Event
Excerpts of a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the William P. Faust Public Library of Westland, Michigan, on March 8, 2017. Excerpted by the videographer, Kristy Cooper. Video of full meeting here.
Brief Context
This is a video of highlights of the Westland Library Board meeting of March 3, 2017, in which the board of directors tried to justify to former staff and Westland citizens why they terminated five full-time librarians and are planning to replace them with three part-time (no benefits) paraprofessionals, all while planning a $3 million expansion to the building. [h/t Kristy Cooper.]
Speakers
- President of the Board of Trustees of the Westland Library, Mark Neal.
- Library staff member who records the minutes, Sherri West.
- Westland librarians fired on March 3: Andrea Perez and Jody Wolak.
- Former Westland librarian and videographer, Kristy Cooper.
- Candidate for Westland City Council, Joe Schaefer.
- Citizens.
Note about the Transcript
This video contains many informative overlays of text. Such overlays are indicated in this transcript by the word “Text” in bold font.
Transcript
[0:00] [Text] It should be noted that the Reference Department covers more than just half of the library. It includes (or included) Teen Services. It covers ages 12 through senior citizens who can't come to the library themselves but are enrolled in the Homebound Delivery program.
[Text] On March 3rd, 2017, 5 librarians were terminated at the Westland Library, just 2 days after turning in union papers.
[Text] The following footage was taken at the next library board meeting on March 8th.
[0:07] [Text] This is Mark Neal, the President of the Library Board.
Neal: This board always has been labor friendly. It wouldn’t seem like it, with the crowd that’s here. You would think otherwise, but if you go back to the history that was read.
West: Hold on.
Neal: Pardon?
West: Is audio, videotape allowed?
Neal: No.
Citizens: Yes.
[chaos]
Citizen: It’s a Public Meetings Act. Public Meeting. Public Meeting.
Neal: I said “Turn it off.”
Citizen: It’s a public meeting.
Neal: That does not mean you can videotape it.
Citizens: Yes, it does. [Uproar.] That’s exactly what it means.
Neal: Does it?
Citizens: Yes. Yes. It does.
Neal: Is that true?
Citizen: If your lawyer was here, he would tell you.
Neal: All right. It does not make any difference, because what I am saying is legitimate, anyhow.
Citizen: That’s fine.
Neal: All right.
Citizen: We want to make sure it’s documented.
West [Unintelligible.]
Neal: We record it?
West: Yeah.
Neal: Probably. Yeah, we better, because [unintelligible].
Citizen: Too much hiding of information. That’s why it’s being done.
Neal: Oh, Mr. Graham. No editorializing. You had your chance to talk, and you’ll have another chance at the end.
Citizen: Absolutely.
[1:20] [Text] Mr. Neal explains the director, Sheila Collin's plan to “reorganize” the library's staffing. The 5 librarians are to be replaced by three 36-hour “part-time” library associates who will not be getting any health benefits.
Neal: The organization scheme that we were provided with, the reorganization scheme involved the layoff of five librarians and the hiring of three part-time library associates to provide the very same services. Now if you look at Adult Services, and, again, I don’t work here, so this may sound a little funny for somebody, because they’ll say, “Oh, no, you don’t understand,” but if you look at Adult Services and Children’s, they both have a population that they service. Children’s has two librarians. Adult Services had eight. I am under the impression, based on what we hear from our director, there is not four times as much activity in Adult’s, and therefore there is not a need for eight librarians. There may be a need for bodies, but not necessarily librarians. Not every service in this library requires a librarian.
[2:22] Cooper: I heard you call librarians “bodies,” which suggests to me you really don’t know what a librarian does. That’s why I’m here to advocate for libraries and librarians and the profession. You can go ahead and Google whatever you want, but librarians can actually bring the right answer back for you. That is what they are trained to do. You called them “bodies.” That just shows me that you don’t understand what the staff here actually does or what librarians actually do.
Citizen: Firing workers from full-time, just to go to part time, does not seem to be very community-oriented. Question: Could the millage that was approved five years ago, I believe, could it be used to keep those full-time employees? Meaning, could the money be diverted to pay full-time employees? If so, why wasn’t that done.
