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The Voice, January 29, 2020
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continued from Page 3 (Asked to comment later, Acting CEO Guilmette responded, “I actually do not know how accurate the statement is. I have never, and would never, have checked in the database on any councillors being cardholders.”) Junkin remained adamant that efficiencies and the extension of library services were front and centre for council, employing a phrase that he often repeated during the course of the meeting. “We're not going to burn anybody's books. We want to give you more services.” Board member Tim Wright argued that council’s emphasis on manager-to-to-managed ratio was misplaced. “I find the analysis that you used to be an irrelevant factor. Generically, the job of the CEO is leadership, not supervision. A proper review and analysis needs to be done to determine the appropriate organizational model to administer the library, starting from ground zero, using proper process to come up with a well-documented and well thought-out plan." Asked if council would be receptive to starting over, Junkin responded with another mea culpa. “Look, we treated you guys like dirt and I apologize for that. That was awful. There was no excuse for it. But what I would love is to get a partnership going. We have [Information Technology] people. We have a Treasurer, and we do your books already at the Town level. Does it not make sense to continue the merging?” At this point, the audience’s steadily increasing pushback snapped the patience of Pelham CAO David Cribbs, seated at the rear as an observer. “This is completely unacceptable,” Cribbs bellowed, startling the room into silence. “Decorum and basic good manners are appropriate at a public meeting.” Cribbs looked pointedly at the Chair. “Would you be so kind as to explain the rules?” Momentarily flustered, Nolan responded that she was still getting a handle on her new responsibilities, but did remind the room
that Robert’s Rules of Order prevailed, which, at least temporarily, resulted in a reduction of audience agita. Board member Gwen MacDougall asserted that if the library no longer functioned under the Libraries Act then there was more at risk than the loss of $40,000 in provincial funds. “If we are violating the Public Libraries Act,” said MacDougall, “we cannot use services through [the Southern Ontario Library Service], which means that townspeople would no longer have access to the inter-library loan service.” “Well, I’ll be quite blunt,” responded Junkin. “There is no public library ‘jail.’ So if we don't operate under the Act, yes, we might lose the $40,000 grant. But I think that the overall savings of what we can achieve would be well-worth operating outside the box of the Libraries Act. Put Vickie [van Ravenswaay] in there, and we’ll meet once a month and see how everything is working. It's only six months. I'm not asking for a five-year commitment. If it's not working out, we’ll move ahead to another solution that would be mutually agreed upon by the board and the council.” Board member Greg Lewis responded that the Board still needed to be consulted. “You said you treated us like dirt,” said Lewis, “and you wish you could take it back, and you wish you could fix it. There's an easy fix. Just forget this resolution and let's do all the teamwork stuff first.” Junkin said that he would put such a motion forward at council, “as long as I can also say that I looked [you] in the eye and the Library Board is willing to cooperate with council….It's a council decision. I’m only one vote. But I would definitely see that as a way forward.” After a short break, the meeting resumed with presentations by three library science professionals who were invited by the board to speak, then field audience questions. Stephen Abram, the Executive Director of the Federation of Ontario Public Libraries, stressed that a CEO job should never be judged by the number of employees, but by the scope of responsibilities and
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Invited library experts Stephen Abram, Anne Marie Madziak, and Shelagh Paterson, prepare to speak. VOICE PHOTO their impact. He asserted that one dollar in library spending realized a $27 return on social investment in a community. Abram said that libraries were more than books, and were “transformational” in a community. He declared that students who are regular library users score 15-20 points higher than their peers on standardized tests. In Abram’s assessment, the Pelham Public Library is “funded about right” given its catchment area. Based on operational metrics it is “doing well by comparison” with other library systems. Anne Marie Madziak, of the Southern Ontario Library Service, encouraged the community to “look for synergies, not just savings,” and for council and the Library Board to work to find the “win-win.” Shelagh Paterson, of the Ontario Libraries Association, noted that a major library conference was slated for the coming week in Toronto, which presented an excellent opportunity for council and Library Board members to investigate cutting-edge offerings in library technology and operation. As the meeting drew to a close, board members ruminated over whether to hire a consultant to assist in their deliberations. Ultimately, they unanimously passed
a motion to work collaboratively with Town Council, and to arrange a meeting including various stakeholders to develop a process to move the discussions forward. “I think overall the meeting went well,” Junkin told the Voice afterward. “From council’s perspective, we appreciate that the board has agreed to delay hiring a CEO. With that being the case, l’ll recommend to council that we withdraw our request to appoint a staff director as Interim CEO. In the future, I hope we meet regularly to identify areas where overlapping services can be better integrated and improved. I think both sides want to see useful, efficient services offered to Pelham residents. That's why I was in favour of the $1 million library budget. I can’t believe that members of council are the only residents upset to see any organization spend over $200,000 on two administrators to manage four full-time and 12 part-time staff.” Town CAO David Cribbs sees reorganization under the Libraries Act as potentially satisfying all parties. “I think it might be fruitful to look at the ‘union board’ model,” Cribbs said late last week, “which is entrenched in the Ontario Public Libraries Act. A
union board is one in which two or more municipalities get together and conjunctively operate an independent library board. Some of Pelham’s neighboring municipalities in Niagara have similar populations and roughly equally-sized library systems. I would think there may well be an opportunity to amalgamate the libraries, akin to what was contemplated with respect to amalgamation for the Niagara municipalities themselves, in an effort to see if we couldn't spread the costs of library readership over a larger number of actual libraries. If we look next door to Haldimand County, I know they have a CEO who oversees eight library branches, and that seems like a reasonable number to spread the CEO salary amongst. That could be a potential model for us.” Responding to the notion that council was bent on limiting funds to the library to help offset spending elsewhere, Cribbs said, “I haven't heard a single elected official from Pelham indicate that they were looking to achieve cost savings out of the library system. All I've heard are positive statements looking towards a reinvestment and improvement of service.” Cribbs added that he does possess a library card.
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