At a meeting of the Maclure Library’s board of trustees last Monday, Aug. 3, trustees received a report from interim director Elizabeth Soulia stating that both she and assistant librarian Dana DiPietro would be stepping down. The board also took on three new trustees at the meeting and agreed to consider changes to its bylaws.

These are just the latest changes in a period of turmoil that has been impacting the Pittsford library and its board since earlier this year. The board went from eight trustees in January to three by early July, then bounced back to six. By Aug. 3 the board was up to the nine members required in its bylaws, but at a contentious special board meeting on Aug. 6, one new member resigned.

Longtime board member Donna Wilson attributed the exodus earlier in the year to a “conflictive” member who was “obstructing” board business. But the upheaval intensified after the board’s decision on June 19 to extend a job offer to TJ Lamanna as the library’s permanent director.

Members of the public and of the Pittsford selectboard have alleged that the hiring process did not follow the requirements laid out in the library’s bylaws, and also that the library board should act with greater transparency. Many community members have argued, including at a public meeting on July 2, that Soulia should be hired permanently instead.

Lamanna has since withdrawn his application for the position.

In her report to the board on Aug. 3, Soulia wrote that she was resigning “due to the very difficult circumstances surrounding the Library’s recent personnel matters.” She added, however, that she remains “open to reconsidering that decision should the Board wish to engage in a good faith discussion about the concerns that led to my resignation and the conditions necessary for a respectful, stable, and productive working environment moving forward.”

DiPietro said in a message to the Current that she was stepping down to focus on her education and career. “I’m incredibly grateful for my time at Maclure Library and for the opportunity to serve such a wonderful community,” she wrote.

Hiring decision under question

The library conducted an open search for its new director and ultimately narrowed the choice to two outside candidates, according to a statement board chair Stephen Belcher presented at the July 2 public meeting. He said the board valued Soulia’s service and had intended to keep her on as Assistant Librarian.

“The Director is in a different position, requiring different skills and experience,” he wrote. “... We also felt that the Library needed a Director with a new set of skills to restore the Library to the level of activity we saw under [past director] Bonnie Stewart. We felt that such a Director matched with Elizabeth’s skills would give the Library a new energy and serve the community.”

The statement goes on to claim that after the vote to hire Lamanna, one trustee attempted to overturn the vote, rallying support from the town’s selectboard and community members.

At a Pittsford selectboard meeting on July 15, board members questioned the hiring process.

“We’ve had some concerns that have come from quite a few citizens in town, just about how the library and the board have been functioning,” selectboard member Mark Winslow said at the meeting. “There’s been some concern with the bylaws being followed, there’s been some concerns about how the meetings have been run.”

“We just want to have some clarity because the town does contribute a large amount to the library and we’re supposed to be guardians of the tax dollars,” he added.

The Town of Pittsford contributed $125,000 to Maclure both this year and last.

Winslow pointed out that according to the library bylaws, the board is required to have nine to 12 members, and six must be present for a quorum. However, when the board decided to offer Lamanna the director job, it had only five members: Belcher, Ginny Carroccia, Judi Tompkins, Alicia Malay, and Donna Wilson. Malay and Carroccia have since stepped down.

Belcher said at the August 6 library board meeting that he and the other board members believed they were acting legally when they offered Lamanna the job. He said the board has not had nine members for several years.

“We had consulted [Rutland lawyer] Gary Kupferer earlier over a slightly different issue, and I did in fact have a great concern over the fact that we did not have nine members,” Belcher said. “I did not think we could amend the bylaws with fewer than nine members and I wanted his opinion … He gave us a three-page opinion that in our view gave us a green light for the actions we were taking.”

Belcher said that any votes deemed illegal would be revoted. However, he had previously warned of the potential consequences of reversing the hiring decision.

“If this effort to overturn a legitimate and carefully considered decision succeeds, Elizabeth would become Director with the stigma of public knowledge that she was not considered the most qualified candidate, and that she owes her position to the strong-arming of political patronage,” he wrote in his July 2 statement.

Soulia said at the July 6 meeting that the statement “is unfair to me, unfair to the community members who spoke up in good faith, and unfair to the trustees and residents who have raised legitimate concerns about process, communication, transparency and governance. Community support is not political patronage. Public concern is not strong-arming. Asking questions about a publicly funded library is not misinformation.”

Transparency and term limits

Responding at the Aug. 6 meeting to accusations that the library board has not acted transparently, Belcher said, “In that much of what we were doing was personnel decisions, the lack of transparency was imposed on us.”

Belcher also stated that because the library is an incorporated association rather than a public body, it is not subject to Vermont’s Open Meeting Law, though he added that “we all recognize that the Open Meeting Law represents best practices that we would like to follow.”

He acknowledged that an annual meeting has not been held in recent years, and that thorough minutes had not been taken at meetings.

At the Aug. 6 meeting, Pittsford planning commission member Rick Conway called repeatedly for Belcher to step down, pointing out that both he and Wilson have been on the board past the term limit specified in the bylaws. Belcher responded that he had wanted to step down earlier in the year but is staying on the board temporarily to support the new members, and that they have requested he do so.

Nancy Eddy, who joined the board in July, confirmed that this was the case.

“I think we all feel that the members who have been on for perhaps longer than their term have a value to us as we get reestablished,” she said at the meeting.

A potential gap in staffing

Soulia has said she will resign on Aug. 31, but the library board has not announced any prospects for her replacement. Wilson said on Aug. 6 that the library board had not yet accepted her resignation.

Soulia grew up in Pittsford and said she started volunteering at the library in 2012 as a preteen, got a job at the front desk at 15, and has worked there since, with a one-year gap to attend college.

She took over as interim director in March of this year, when the previous library director, Shelly Williams, resigned after 14 years at Maclure. Now, following the dispute over her permanent replacement, Soulia too has handed in her notice.

“This was the hardest decision of my life,” she wrote in an email to the Current. “I care deeply about Maclure Library, its staff, volunteers, and the Pittsford community. ... During my time as Interim Director, I have been incredibly proud of what we accomplished together, from securing grants for future programming to strengthening operations and building community partnerships. Ultimately, I decided to put in my letter of resignation because I no longer felt I could be as effective as the library deserves under the current circumstances.”

As for what would happen in the event of a staffing gap, Belcher said, “We’re still thinking about that. We have a number of options. Among other things, the Vermont Department of Libraries has a temporary librarian program and we can turn to them for help.”

Morgan Washburn, a lifelong Pittsford resident and library patron who joined the board in July, said she is hopeful that the board is turning a corner. In June, Washburn started a Change.org petition calling for the public meeting about the director position that ultimately took place on July 2, and, before her appointment to the board, had advocated for Soulia’s permanent hiring.

“I want what’s best for the library,” she said. “This library is the center of the community, a safe space, the heart of Pittsford.”