Cooper: It was part of the original budget.
Citizen: Especially since you are doing a $3 million dollar expansion, if you can’t pay for workers, how in the world are you paying for a $3-million-dollar-plus expansion?
Citizen: I don’t think you guys even have that kind of money, if you are laying off people. You need people to build, to make it a better library.
[3:27] Citizen: We trusted the librarians with everything that we needed help with, as far as finding books and more information and term papers, and all that. None of the staff should be cut, in my mind. I think that they are all great and that they help us. I can use Google, and Google does not get me what I need sometimes. We need a lot more than that. My younger child has issues with reading. We have come, we have talked to Miss Fry and some of the other librarians and the assistants, the pages, whoever it may be, whatever we have needed. I come to a library thinking that I am going to get help from the staff who are in here because it’s their job, they know what they’re doing, and they are here to help me. As a taxpayer who pays her money now to this library and to the millage, I am very saddened to hear that “We can expand. We can get more bricks, but we are going to cut the people who work there. I don’t need a brick to help me look for something. I need a person. I need somebody knowledgeable in their job, to help me, to help my children, and this is how they are going to get their education, by coming to a library, by having other people help them to learn where these things are.
Citizen: I’ve been part of the library since I was a child. [Unintelligible] go to the library. When I started out as a teen, Miss Jody was the first person to actually talk me into doing the teen reading program, and at first I didn’t like it, because I thought it was boring and everything, but she encouraged students and other people to join in that program. It was not just because of prizes, but it was just kind of fun to do the activity, and seeing Miss Jody gone just kind of broke my heart because she has been there for every teen, every child. She has been really helpful.
Wolak: My name is Jody Wolak. I was the Teen Librarian here for just over four years, and built a teen program that I am very proud of with some amazing teens. I wanted to address a couple of points. You mentioned, Mark, that Adult was over-staffed, when compared with Youth. I do want to clarify that Teen is considered part of Adult in this.
Neal: Yes.
[5:35] [Text] It should be noted that the Reference Department covers more than just half of the library. It includes (or included) Teen Services. It covers ages 12 through senior citizens who can't come to the library themselves but are enrolled in the Homebound Delivery program.
Wolak: I believe you misspoke about the number of librarians. In Youth, there are actually three librarian position plus one librarian, who is employed as an associate. If you go out in this library and look at the square footage, you will see Adult has much more square footage than Children, just because there are more grownups. And if you look around at other libraries, the average seems to be about two times as many Adult librarians as Youth, which was right in line with where we were before these layoffs. Secondly, other people have spoken to the concerns about replacing five to six full-time librarians with three part-time associates. It seems impossible to do without cutting programs or negatively impacting the community. I hope that a lot of these programs that have been cut, I hope that these are temporary measures and that as many as possible will resume as quickly as possible and with the level of quality we have been able to provide. I don’t see how that’s possible with three part-time people replacing five to six full-time. Third, if financial, why were we not given the opportunity to go to part-time or take pay cuts. Fourth, and this is my final point, the execution of this plan has been horrible. Many services have come to a halt. There has been apparently no transition plan that I have seen. There has been no knowledge transfer, as you alluded to from the librarians, some of us who have been employed as long as 11 years, and all of whom were solely responsible for at least one critical area: Teens, Homebound, Literacy, Website. On Friday, patrons seeking help with their job searches came to find “Seekers Lab closed.” And on Monday, teens ready to make anime art projects, the door was closed. There has been no proactive transparency with the public in ensuring services would not suffer. Again, I hope this is temporary, but it is concerning. If this is indicative of the board’s best, well-reasoned, thoughtfully-executed decisions, that have been in the works for apparently a while, then this concerns me greatly. This library and this community deserve better.
[7:42] [Text] This is Sheila Collins. Note that mark Neal is the only one who is explaining her reorganization plan. She only speaks at board meetings when directly addressed. This is not normal.
