After concerns from staff and patrons, the Potsdam Public Library board is seeking to tighten up its remote work policy as well as the official job description of the library director …
Picasa
Posted
Saturday,September 5, 20268:55 am
The board workshopped both at a special meeting Aug. 25 and approved a new job description for the director that board members say better reflects the current needs of the organization.
The remote work policy is still being dialed in and board members are expected to continue to review it at their next meeting. Both the remote work policy and job description haven’t been fully updated since the pandemic.
In a conversation with North Country This Week prior to the meeting, board president Erica LaFountain said the library’s current remote work policy has been in place since COVID work hours required flexible schedules.
However, board members have heard numerous concerns about flexible work schedules of the library director Annie Davey and public service manager William Eckert.
The concerns led to a recent independent petition circulated by Potsdam resident Michael Edgar which calls for a requirement that the library director work on-site at the library instead of remotely. The petition garnered over 20 signatures.
LaFountain told North Country This Week that the new remote work policy would be better defined and more useful to the current needs for onsite leadership. LaFountain said the recent petition circulated by Edgar was not the only driver in the current board deciding to revamp the policy and the director’s job description.
“I think I’m not the only trustee that has heard from the community on this issue. So we are taking that into account in drafting this policy,” LaFountain said. “The comments I’ve gotten predate this petition.”
“The job description for the director has become very out of date,” she said.
She added that it is unfortunate the remote work policy wasn’t more clearly defined previously.
At the library board meeting Aug. 25, library trustees hashed out the details of the new job description and discussed the remote work policy at length. Both were based on templates from the North Country Library System.
Under one of the versions of the remote work policy being considered by the board, remote work for the library director would be approved in writing by the library board president or the personnel committee. Remote work for other employees would need to be approved by the director.
Those eligible for remote work would be able to request either one or two remote days per work week if considered appropriate.
The remote days would not be able to be accumulated, banked or combined, or carried over.
To read more about what is proposed, visit https://tinyurl.com/bdd5kdua .
Trustee and board Vice President Kate Krueger said the library’s remote work policy allowed totally remote work during COVID and then evolved into a hybrid policy, but was never formalized by previous boards to be clear and transparent.
“We essentially had ‘de facto’ and now we are making it ‘du jour,’” Krueger said.
“It seems like there is a lot of tension around this topic,” said Trustee Tim Yip during discussion.
William Eckert, library public services manager, who attended the meeting,raised concerns about the change.
“This just seems rather sudden,” said Eckert.
“Are we not getting our jobs done?” he asked, referring to himself and Davey, who was also in attendance.
The board however, said the change was necessary.
“This process is a lot bigger than any one comment. There is the realization that the board neglected to do its job. It’s not punitive, it’s also not because one person complained. This comes from concerns amongst board members, staff members and many patrons,” LaFountain said at the Aug. 25 meeting.
LaFountain told Eckert that there was groundswell around the board’s actions to better define the policy. “The problem was more that the staff didn’t know how to reach the director.”
Eckert countered that both Davey and he were reachable by staff through various ways of communication.
“I get concerned about bad actors in this,” he said, then referred directly to Edgar, the only member of the public in attendance, who was holding up his petition and waving it. Eckert said Edgar had approached him in a similar manner in public venues outside the library, making comments and waving a petition. He said citizens have a right to circulate petitions but believed the people signing Edgar’s petition had no context and were being misled.
“I feel like I’m being harassed,” Eckert said.
Edgar then asked if he could rebut Eckert’s claim, but was denied by the board as the time for public comment at the meeting had passed already.
While Eckert did claim that he was being harassed by Edgar, no charges or complaints regarding Eckert’s harassment by Edgar have been filed with the village police department.
Edgar was recently banned from the library for one month due to his public behavior there.
“He has made working at the library very unenjoyable for the staff,” LaFountain told North Country This Week in a separate conversation.
The ban has since ended after Edgar appealed the decision to the board.
Edgar says he was banned after questioning the library’s IT technician on proper computer maintenance.
No charges have been filed against Edgar for behavior issues at the library, although an earlier, non-related complaint by an unnamed library patron was logged at the police department. The incident involved officers speaking with Edgar, but no charges, harassment or otherwise, were filed.
LaFountain told North Country This Week that the change to the director’s job description and the remote work policy is not “punitive,” but one the board is instigating to “be above board as to what is acceptable.”
“The remote work policy is not about an individual, it’s about transparency and stability. The policy helps protect the library and the library employees,” Krueger said during discussion at the Aug. 25 meeting.
The board vice president said that working remotely is very normal in the modern day workplace. She said the new policy is a personnel policy that will be explicit as to what the norms are for working remotely.
“The problem is, we haven’t had a specific policy that has articulated this,” she said.
Krueger pointed out that the previous boards had decided that the current policy was fine.
“No one had done anything wrong. No one has violated any policies,” she said.
Trustee Marie Amell said that having more leadership presence in the library was better.
“It feels almost like no one is there. And you want it to feel like someone is there,” she said.
Edgar has been a vocal critic of the library administration, and more specifically, the library director’s remote work practices.
“This is emblematic of how a lot of things are being done or should I say not being done. For instance the Potsdam Public Library is the only library in the 64 libraries in the North Country Library System that has a full time IT Employee. Why did it take him 12 to 14 weeks to install four computers? And shouldn’t he be required to be at the library board meetings,” he said in a separate conversation with North Country This Week outside of the meeting.
He was equally critical of Eckert’s response to the crafting of a new policy. “I found it disturbing that William Eckert didn’t want ‘Big Brother’ watching him and being ‘chained to his desk’ and ‘Orwellian surveillance,’” Edgar told North Country This Week.
Help St. Lawrence County Stay Connected!
We’re glad you read this article reported by the staff of NorthCountryNow.com.
If you haven’t done so already,please consider subscribingto ensure you have full access to all the news and info about St. Lawrence County.
Your subscriptions make it possible for us to provide trustworthy local news, promote our many community events, and encourage community dialogue.
