Town seeks direct appointment of Library CEO

In a departure from past practice and in possible opposition to the Public Libraries Act, the Town of Pelham has requested that Vickie vanRavenswaay, Director of Recreation, Culture, and Wellness, also assume the duties of the Pelham Public Library’s CEO.

The Voice has learned that Town Council’s request was delivered to the Pelham Public Library Board last week. The board gathered to discuss the issue behind closed doors at the library’s Fonthill branch on Wednesday evening.

Headed into the meeting, council liaison to the board, Councillor Marianne Stewart was tight-lipped.

“Sorry, but I can’t speak to any of that,” she replied when asked about vanRavenswaay.

The Ontario Public Libraries Act specifies that library boards are to function as independent entities, hiring their own chief executive officers— individuals who specifically do not answer to a municipality.

The Voice understands that following Wednesday night’s meeting, the board rejected the municipality's request, informing the Town on Thursday that Acting CEO Amy Guilmette will remain in the position for the foreseeable future.

The library’s search for a new CEO has been underway for over a year, following the October 2018 departure of previous CEO Kirk Weaver, who came into the job in early 2015. Last autumn, Weaver was offered a position in a different industry and his departure from the library was voluntary. As recently as three weeks ago, the library placed advertising in the Voice, seeking applicants for the CEO position.

Both Guilmette and Library Board Chair Tim Wright declined to comment for this story. Mayor Marvin Junkin likewise declined comment, citing an upcoming meeting this week with Wright.

At issue for council may be the library’s top-heavy labour costs. The CEO position clocks in on the Sunshine List at $106,000—Weaver’s 2018 salary. In her usual role as Deputy CEO, Guilmette is earning just shy of $100,000. Figuring in an additional 20% for the value of benefits and other employment costs, this leaves the two top jobs eating up roughly 30% of the library’s approximately $940,000 budget.

There are three additional full-time salaried positions, and 11 part-time staff, to run two library branches—the main Fonthill branch, and the significantly smaller, recently renovated Maple Acre branch, in Fenwick.

While similar small systems exist in rural Niagara, greater efficiency would appear to be the case elsewhere. In Haldimand County the library CEO runs seven branches. In Lambton County, the library CEO and two managers run 27 branches.

The Public Libraries Act’s language pertaining to the appointment of CEOs seems unambiguous: “A public library board has the power to appoint a library chief executive officer (CEO). The CEO is a library board employee and not a municipal employee. The CEO reports to the board and not to the municipality. The CEO does not report in a dual relationship to both the board and the municipality.”

Nothing in the Act appears to prohibit a library CEO from performing his or her duties part-time, or from holding separate employment, including with a municipality. What’s mandated is that the library CEO reports to the library board, not to the municipal council.

On the matter of penalties, the Act is arguably more bark than bite. If a municipality is found to be in contravention, it risks losing provincial funding for its library in the form of its Public Libraries Operating Grant (PLOG). There are no criminal or other sanctions.

Yet while loss of provincial funding may seem too big a pill for Pelham to risk swallowing, the PLOG tablet turns out to be the size of a single Tic-Tac.

Of the library’s 2018 operations cost of $945,315, only some $40,000—about 4%—came in the form of provincial funding.

Even if the province were to pull Pelham’s grant entirely, and assuming that vanRavenswaay received a bump of $10,000 or $15,000 to add oversight of the library to her existing duties, the library still stands to realize a savings of some $80,000 to $90,000.

This isn’t the first time that a Pelham Town Council has sought to flex its muscles with a library board.

In January 2011, then-Councillors John Durley and Gary Accursi brought forward a motion seen by some observers as deliberately timed to catch the board off balance. Both the library CEO and the board Chair were out of town when the pair proposed a sweeping and grammatically wandering resolution that sought to exert greater control over the library.

Reading in part, “Whereas: by making the library function accountable to the council of the Town creates a system of ‘checks and balances’ that ensure best possible use of tax dollars, and, Whereas: it is desirable to create a better system of communication, cooperation and synergy between the town and its library function,” the motion concluded that the library “function” was to be brought “into conformity with other Town functions and operations” through new policies and procedures.

“It felt like a takeover just because of the timing and a lack of communication with the library board ahead of time,” remembers one stakeholder, speaking on condition that they not be named. “Gary Accursi was the council rep and he had not mentioned any of this at the [most recent] board meeting, which he could have done, because, obviously, someone spent some time working on all of their whereases. I doubt that Gary could have come up with the wording on his own. I'm sure someone else was behind it.”

The motion ultimately went nowhere, with some other members of council questioning why the Town would seek to micro-manage a library board whose members had just been appointed weeks earlier, following the 2010 municipal election and turnover of appointed resident committees.

Neither Durley nor Accursi acknowledged Voice requests for comment.

Whether vanRavenswaay or another individual not trained in library science should take the library’s top management job, however, is an open question.

In letter to the editor this week, the library’s retired Public Services Coordinator, Elaine Anderson, coincidentally touches on the issue of qualifications in relation to a potential scheme to partially automate the Maple Acre branch.

“Library workers are trained information professionals, not desk clerks,” writes Anderson. “Their main responsibilities include processing materials, creating reading lists, updating the website, scheduling, planning programs, advertising, planning displays, processing InterLibrary Loans, solving IT problems, tracking volunteer hours, and so much more.”

While Anderson declined to comment specifically on the current CEO issue, or on her previous experience at the library, Pelham CAO David Cribbs offered his take on what constitutes a qualified manager.

“I can say that Ms. vanRavenswaay is an experienced public servant who had performed quite well in a senior leadership role for several years,” said Cribbs.

“She has been instrumental in making the MCC a success, and has also taken on the challenge of operating the Town’s transit system. Beyond that, she has experience in managing the cultural portfolio.”

Cribbs said considering that Acting CEO Guilmette has “stepped down and a search is underway for a new candidate,” he was supportive of vanRavenswaay being appointed, on an interim basis, as Acting CEO.

“She has a demonstrated track record of both management and leadership, and she could support the library staff during a transitional period.”

Cribbs cited the library’s own recent hiring history as a template.

“Mr. Weaver, the prior CEO, was also not a librarian, but this in no way inhibited him from doing a fine job. Ms. vanRavenswaay is every bit as qualified as the previous CEO, and I think she is an excellent choice for the role.”