Perez: I was a librarian here for 11 years, and I stayed this long because of the community and because of the staff, but I no longer care about this job. I would not take it back because it is sickening. I have come to you for help with the director, and we begged you, DeLano, for help. Back in November, you were at the meeting where we were yelled at and abused. Marilyn Kwik is the heart of this library. She is gone because of you, because of the abuse by Sheila Collins, who is not only not a citizen of this community, she does not even live in this state. So that tells you how much this board, who does not even use the library cares. I was one of the leaks to people for so long. [Laughter.] I do not care. I am switching to social work because I am so done. You destroyed my belief in libraries, all of you. I am sickened by all of you and what you did to these people. You don’t deserve to work here, and I hope the mayor removes all of you. These people deserve so much better. The Homebound people, you are going to be hearing from them. They are very upset, and they are already contacting the mayor, and, Sheila, please leave. You have been a terrible abuser.
Unknown: [Unintelligible.]
Neal: Go ahead, you still have [unintelligible].
[9:04] Perez: How can you justify [unintelligible] the library, when you came in, and you yelled at us, you called … We were all suspended, the people that were laid off. To say we were not related … We were all suspended due to insubordination, that rule that was made up the day that they suspended us. And we have documented all of this stuff, and I don’t know how the library is going to afford an expansion with another lawsuit, and that is all.
Neal: [Unintelligible.]
Perez: You told us in the meeting in November, you did not care about us.
Neal: No, I didn’t say that.
Citizen: You didn’t want to know us.
Neal: No, you’re taking that out of context. [Unintelligible.]
Citizen: You called a staff member a “snowflake.”
Unknown: That is correct.
Citizen: Oh, my gosh.
[10:00] [Text] In 2012, the Westland Library passed a millage whose campaign message to the public was the promise of bringing library hours and services back up to previous levels, because we had to reduce hours and lay off staff due to a serious decrease in property tax revenues after the 2008 economic downturn.
Neal: In any event, let me move on. Could the millage be used to keep the employees? Yes. Absolutely.
Citizen: Or for a time.
Neal: No, forever. There is enough money coming in in the millage that we could keep these librarians. But that’s not what this is about. We are not trying to see how many people we can fund for the job. I know that sounds not so good to some people. But we are looking at the entire picture. What is the financial picture. If you are paying taxes to the library, wouldn’t you want us to run it as efficiently as possible? Do we just hire people, and they just get to stay? Is this one of those deals for a life-long job?
Citizen: [Unintelligible] Westland.
Neal: Pardon? Yeah.
Citizen: The City of Westland [unintelligible].
Neal: Well, yeah. I did my career in Westland, and I did it in the Fire Department, and I’m retired from there, yes. Right. I did a career of that. I understand that.
Citizen: Two dollars more [unintelligible].
[10:44] [Text] This is Joe Schaeffer, candidate for Westland City Council.
Citizen: Did you offer them an actual reduction in pay along with a reduction in hours so that they could retain those positions without hiring somebody new.
Neal: We didn’t offer that, and I’m just giving my general feeling on that, and I apologize if it doesn’t [unintelligible], but having been a union person for a long, long time, it is highly unusual and might be considered a very negative thing, to tell someone, “We know you’re a librarian, and we would like to keep you, but we want you to take an hourly cut and an hourly rate cut, to stay here. That is the kind of thing that would be interpreted very, very negatively.
Citizen: I agree that it’s possible, but people have … I don’t know people’s home lives, and I assume you guys don’t know everyone’s personal lives either, so their financial situations [unintelligible] should have been taken into account [unintelligible].
Citizen: Something that wasn’t clarified regarding the library associate position and why the librarians were not offered part-time, I have a question about that, [unintelligible]. The hourly range stated for the library associate posting which she was just referencing, which is still on the [unintelligible] website, lists the salary range as $16.03 to $21.37 per hour. I am going to go ahead and tell you what I made, because I don’t have this job any more. We each made $19.23 per hour, which is well within this range. We were hired at $17 per hour and after an evaluation period, we were increased to the $19.23. So if this was the range that was approved for this hiring process, where is the cost cutting.
Neal: The ranges are greater for you as well, but not everyone is at that level.
Citizen: Andrea, you were here for how many years, and what do you make?
