Library shelves quake project

Jones Library: town center anchor

Jones Library Trustees were not overly enthusiastic to the gee whiz idea of joining the Boston College Educational Seismology Project, with a combination of cost and time commitment--$10,000 for a seismograph and a year's worth of training for the new Library Director and a staff member--quickly deflating the trial balloon floated by Trustee President Sarah McKee.

McKee and Director Sharon Sharry had journeyed east to the Weston Public Library (the only library involved in the school dominated project) last Friday to learn more about the idea, and discovered the project can be time consuming for staff and management. Not to mention the $10,000 cost.

The Trustees did not even bother to vote.

Jones Library aftershock

Jones Library 11/1/11 Closed after the Halloween weekend storm

Just when I thought the library had gone back to normal, meaning non controversial, there's this: On Wednesday Jones Library Trustees will discuss spending $10,000 to purchase a seismograph so Jones patrons can participate in the "Boston College Educational Seismology Project," and become one with earthquakes.

Currently the program has 33 participants--all of them schools located around Boston.

While I don't doubt the educational value of learning about earthquakes, I do question whether the library should be the lead agency in town to take on the project, since all the other participants are schools.

And then there's the matter of the $10,000 cover charge, plus potential time commitments from employees who could be shelving books. But hey, when your endowment stands at $7.85 million, perhaps $10,000 is mere chicken feed.

Jones Library has a new Director

Sharon Sharry, director of the Greenfield Public Library is now the Director of the Jones Library, an iconic downtown Amherst institution. Surviving a first round 3-3 deadlock vote against the only other candidate, Christopher Lindquist, director of the Westfield Athenaeum, Ms. Sharry won a unanimous 6-0 vote in the second balloting.

After the unsettling episode last year where a renegade wing of the Jones Library Trustees, a sort of evaluation inquisition, drove out 30 year Director Bonnie Isman, lets hope the new director can maintain cordial terms with the Board of Trustees--especially now that Carol Gray has returned from a one year stay in Egypt.

Somebody appreciates my timeliness

Another cool move

So Friday as temperatures again hit the century mark the Jones Library, rather than closing at noon for all employees to attend the annual Town/Company picnic, stayed open until 5:30 PM so patrons and passerbys could seek relief from the oppressing heat and read a book, newspaper or use the wifi.

Who says librarians aren't cool?

A library high

Last week Amherst Town Meeting approved (article #20) Community Preservation Act funding that included $113,000 for the Jones Library repair of their historical chimneys. Today they were working on the chimney caps (CPA $ from last year's Town Meeting).

Jones Library has a new trustee

Amherst College professor Austin Sarat won the vote 8-1 in a combined meeting of the Jones Library Trustees and Amherst Select Board and will serve out the remaining one year term left on Kathy Wang's seat, who resigned due to time constraints brought on from her day job--principal at the ever expanding Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter school in Hadley.

What if they gave an election and nobody came?

The best PR flack in the business--even the guy who came up with “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette”--would have a hard time selling today's municipal election. B-O-R-I-N-G.

Almost exclusively due to a lack of competition. For the second election in a row, no contest for Select Board--the highest elected position in town government. And since the schools are the only thing that matters to a whopping percentage of the electorate, the lack of a contest for Catherine Sanderson's School Committee seat (at least hers until 8:00 PM this evening) dampened markedly any election buzz.

No lawn signs, post cards, radio ads, bumper stickers, nasty emails, Facebook pages or stand outs in town center. Nada.

Ironically Aaron Hayden is the candidate hurt the most--fortunately not fatally--as virtually all the 'Amherst Center' types who would have flocked to the polls to vote against Catherine Sanderson would have supported Mr. Hayden's reelection to the Amherst Redevelopment Authority for his sane, smart growth approach to enhancing our commercial tax base (thus creating more tax revenues for the schools); the exact opposite of Vince O'Connor's touchy-feely, no-growth-is good-growth attitude.

