maybe that is our way out of the fray.”
Henline immediately challenged the reasoning behind Krut’s demand.
“Really? ‘Prevail?’” she responded.
Henline told Graziani that she respected him and would comply if he wanted her staff to change the display, but warned that doing so would lead the municipality into dangerous territory.
“I think it’s a very slippery slope into council trying to tell us the type of programming and the type of materials to have in order to represent a community that is much more diverse than some of them want to admit,” she wrote.
Henline later reported that no children’s librarians were working that day. Another employee could take the display down, she said, but the library would not have the staff to replace it with another display until the following Monday.
Graziani issued the instruction anyway.
“Thank you. Ask Barb to remove the books please,” he wrote.
“Let me know when the books are down.”
By early that afternoon, Graziani had personally visited the library.
“I stopped by, and the shelf is empty,” he told Henline. “Thank you. Sorry that it came down this way.”
He then gave Krut the two-word confirmation, “Shelves cleared.”
The messages show Graziani acting as more than a passive conduit for Krut’s concerns. His reference to America 250 as “our way out of the fray,” followed by his direct instructions and personal inspection of the shelf, indicates that he had adopted the removal as an administrative objective.
The records do not conclusively establish whether Graziani independently wanted the display removed before Krut began pressuring him. They do show that Graziani embraced a method for accomplishing the removal and ordered library staff to carry it out despite Henline’s objections.
Library Board says removal was Manager’s directive
Kelly Fennessy Meredith, president of the Monroeville Public Library Board of Directors, confirmed that the Board took no vote on the display at its June 22 meeting because displays are operational decisions entrusted to library staff. Nevertheless, she said there was an understanding that the Pride display would remain through the end of the month.
Library staff had planned to change the display on June 29 and 30 so a new display would be ready for July 1, Meredith said.
Meredith said Graziani communicated the removal instruction to Henline through text messages and a telephone call. Library officials understood it as a directive, not an optional request.
The Board did not authorize the early removal. Meredith said she supported the staff in complying because “there was concern about funding, employment, and safety” and “it seemed the library had no other choice.”
“The board did not and would not break protocol to vote on a display, especially outside of a formal, public meeting,” Meredith said. Under the library’s normal governance practices, she said, display decisions belong to library staff, with ultimate oversight by the library director.
Meredith also confirmed that neither Krut nor another council member contacted her or library staff directly about removing the display. The released records show Krut instead routed his demand through Graziani, who then delivered the directive to Henline.
Meredith said concern about possible retaliation has not subsided.
“There is still concern that library funding and staffing is going to be on the chopping block because of this,” she said, adding that the Board and library advocates intend to remain engaged with elected officials to ensure the library does not face retaliatory funding cuts.
Library Director Nicole Henline forwarded QBurgh’s questions to Meredith, who responded on behalf of the Library Board. Henline did not provide a separate response.
Graziani offered Krut encouragement
Other messages show Graziani offering Krut encouragement as the councilman faced criticism over his opposition to the Pride display.
On June 22, Krut told Graziani that he had been personally attacked and complained that the “library mafia” had been put into “full force.”
As he described the unusually large turnout at that evening’s Library Board meeting, Krut said he had been called hateful and a bigot and characterized himself and Williams as the only people on “the right side of this.”
“Pray for me,” Krut wrote.
“Praying Ephesians 4:2 and Matthew 10:16,” Graziani responded.
Graziani then told him, “The truth is always met with hatred.”
Those messages do not establish that Graziani shared every position Krut expressed about LGBTQ+ people or library materials. They do, however, show the municipal manager appearing to align himself with Krut by responding to criticism of Krut’s opposition to the display with encouragement.
Public explanation omitted Krut’s pressure
At Monroeville’s July 7 Citizens’ Night meeting, Graziani publicly accepted responsibility for the removal while portraying it as his administrative decision to shift the library’s attention toward the municipality’s All-American Weekend and America 250 celebrations.
