BELLOWS FALLS — When Municipal Manager Willis “Chip” Stearns gave the press a tour of the newly completed Rockingham Free Public Library (RFPL) last month, he said that the library aimed to open its doors by Sept. 30.
Stearns warned that an opening by the middle of October would be more realistic.
The library has received its certificate of occupancy, Stearns said, but he explained that the delay in opening would allow officials time to attend to final details.
He said the library's interim site, at 41 The Square, would remain open until the week of transition.
When the library does move, it will turn a page on some uncertainty and turmoil within the community.
The tensions came on the heels of issues with the bankruptcy of contractor Baybutt Construction, as well as a controversial vote by the trustees to shut the library and the resulting move to the temporary location during the last part of library renovations.
Library Director Célina Houlné was served with an eight-page, 26-item corrective action plan (CAP) by the library trustees' personnel committee [“Library gets temporary home; librarian called on carpet,” May 29].
Houlné was charged with “undermining the authority of the board as a whole, as well as individual board members,” an “ongoing pattern” of ignoring requests for information from the board, “operating outside the stated bounds of the position,” and “not performing duties as per job description.”
Trustees also cited Houlné for allowing employees to read letters of discontent at the board's April meeting, for allowing employees to suggest to patrons that they attend a board meeting to protest, for publishing unapproved draft minutes of the trustees' meetings on the library website, for allowing employees to post opinions about library policy on social media like Facebook while on the job using library resources, and “allowing [employees] free rein,” they wrote, “permitting them to do whatever they want during library hours.”
Houlné went on medical leave this summer.
Sources within the library debate told The Commons on condition of anonymity that the staff has also been under stress with the tensions of the spring and summer, including uncertainty about Houlné's continued employment and extra workload incurred while she responded to the CAP requirements.
Those same sources report that staff has also been suffering stress-related illnesses.
At its Aug. 29 meeting, the personnel committee reportedly took the trustees into executive session, where they delivered their CAP evaluation.
Sources told The Commons that, on the recommendation of the Personnel Committee, the full library board considered a motion to terminate Houlné.
Library Trustee Ray Massucco said an amendment he put forward to a motion to accept the CAP evaluation would provide the library director 15 days to respond, and that he was looking forward to the opportunity to look over that response.
“This is no time to change management,” he told The Commons. “I want to hear both sides before I even begin to consider [any actions]. I don't know how anybody, even prior board members, who can come to come to any conclusions before hearing Célina's response.”
Houlné was never given a chance to respond to any of the allegations in the original CAP.
“The director's performance is under review,” Massucco said. “After having the opportunity to hear the alleged deficiencies, then to hear the director's response - then, at that point, the board can have an informed discussion.”
On Sept. 18, the trustees will meet, at which time Houlné, who retained an attorney last spring as tensions between her and her board were mounting, will respond, point by point, to the CAP evaluation.
In a letter to the RFPL trustees written this week, the Friends of the Library - an organization of patrons and residents whose stated mission is to support the library in its mission - said it was “appalled” by the trustees' attempts to terminate Houlné's employment.
“Many of us on the Friends' board have worked closely with Ms. Houlné and know that she has served with the utmost professionalism during her tenure, has the full and abiding endorsement of the library staff, the support of a large number of library patrons, and the respect of other librarians throughout the state of Vermont,” the letter reads.
“She has done an outstanding job of providing library services to the library patrons and the general public throughout the very difficult period of the library building renovation, and has overseen the relocation of the library into temporary space during the final phases of the renovation. Ms. Houlné has provided stellar leadership with grace, charm, and integrity.
“Rather than seeking to dismiss Ms. Houlné, the Personnel Committee should be writing letters of commendation and recommending a salary increase in appreciation for a job well done.”
The Friends wants either the Personnel Committee to withdraw its recommendation to fire Houlné, or the Trustees to reject the personnel committee's recommendation.
“For the Personnel Committee or the Trustees to do otherwise will be a miscarriage of justice that will affect our library for years to come,” the Friends' letter concluded.
No minutes for incomplete meeting
Minutes for this meeting are unavailable. The chair called a recess instead of an adjournment, with the meeting continued to Sept. 18.
According to Houlné, trustees Secretary Laura Senes told her that she would not write the minutes until the meeting is complete.
But Deputy Secretary of State Brian Leven, when asked about the legality of the trustees' actions, called state law “somewhat unclear” as to whether a board is obligated to release minutes of a meeting that has been recessed and not outright adjourned.
Leven said state statute requires that “[a]ny adjourned meeting shall be considered a new meeting.”
“From this, we might infer that a recessed meeting is not an adjourned meeting for which minutes must be made available within five days,” he said Monday.
“However, one of the purposes of Vermont's open meeting laws is to hold public bodies accountable. A board could be circumventing this public policy and the spirit of these laws by routinely recessing meetings in order to obviate the need to produce minutes.”
The RFPL Board of Trustees is already under investigation by Assistant Attorney General Bill Reynolds for violation of the open meeting law.
Reynolds, who said that he is swamped with an injured colleague's workload as well as his own, said he would be responding to the trustees within the next few weeks.