But I'm still going to write in Catherine Sanderson for School Committee anyway. She deserves the Medal of Honor and a Purple Heart for three long years of banging her perky head against a brick wall. Like the innocent kid who cried out the emperor has no clothes, only in this modern version a royal goon squad then beats the tar out of her.

Chris Hoffman also took some heat last summer for calling attention to the hatchet job underway at the Jones Library, where cutthroat-Carol Gray was setting up long time director Bonnie Isman for a death by a 1,000 cuts with an "evaluation" longer than 'War and Peace'.

Since three candidates are vying for two Library Trustee positions a voter can choose two candidates. I'm going to "bullet vote" for Hoffman, but if you feel it's your patriotic duty to use that other vote then cast it for ANYONE BUT Pat Holland (also part of the hit squad with cutthroat Carol.)

Traditionally Amherst voter turnout for municipal elections held in the Spring is usually an embarrassing 15 to 20% (30% for an Override or Charter change in government ballot question) but the Presidential elections every four years in November always brings out around 75%.

That's Amherst for you: always thinking nationally (or internationally). Today's turnout will be the most pathetic in years, possibly under 10%.

Catherine Sanderson: out of the hot seat

Jones Library has a new (acting) director

Left to right: Tevis Kimball, Chris Hoffman, Kathy Wang, Patricia Holland (President), Emily Lewis

For the first time in a generation, the Jones Library will not be under the direction of Bonnie Isman, who retired December 10th after thirty years of steady leadership.

Last weekend the Trustees offered in house employee Tevis Kimball, Curator of Special Collections, the temporary position and she accepted. A pair of outside candidates withdrew at the last minute not wishing to sacrifice their current jobs for a short term position.

Presumably Ms. Kimball will return to her in house position after a permanent Director is hired. Next week the Trustees will discuss forming a search committee composed of trustees, staff and members of the general public (presumably library patrons).

December 14, 2010 8:53:29 AM EST
Subject: Jones Library Announcement

I am pleased to let you know that I have accepted the position of Acting Director of the Jones Library, effective today, with responsibility for operations of the Library, and will continue in a limited role as Curator of Special Collections. During this time, Kate Boyle will be the central contact for the collections.

As a crucial part of this transition, I will be supported by George Hicks, Sondra Radosh, and Maggie Spiegel, each of whom will also have new and expanded roles. Effective immediately, George, in addition to his current responsibilities, will oversee capital projects. Sondra will be responsible for day to day personnel issues, as well as her position as Children’s Librarian. Maggie will be responsible for special management projects, while maintaining her role as North Amherst Branch Librarian.

Over the next few days, I will be working with each department to answer questions and to further clarify our transition plan. As we transition to a new permanent Director, we all as a team play a very important role in shaping the future of this great institution, The Jones Library.

Together, in the spirit of teamwork and with a dedication to excellent service, we will continue to enrich the lives of this community. I very much look forward to our accomplishments in the coming months and want to thank you for all that you do for each other and for our patrons.

Best Regards,

Tevis

Jones Library Trustees make nice

Bonnie Isman,Director. Trustees: Chris Hoffmann, Emily Lewis, Pat Holland, Sarah McKee

So in spite of absentee Trustee (cutthroat) Carol Gray's disembodied head peeping in from Cairo, Egypt via skype, tonight's Jones Library Trustee meeting was exceedingly cordial.

The Trustees--those who could legally participate--unanimously accepted the retirement of 30 year Director Bonnie Isman (out the door on December 10) and tentatively discussed plans for her succession, which could include an "interim Director", or appointment of a current staff member (unlikely) or a appointment of a "team" of three current staff members to run things via committee.

And we see how well things went recently when a team of three Trustees decided to initiate a coup d'état and try to run the Library now don't we?

Jones Library: The friction continues...

The Republican Reports

Sent: Tue, Oct 12, 2010 1:33 pm
Subject: A public apology for my recently released email.