“I bear primary responsibility for the actions set in motion,” Graziani said. He later added, “I take full responsibility for asking the staff to remove the Pride display in the children’s section.”
Graziani said there had been no meeting of Council as a whole “nor even a majority of Council.” He acknowledged, however, that two council members had “directly expressed their desire to see the display go down.” He did not identify them during his remarks.
Graziani said he directed staff to shift their attention to the upcoming patriotic events and “advised that the June Pride Month display in the children’s section be removed and replaced with a patriotic America 250 display.” He compared the timing to businesses replacing Pride displays with Fourth of July promotions.
But his remarks did not disclose Krut’s private demand that the display be removed that day, Krut’s insistence that it happen through Graziani’s directive, or Krut’s assertion that three other council members would be asked to call him.
Graziani’s remarks also went beyond an explanation about scheduling. After reading from 1 Corinthians 13, he called the idea that “love is love” means people can do “whatever is right in your own heart” a “dangerous concept.”
“I will not call what for centuries and thousands of years in all faith traditions have called a vice and say it is a virtue,” Graziani said. “Nor will I run under the concept of it being a thing to be proud of or celebrated.”
In that context, Graziani’s comments suggest that his position involved more than the timing of municipal celebrations. Graziani publicly expressed a personal objection to celebrating Pride.
In a response to WTAE, Graziani again presented the removal as a routine transition tied to upcoming patriotic events.
“As June was coming to a close and the Municipality was preparing for our All-American Weekend celebration, July 3–5, which also commemorates Monroeville’s 75th Anniversary and is part of the America 250 initiative, I asked the Monroeville Public Library Director to have the children’s library staff shift their attention to those community events,” Graziani wrote.
“As part of that transition, I advised that the June Pride Month display in the children’s section of the Monroeville Public Library could be removed and replaced with a patriotic America 250 display.”
“The decision was based on the timing of seasonal displays and our focus on the upcoming municipal events,” he added.
The private messages reveal significant information absent from both explanations.
Krut had demanded that the display come down before Pride Month ended, saying it could not remain until the library chose to remove it. He insisted that it be removed through Graziani’s directive and invoked anticipated calls from three additional council members.
Graziani, meanwhile, did not merely advise Henline that the display “could” be removed. He instructed her to have an employee remove the books, asked to be notified when they were down, personally inspected the empty shelf and reported the completed removal to Krut.
The messages also show that Graziani proposed the America 250 display as “our way out of the fray,” rather than solely as an ordinary seasonal transition.
Staff had warned Graziani about Krut’s rhetoric
Graziani acted despite having received direct warnings about the effect Krut’s public accusations were having on library employees.
On June 22, Henline emailed Graziani to report concerns among her staff after Krut publicly characterized the Pride display as an act of grooming.
“Pride displays in libraries are an industry standard; our display follows our policies; and this display, like many of our displays, represents a portion of the community — and it is our job to serve everyone in our community,” Henline wrote.
She said staff members had approached her to express fear about Krut’s post and about participating in community events “in a time of growing political violence.”
Employees were shocked and anxious that a community leader had accused them of something “so atrocious,” Henline wrote, adding that some believed the situation had created a hostile work environment.
Graziani forwarded Henline’s email directly to Krut.
Four days later, he implemented Krut’s demand.
Library funding entered the discussion
The records also show Krut asked Graziani for information about the municipality’s financial support for the library, including operations, salaries and building maintenance.
Krut also sent Graziani comparisons of municipal funding for nearby libraries that he had generated through ChatGPT. Graziani forwarded the figures to municipal finance staff, who assembled additional comparisons.
On Facebook, Krut publicly connected the display controversy with council’s library-funding discussions.
“Council has been debating what amount of tax payer money we should spend on the library,” Krut wrote. “The library has just drawn attention to themselves so the discussion has become more broad.”
He also questioned how many Monroeville residents used the library and how many library visitors lived outside the municipality.
