One more person has walked away from the St. Paul Municipal Library Board, less than two weeks and one official meeting into the role, saying the board is “dysfunctional” and expressing concerns about a board decision to fire its library manager.
Two weeks ago, Diana Tyler-Moon became the tenth person in less than a year and a half to quit the voluntary board. She explained she joined, even after hearing about the board’s troubles, because she wanted to support the library manager, Aleta Gaucher, and the library. “I believe in the library,” she says.
Instead, in her first meeting as a board member, she says she was asked to make a decision to fire Gaucher, based on a consultant’s report done in May, 2010, that brought up concerns with Gaucher, suggesting that her “abilities are not in the management of the library.”
Tyler-Moon questioned why there was no decision made to fire Gaucher until now, after former board members had resigned and new board members had signed on.
“There were two new board members and three old board members that were (at the meeting). I thought it was really unfair to have your new people take care of your old business,” said Tyler-Moon. “How can I fire someone when I don’t even know what her working relationship is with the board?”
Based on attending two board meetings, Tyler-Moon felt the members needed a board development course. “I think the board is dysfunctional in that they don’t know what their role is,” she said, adding that at the Nov. 12 board meeting she attended, there was no motion to begin a meeting, no motion to fire the board manager, no recorded vote and no recorded minutes. The Libraries Act states that all minutes, resolutions and bylaws of a board should be recorded and kept. Another meeting was held after Tyler-Moon’s resignation, in which minutes were taken and recorded.
Lucille Froese, who was board chair at the time when the consultant’s report was received, said she understood the library consultant was hired to help the board understand library functioning. Instead, the consultant came back focusing the report on Gaucher, saying staffing was the main issue at the library.
“We couldn’t see any need to fire her based on that report,” said Froese. Instead, the board at that time decided to do an evaluation with Gaucher and also ask her to create a personal growth plan to be reviewed later in the year. Froese said she thought the original direction made sense.
Gaucher, while not a trained librarian, is expected to handle all the library duties, pay out bills, look after the front desk and manage staff, said Froese. Her feeling, both as a former board chair and current volunteer and patron at the library, is that Gaucher works very hard and has brought more people to the library. “She got the library into the community,” said Froese.
Froese says that from working with the staff as a volunteer, she knows they are happy working with Gaucher and they like their jobs. However, she says some are “really stressed” about whether they too could lose their jobs. “They don’t know what’s going to happen next,” said Froese. Although the library will be fine if the right person is hired to take over Gaucher’s job, Froese says, “Whoever the manager is, they’re going to be left with a board that has no idea what they’re doing . . . The library doesn’t have a problem. It’s the board that’s having a problem.”
Sue Reilly, who took over as library board chair from Town of St. Paul Coun. Ken Kwiatkowski within the last month, would not confirm or deny if Gaucher has been fired, saying it was a “personnel” issue. Reilly also declined to comment on Gaucher’s performance as library manager.
“I don’t think it’s a dysfunctional board,” said Reilly in response to Tyler-Moon’s criticisms. Although she noted the board is in need of new members, she said, “The members that are there are committed to the library and work well together.”
Gaucher’s experience is that working with the board has been stressful. “It’s been a really difficult time, because they don’t know what they’re doing.” She brings up the fact that at a recent town council meeting she attended, Kwiatkowski reported the library’s budget was showing a $50,000 surplus and the money could be given back. Gaucher hadn’t seen the budget herself, but she reports that Kwiatkowski had told her there was no money in the budget for courses or conferences for library staff. “My mouth dropped open; I couldn’t believe it,” she says of her reaction to his report at town council.
She also notes that following her firing, she was not paid, but was instead asked to sign a letter asking her, in part, to “release and discharge the St. Paul Municipal Library from all actions, claims and demands of every kind whatsoever arising out of my employment . . . ”.
“I don’t really think they handled it right,” she said of her dismissal, adding she’s consulting a lawyer to explore her options.
When contacted about the board’s troubles, Mayor Glenn Andersen said the board has undergone a restructuring, with a new chair and a new vice-chair, and that Town CAO Ron Boisvert is helping the new board to get organized. “We feel we’re moving in the right direction.”