Perez: Eleven years, and I make $21, and I started at $18.
Citizen: Okay, so then actually then it was a reduction.
Citizen: Thank you.
Citizen: Can they apply for the job, though? Can they go back and apply for the job if they wanted to?
Citizen: Right.
Neal: I don’t know. I don’t know.
Citizen: I mean, it’s only a four-hour cut, and they are making the same amount of money, so why can’t … go apply and get their job back?
Librarian: They are not going to take us back.
Citizen: I would try.
[13:20] [Text] We later learned that all of the new "library associates" hired actually had Master's degrees in Library Science just like Alexis, Danielle, Jody, Katie, and Andrea. They were also librarians, but none of them were allowed to take these demotions. Is this even legal?
Neal: Moving on.
Citizen: Who does the training, now that that lady left?
Neal: What?
Citizen: Who is going to do the training now that that woman was let go.
Cooper: Marilyn Kwik was the heart of the library.
Citizen: Didn’t some lady just walk …
Librarian: Marilyn.
Librarian: Marilyn.
Citizen: So who is going to do the training while the employees are gone?
Neal: What training? You mean of the new employees?
Citizen: Right.
Neal: We’ll find somebody.
Citizens: [Laughter.]
Neal: Is this an agenda item, Marilyn?
[14:07] [Text] At the beginning of the meeting, before I began recording, Marilyn Kwik, the Department Head of Information Services for 12 years turned in her resignation.
Kwik: It’s Citizens’ Comments.
Neal: At the end. We’ll do general citizens’ comments at the end.
Kwik: It relates to something that’s on the agenda, yes.
Neal: What item is it?
Kwik: Union organization [unintelligible].
Neal: Okay.
Kwik: My name is Marilyn Kwik. I have been employed by the Public Library of Westland since 2005. I was hired as the department head of the Reference Department. I have remained in this position during my entire employment. Although the title of my position was changed to Department Head of Information Services by Sheila Collins about two years ago. Prior to this position, I have worked at both an academic and public library. I have a Master’s Degree in Library Science from Wayne State University and a Bachelor’s of Science from Michigan State University. I have worked for the United States Department of Agriculture as well as private industry. I have been professionally employed for nearly 37 years. I proudly admit that I have a stellar work performance. I left each of my employers with the knowledge that I was appreciated and would be welcomed back at any time. However, with the current administration, although I have maintained my lifelong dedication to my work and my co-workers, things have changed. I will no longer work in a toxic and dishonest environment, an environment that allows for a director who decides she will no longer speak to specific members of her staff, routinely screams at her staff, makes false accusations about her staff, and disciplines them based on her false accusations. This is the environment staff encounters outside the ears of the public. Consider this my resignation with my two-week notice effective March 22nd.
[16:00] [Text] Marilyn was the glue that held this library together. It will never be the same without her or the 5 librarians who were unjustly terminated.
Citizens: [Applause]
Cooper: And then we have a director who does exactly what the board says. She does not interact with the staff. She does not interact with the public, but they want to keep her because she’ll still do whatever they tell her to do. And she’ll mumble into her [looks at report in hands] and read her little report, and not interact with her employees, who are not allowed to come talk with her, and there is a new rule about that too. That’s not a normal thing to have happening at libraries, and as professional librarians, we can tell you, that is not normal, and that is not acceptable, and this is not over.
[16:45] [Text] “I will not stop fighting for the Westland Library and its patrons I loved serving from 2007-2013. It is my mission to have Sheila Collins terminated as the director of the Westland Library and all of the librarians including Marilyn Kwik hired back. I am also asking for the resignations of every library board member who was responsible for this terrible decision.
[Text] “After that we need to work with the City of Westland to fix how board members are appointed to the Westland Library board. Many of them are non-library users who know little about what the library actually does. They think their role is solely oversight and not advocacy. This needs to change.” (Kristy Cooper, former Web Librarian and Head of Technology Service, 2007-2013.)
Videos
This video, highlights of the board meeting, may be found here. The full board meeting may be found here.
Transcriptionist
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Updated 04-02-2017 with