Shorewood Library Board delays electing a new president, takes steps to fill vacancies

Things at the Shorewood Public Library need to change. All six members of the Library Board agreed on that.

But there was marked disagreement on how to go about it, evidenced by the board coming up with a 3 vs. 3 split on multiple votes related to electing a new board president during the board's Nov. 8 meeting.

In a meeting that lasted almost three hours, board members diverged on the library board's role, the level of independence it should have and the best way to solve dysfunctions that have culminated in a handful of resignations over the past few months.

Discussion follows launch of investigation into the library

Oct. 18, the Shorewood Village Board announced it was initiating an investigation into the Shorewood Public Library after receiving multiple complaints regarding the library’s workplace environment.

Village officials didn’t provide information about the complaints that ignited the investigation, but the announcement followed weeks of back-and-forth accusations and arguments between the Library Board and former Library Director Jen Gerber, according to complaints obtained by the Journal Sentinel.

Gerber, who was captured on library surveillance camera footage burning a former staff member’s doll, announced she was resigning on Oct. 12.

Two library board members removed, another resigned

Oct. 18, the village board took action to remove two of the seven library board members, including former President Alexandra Dimitroff and former member Donna Whittle. In their place, the village board appointed village trustee Eric Couto and former village trustee Wesley Warren.

A few days later, another library board member, Ling Meng resigned. When reached by the Journal Sentinel, Meng said he did not wish to comment, but said “this is not how I would like to represent my community.”

Meng's position hasn't yet been filled. The village board voted Nov. 6 to table replacing him until its next meeting.

Not only is the library down a director and board member, but it's missing two librarians and two clerks, Assistant Library Director Hayley Johnson said in a report on staffing at the Nov. 8 library board meeting.

During the eventful meeting, the board directed Johnson to draft a plan for filling the vacancies. The board also ultimately tabled action on electing a president and forming a hiring committee for a new director until its next meeting.

Board disagrees on new president

Library board members argued for and against two candidates over who should fulfill the rest of former president Dimitroff's term until June 2024, when a new election will take place.

Wesley Warren nominated Couto, arguing he'd help tie the library board more closely to the village board.

Kara Espera nominated Jonathan Smucker, who has been serving as interim board president since Dimitroff's departure. Espera's nomination speech spoke to Smucker's experience and longstanding commitment to the library.

Espera, Smucker and longtime board member Elvira Craig de Silva argued Couto's role as a village board trustee would create a conflict of interest if he were to also serve as library board president, which, they argued, would further exacerbate tensions in the library.

Meanwhile, board members Warren, Couto and Laurie Burgos felt a Couto presidency would alleviate them.

Burgos, who also serves as superintendent of the Shorewood School District, said, "I can see benefits for both candidates, so we're in a really good place." While she sees the advantages of Smucker's ability to provide continuity, she felt closer ties with the board would help calm the waters.

Smucker reiterated that he has already taken steps to collaborate with village government in the two weeks since he was named president.

He argued that confused residents might misconstrue Couto's comments as a village board member as representations of the library board's perspective. He also noted Couto's role as a trustee could be an issue if any conflicts or legal issues arise between the village and library boards.

"I think it's becoming abundantly clear that the library board needs to stay independent. If the village was supposed to run the library, we wouldn't have a library board," Smucker said, arguing that state statutes require an independent library board for good reason.

Couto disagreed.

"From my perspective, the statutes very clearly state that library boards are appointed and approved by village boards," Couto said. He argued the two boards "are so completely and intimately intertwined," that it's imperative all parties work together and "stop thinking that we are so siloed and isolated into our own camps."

"The success of a library is on all of us," Couto said. "But right now I think that we are in a sort of '(in) emergency break glass' situation as an institution."

The board’s vote on a new president was tied, with Espera, Smucker and Craig de Silva voting for Smucker, and Warren, Couto and Burgos voting for Couto.

To table or not to table ― another point of disagreement

Following the tied vote, Warren suggested the board table the discussion until the next meeting, since almost an hour had passed and they were barely a third of the way through the meeting's 16 agenda items.

