Discussions over staff policy dominated much of the first August meeting of the Leach Library Board of Trustees. One area of debate was staff policy and an update to the library bylaws.
“The Director shall schedule all shifts with sufficient staffing to ensure the library will remain open if someone is unable to work that day,” said Board Chair Liz Thomas, reading a proposed addition to Section 8 of the Personnel Policy.
The obligation did not resonate with Library Director Erin Matlin, who considered the wording “threatening.”
“There will be times, based on what is in here now if it is approved, that I will not be able to keep the library open, because I will not have sufficient staff, and will not be able to earn admin time to do so,” said Matlin. “I fear what would happen if I was unable to keep the library open based on staffing, or by an inability to stay.”
The Director noted that other proposed changes could make it impossible for her to work overtime if required to cover for an employee taking a sick day.
“I’m not allowed to go over my hours, according to the rest of the document,” she noted. “With all due respect, when we do the schedule, we make sure that we have enough staff to stay open. The minimum is three to stay open for safety purposes, but the majority of the time we will have four, if not more.”
There was at least one case where Leach Library opened later than scheduled due to missing employees. Matlin also listed several other cases where she had to cancel library programs to keep desks manned during regular hours.
“When I once spoke to Erin about closing the library earlier, I said to her, one of the most important things about your job is keeping the library open, she said it was not the most important thing,” said Thomas, explaining her reasoning for the addition to Section 8. “My position is that you’re open eight hours, nine hours, ten hours, depending on what day, you need to have sufficient staff in the front end and the back end with one extra person to meet the needs of this community.”
Matlin denied ever saying keeping the library open was not her top priority, saying it had “always been” her main priority.
“I work hard to keep this building open when we are really stretched for staff. I have stayed late a number of days, and I have come in early a number of days to make sure people are here,” she said. “I try to keep this library open and I try to keep it functioning to the best of my ability and with the resources I have.”
Trustee Nancy Hendricks agreed that there had been recent staffing issues.
“If we had a full staff, that wouldn’t be a problem,” said Hendricks, who questioned the Chair’s assertions.
Thomas reiterated her desire to keep the library open and eventually offered to remove the controversial clause.
“This library is so vibrant, and everyone loves it,” said Thomas, who was happy to hear Matlin’s commitment to keeping the library. “Whenever you need to close early or open later, just send a notice after it happened.”