Recently, a personal email I sent a group of friends in reaction to Library Director Isman's retirement was made public. That email has understandably upset some people. I apologize for the tone of a personal email written in the heat of the moment. But one of my principles is you don't write anything in private that you aren't willing to defend in public. I genuinely believe that what happens over the next few months may determine whether our library can stay a first-rate institution.

I hope those who have read my letter understand the reason for my passionate reaction. At issue isn't a controversy over policy, nor clashing personalities, and it's certainly not about "politics". It's about what the rules are that define a library. We have been struggling with a constitutional crisis.

At heart the question is: who is going to run our library, professionals or politicians?

Fortunately, we trustees have agreed to the equivalent of turning to the Supreme Court for an answer and are hiring a facilitator to meet with us this November. The facilitator is also an expert on trustee/director/staff roles and relationships. She will be educating us on those in addition to helping us resolve our differences. I'm sure I have my share of misconceptions to be corrected, and there may well be more public apologies she'll be asking of me!

I remain hopeful this process will succeed. At our last two meetings we've demonstrated we can still work as a team. And if you look at the times we've kept away from trying to manage the library and stuck to governing it, I think this board can claim a pretty darn good record of accomplishments!

Chris Hoffmann
Trustee, Jones Library System

The "personal email" in question

UPDATE: 3:45 PM
-----Original Message-----
From: Emily Lewis
To: Chris Hoffmann and listserve

Let me say something now; I have been silent, but my silence, is not agreement.

THe board is not comprised of politicians. We are elected, but being elected does not a true politician make. I have no funds, no political party, no political leaning in my decisions. I am making no money at what I am doing. We have been elected to ensure that a public institution is not run without oversight or question, by a private person.

This is completely a controversy over policy, despite Chris' statement.

Further: the Supreme Court analogy is inaccurate at best.
We will be meeting with a facilitator to learn how to work together.
There may be advice; one can hope for this.
Further: I do not want any more apologies. I want direct discussion with me. At this point I do not trust my fellow trustee; what I want is that trust back....before the summer is when I had it.


That's it for now.
Thank you.

##############################################
Amherstma.gov:
MEETING TIME: 4:30 PM. Friday 10/15
LOCATION: Jones Library, Large Meeting Room.
LIST OF TOPICS: Agenda. Minutes: 7/27/10, 8/4/10, 9/28/10 for approval.
Public comment. Formal acceptance of the Director's notice of retirement.
Interim Director. Plans for seeking a new Director. Board priorities for
transition period.

And so it ends (badly)

UPDATE: Sunday night 8:15 PM (What more can I say?????)

Dear Chris Hoffmann, Bonnie Vigeland, and Will Bridegam,

Your letter below, Chris, I received from a Friend of the Library. Usually, when a writer mentions someone in a letter, the writer sends a copy to that person. When writing on behalf of the Jones Library Board of Trustees you should send a copy to all trustees. But clearly from the tone of this letter, you were not writing on behalf of the Board but instead attacking the action of one member and insulting three members.
You failed to copy all of these fellow trustees.

Measured criticism of the action of a fellow trustee is perfectly legitimate, indeed an obligation, but in my view should be done face-to-face or within the Board itself, not to a presumably broad number of “undisclosed recipients.” Insulting language is completely inappropriate. And, as your elder, I will add that insulting one’s elders is also inappropriate.

You apologized once at a Board meeting for losing your temper at meetings, and said that you'd "meant no disrespect" for other trustees. I hoped you would not do it again.

But you have.

Your latest example of the trustees’ “harassment”, the queries Sarah McKee has been making into how other library trustees are informed of a library’s finances, is not harassment in any sense. Instead it is an example of a trustee working on behalf of the Board and the financial stability of the library. Sarah’s research rises directly from the request made to Bonnie back in March, described in the minutes of the March 19th meeting, that she provide monthly cash statements and information on all library accounts. Bonnie has been providing cash statements, as you know, but we still do not have complete information on monies from gifts and bequests. Trustees at other libraries say they are amazed that the Jones Library trustees do not have this information. Such information is absolutely necessary to meet our fiduciary obligations. The Massachusetts Public Library Trustees' Handbook, a publication of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, lays down clearly that trustees' responsibilities include "[k]nowledge of the library's financial base and ... [k]nowledge of supplementary sources of revenue." Page 7.1.