After the display was removed, Henline told Graziani, “Krut is now threatening our funding on Facebook. So that’s fun.”
“At least he’s being public about it,” Graziani responded. “I think a lot of community members will disagree.”
The records do not show a formal proposal or vote to reduce library funding. They do show Krut researching library costs and publicly connecting council’s funding deliberations with the Pride-display dispute.
No public vote
Councilman John Washington wrote in an email that he had not been invited to any meeting about the display and had no opportunity to vote against its removal.
“Being that there was no meeting, there was never a vote taken, nor recorded on this subject,” Washington wrote. “There was no discussion and no opportunity to dissent.”
Washington said it was his understanding that a group of council members had taken it upon themselves to “pressure, or convince, or otherwise sway” Graziani or Henline to remove the display.
“Most people that know me know I would have voted ‘No,’ and I assume that’s why I was not included,” he wrote.
Deputy Mayor Eric Poach also asked Graziani directly whether removing the display had been his decision and direction.
“Yes,” Graziani replied. Although accurate as to who issued the directive, the answer omitted the pressure behind it.
Poach, Council’s nonvoting liaison to the Library Board, later said publicly that neither he nor Mayor Dennis Biondo had been consulted before the removal. At the July 7 Citizens’ Night meeting, Poach said the two were participating in a conference call when they received Graziani’s email announcing what had occurred.
“I was not called. I wasn’t notified,” Poach said. He recalled asking Graziani whether the removal had occurred at his direction. “The answer was yes.”
Poach also defended the library’s professional policies and said decisions about children’s access to library materials belong to their parents.
“It rests and remains with the parents that are involved with the materials,” Poach said. “Period. End of discussion.”
In a subsequent interview with QBurgh, Poach pointed to Section 1808 of Monroeville’s Home Rule Charter, related municipal ordinances and Pennsylvania’s Public Library Code when discussing the library’s governance.
“If there is a definite conflict between the municipal code and state law, we should look to resolve that conflict,” Poach said.
On paper, however, Monroeville’s governing framework appears consistent with Pennsylvania law. The state Public Library Code provides that a local library is governed “exclusively” by its board of directors; Monroeville’s Home Rule Charter makes the Library Board responsible for operating the library; and the municipality’s own library ordinance gives the Board “full and complete control” over its operation and conduct.
The records suggest it was the process used to remove the display, not the written governance structure, that departed from those provisions. After private pressure from Krut, Graziani directly instructed Library Director Nicole Henline to remove the display without a vote or directive from the Library Board, whose members understood that it would remain through Pride Month.
Krut’s statement that Adams would call and that he would ask Williams and Hyzy to do the same raises questions about whether separate contacts were intended to give his demand the weight of majority support without a public council discussion.
The records do not establish whether Adams, Williams or Hyzy contacted Graziani as Krut described, whether the four council members discussed the removal among themselves or whether they reached any agreement.
They do establish that Krut invoked the anticipated involvement of enough council members to constitute a majority while insisting that Graziani remove the display through his administrative authority.
Taken together, the records reveal what appears to have been a troubling end run around transparent public governance. An elected official pressed for the removal of an LGBTQ+ display, said one council colleague would call the municipal manager and that he would ask two others to do the same, and insisted that the manager carry out the removal under his own authority.
Graziani did not merely relay Krut’s complaint. He encouraged Krut privately, proposed replacing the display as “our way out of the fray,” proceeded despite the library director’s concerns, and confirmed when the removal was complete.
Whether the anticipated calls from the other council members occurred remains unanswered, but the outcome is documented. Without public deliberation or a recorded vote, private political pressure resulted in the removal of a message of LGBTQ+ inclusion before Pride Month was over.
The records do not establish hostility throughout Monroeville’s government, but they show that opposition to the Pride display extended beyond Krut and found support at the highest level of the municipal administration, where private objections were translated into municipal action.