By David Scribner
July 7, 2011
The Great Barrington Library Trustees, meeting in emergency session, have reiterated their right to name the next library director. They took this action in spite of the fact that the town charter considers the library a town department, the Library Trustees an elected town committee like the Finance Committee, and grants hiring rights to the Town Manager.
Great Barrington Library Trustee President Karin Beebe
On July 1, Library Director Anne Just informed Library Trustees and town officials that she would be retiring from her position as of Aug. 12.
In their statement, (see below) which they e-mailed to Town Manager Kevin O’Donnell and the Board of Selectmen this week, the Library Trustees requested the selectmen hold off on naming a permanent director until the town charter can be revised to grant them supervision of library staff.
At a June 23 meeting, the Board of Selectmen reminded newly elected Trustee President Karin Beebe that the process of revising the town charter – should that avenue even be recommended by a charter review committee – is arduous and lengthy, and could take as long as two years. And until such time as the charter is changed, personnel decisions would still remain with Town Hall.
Although Ms. Beebe obviously expected a unanimous decision to send the memo, the ensuing vote of the trustees on the memo was not unanimous. Trustee Thomas Blauvelt dissented, arguing unsuccessfully that the statement set up a needless confrontation with O’Donnell, who had already informed the trustees that he was setting up a search committee for a new library director and intended to include a trustee on the committee.
“I don’t think we should hold off on looking for a new director,” Blauvelt maintained. “Let the search committee go ahead. It is a very appropriate process.”
Library Trustee Tom Blauvelt
Drafted by newly named Trustee President Karin Beebe, the document recommended that assistant library director Jessica Magelaner be named interim director.
“I’m trying to avoid appearing to be power hungry,” declared Beebe, though she characterized O’Donnell’s intent to form a search committee as “insulting.”
Beebe has made it clear that authority over library personnel, in particular the library director, is one of her top priorities.
Indeed, Beebe’s husband George had earlier announced to the local press – although not before the select board — that a major purpose of the trustees’ push for self-governance was the removal of the library director.
“We’re going to take back the town,” he said, without specifying from whom or for whom.
Whatever the political backstory, Library Trustee Holly Hamer called for a cooling off period. She pointed out that the state Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners guidelines allow a library to have an interim director for up to three years. Magelaner would provide stability during this transitional period, she added.
In the meantime, Hamer advised against “forcing a decision about who’s in charge.”
Library Trustee Holly Hamer
The Board of Selectmen has scheduled a meeting in late September to review options for revising the charter.
“I think there should be a hiatus of three months for things to calm down,” she remarked. “Personality conflicts do reflect on the stability of the library.”
Hamer said she hoped, as part of the proposed truce between the trustees and selectmen, that there would be a delay in appointing a search committee.
For her part, Just has taken the high road.
In a prepared statement, Just noted that in the 4 1/2 years she has guided the library system, she has upgraded the skills of the staff and the quality of the collection, made the libraries warmer and more welcoming, and defended the Ramsdell Library against a citizen-led movement to close it as a cost-saving measure.
Of her resignation and the controversy over authority, she said: “This is my decision, and that’s their [the Trustees’] issue to work out with the town.”
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Library Trustees statement to Town Manager Kevin O’Donnell and the Board of Selectmen, Drafted July 5, 2011
We the Board of Trustees of the Great Barrington Libraries are of the unanimous opinion that the ultimate resolution of the issue of the control of the library lies in the political, not the legal realm. That is to say, it is the people in the town who will decide, not the town’s legal counsel.
Whatever ambiguities or contradictions that the 1992 Charter contains about the designated powers of the Town Manager over specific departments, wherein his control over the library is omitted, must stand on its merits. Whether this omission was purposeful or just an error is moot. The intentions of the committee in 1992 are irrelevant. The charter says what it says. If it needs to be changed, it must be done at either a special town meeting or the annual town meeting. The townspeople must be the final arbiters of the debate. The resolution of this problem must be political.
Until the Charter is amended, the Board of Trustees of the Great Barrington Librarians maintains that we abide by the current charter.
We recommend by majority vote that an interim library director be moved up from within the present staff. Accordingly, the present assistant director at Mason, Jessica Magelaner, who is experienced and highly qualified, should become the interim library director until the town decides who has the power to appoint a new library director.