Craig de Silva asked for clarification on the advantages of tabling, and Espera alleged the move would allow the village board more time to appoint another member to fill Meng's vacancy, who she believed would break the tie in Couto's favor.

"This would not be the first time village has tried to take over a library," Smucker argued as the discussion continued.

Couto responded, "To suggest that the village is trying to take over the library is pretty disingenuous."

The vote to table the election followed the same 3-3 split seen in the presidency vote, launching the board back into heated discussion.

Couto said, "To suggest that there's a conflict of interest or that I did something inappropriate is a gross misunderstanding of what a conflict of interest is and further cements my belief that this board needs a new direction."

While Espera agreed there much to fix, she didn't think the first step to mending the relationship between the library and the village boards should be appointing a village board trustee. "Optics wise, that looks like a takeover. I'm not saying that it is. I'm just saying that that's what it could be construed as."

Couto argued that Smucker had the opportunity to address the library's issues previously as a board member before he was president. Smucker argued he shouldn't be held responsible for the former board members actions.

"I didn't have the facts," he said. "I'm still waiting on facts. We have an investigation going on that we're paying for and that I'm eager to see."

Eventually, after another tied vote on tabling, Craig de Silva switched her vote in favor of tabling the discussion until the next meeting, leaving interim president Jonathan Smucker in the role for now.

"We're going back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth with the same issues and the same concepts," Craig de Silva said. "I think that should give us the sense that we have overdone it and we need a little bit of time to regroup."

Former library board president banned from the library for a year

Along with the six board members, both Gerber and Dimitroff were present at the board meeting.

During public comment, former president of the library board Alexandra Dimitroff beseeched the board to nullify a recent ban placed on her by library staff members.

Nov. 3, Dimitroff, who served as president for the last eight years, entered the library's staff area to photocopy documents for the ongoing investigation of the library's workplace environment, she told the board.

Around ten minutes later, Dimitroff was speaking with a friend in the self checkout area when Office Administrator Angela Andre told her she shouldn't be in the library.

"I responded childishly with, 'you shouldn't be burning dolls,'" Dimitroff said during public comment.

Andre, along with Assistant Director Hayley Johnson, had assisted Gerber in burning a former staff member's doll Sept. 22.

Later that day, Dimitroff received an email from Johnson notifying her that Dimitroff's library privileges and ability to enter the village center were revoked for one year for trespassing into library staff space.

Dimitroff said the punishment was overly punitive, invoking library procedure that instructs librarians to give a verbal warning first for violating codes of conduct.

"Common sense should have prevailed," Dimitroff said. "I am a known person to almost everybody that works in that library, and I presented no threats. This was an excessive penalty — the very kind of vindictive and punitive decision making that has resulted in the chaos that now exists in this library."

Dimitroff also spoke to the personal nature of the ban. She said that Johnson, in a recent conversation, had been reticent to place a harsh ban on a patron who was verbally harassing a library employee and is Johnson's friend.

"The disconnect between Ms. Johnson not wanting to ban a patron who was repeatedly harassing a vulnerable staff member but then casually banning me for a year for walking through a staff space to make a photocopy is striking," Dimitroff said.

Library board to look into hiring attorney

The board also took steps to acquire legal representation, directing Espera to draft a request for proposal that the board will consider at a future meeting.

After a half-hour closed session, the board also voted 4-1 to accept former Director Jen Gerber's resignation. By the time the vote took place, Warren had left the meeting. Only Couto voted to not accept Gerber's resignation.

Due to the closed session, it is unclear why the board voted at this meeting to accept her resignation after they already did so unanimously during a special meeting Oct. 16, according to the minutes from that meeting.

During the Nov. 8 meeting, Couto commended the remaining library staff for their work in keeping the library operating smoothly in the midst of the staffing turmoil.

"I don't want it to get lost in this community just how hard they're working day in and day out to make sure the library remains a home for anybody that wants to use it."

All board members agreed with his statement.

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: Shorewood Library Board looks to fill vacancies amid investigation