Complaints of a 'toxic' culture at the Shorewood Public library prompt investigation
The Shorewood Village Board has directed staff to initiate an investigation into the Shorewood Public Library after receiving multiple complaints regarding the library’s workplace environment, according to a village press release Wednesday evening.
Village officials didn’t provide any information about the allegations in the complaints that will be investigated, but the announcement follows weeks of back-and-forth accusations and arguments between the Library Board and former Director Jen Gerber, according to complaints obtained by the Journal Sentinel. Gerber announced she was resigning on Oct. 12, less than two weeks after announcing she was taking medical leave on Sept. 30.
The village board initiated the investigation and decided to hire an outside investigator at a special board meeting that took place Wednesday afternoon, Assistant Village Manager Chris Anderson said.
In a workplace safety grievance filed to the Library Board of Trustees Sept. 25 and obtained by the Journal Sentinel, six staff members at the Shorewood Library petitioned for Gerber’s termination. They described a Sept. 22 incident where Gerber and two other staff members discovered a doll in the former assistant director’s desk and burned it with a lighter on the south side of the Shorewood Village Center on Sept. 22 — an account substantiated by video evidence obtained by the Journal Sentinel and coworker testimony.
The staff members said the doll burning incident “is a product of the toxic culture cultivated and fostered by director Jen Gerber throughout her tenure as Director,” the grievance said. “The product of this action is a further divided, toxic, and unsafe workplace culture with no resolution in sight.”
The Shorewood Police Department confirmed that no laws were broken in the doll burning incident.
Meanwhile, Gerber, hired in July 2022, filed a complaint Sept. 27 to the library board where she claimed the board’s lack of confidentiality in discussing her actions with unsupportive staff undermined her leadership and threatened the staff’s ability to function.
In the complaint, Gerber described a disrespectful voicemail from a board member threatening to fire her if she kept voicing her concerns over library board member behavior to village administration. She also quoted messages calling her “vindictive,” “invisible,” and “inexperienced” and accusing her of “gaslighting the staff,” “deteriorating the library,” and “violating policy and historical best practices.”
“There have been attempts by some members of the Board to verbally threaten to terminate me,” Gerber wrote. “Without due cause, without following progressive discipline, without informing me of the process beforehand, and without allowing me to be present and respond to concerns while inviting some former Board members and selected residents to attend and voice their concerns in what should be an internal conversation and decision.”
In the meantime, the library is searching for an interim director, President of the Library Board Alex Dimitroff said.
Contact Claudia Levens at clevens@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @levensc13.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Workplace complaints spur investigation of Shorewood Public Library