You say: “Would you apply for a job knowing you'll be starting out with the level of harassment and muzzling that Carol, Pat, and Sarah are certain to be dumping on you? Would someone who agrees to come to the Jones with the expectation of playing second fiddle to the Carol faction even be someone you'd want running our library?” I take great personal offense at your language of “harassment” and “muzzling” and “dumping”, and your snide term the “Carol faction.” Your asking people “to put Carol and Sarah in their place as an annoying but impotent minority” is a rallying cry of the most undignified sort. I respect Carol and Sarah as I do all the trustees, present and past, who have contributed to the Board’s work for the library.

I also have great respect for the many good works done by the Friends of the Library. To Bonnie Vigeland, president of the Friends, and Will Bridegam, our former trustee and emeritus librarian of Amherst College, and to those who signed the August 3rd petition for a review committee, I hope you will do independent research into Chris’s accusations of harassment.

Chris, I am pleased that both you and Bonnie are willing to go forward with the facilitation, and I am also pleased that you are urging others to run for trustee of the library. May the best people win.

Sincerely,
Patricia Holland
President, Jones Library Board of Trustees


From: Chris and Anne Hoffmann
Date: October 8, 2010 8:50:38 PM EDT
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: [Friends] Bonnie's resignation announced, and a plea for candidates.

As most of you already know by now, today Bonnie Isman announced her retirement, effective December 10th.

I was at the Jones this afternoon to talk with her. Unsurprisingly, she's in a very good mood thinking about her upcoming life of leisure. Her decision to retire now is largely personal -- it is a good time in her life to retire. But I'm sure the harassment from board has taken its toll on her and influenced the timing.

As just the latest example of harassment, yesterday I learned that Sarah had been talking with the director of the Forbes library and has wants to get a meeting between Pat, me, and their treasurer. Sarah continues to believe our accounting practices are negligent (or worse) and won't even listen to the accountants we hire to go over the books who are continually telling her everything is OK and our current methods are quite good. Sarah was actually upset with me because I cc'ed Bonnie and Tina in my reply to a message she'd sent to Pat, nme and the Forbes' director: Quoting: 'I find it disturbing that you included Bonnie and Tina on an email that I'd sent to Pat and you only. It is up to Trustees to specify the financial reports to be made. This is not to exclude the staff. It is to bring them in further down the line. It would waste their time to bring them in now.' This is how bad things are, folks.

Bonnie and I both want the planned meeting with the facilitator to go forth. So does everyone in the staff I talked with while there. I hope there will be no resistance from the rest of the board. If there is, I'll be sure to let you know.
________________________________________

And now my plea from me to you:

It's clear that next year's Jones Trustee election will be one of the most critical ever

A search for a director will take at least six months. The two people elected next spring will almost certainly be a third of the votes cast for our next director. Since we were founded in 1921, The Jones has had only five directors! They tend to stay for a long time. We have got to make a wise choice.

Beyond the problem of choice, also think about the work environment potential applicants are going to have to consider. Would you apply for a job knowing you'll be starting out with the level of harassment and muzzling that Carol, Pat, and Sarah are certain to be dumping on you? Would someone who agrees to come to the Jones with the expectation of playing second fiddle to the Carol faction even be someone you'd want running our library?

Folks, I've asked for help before. But I really mean it this time. Someone needs to step up and agree to run. Even if you can only commit to a single term, that should make all the difference. If we can create a solid core of rational people who are able to put Carol and Sarah in their place as an annoying but impotent minority, in three years' time the trustee culture should be so improved that finding replacements won't be the nearly impossible task it is now.

Next year, I am up for reelection. Pat's second term is up. I don't think she wants to run again, but you know Carol is going to be putting a lot of pressure on her to stay. So we need one REALLY GOOD new candidate in case this becomes a contested race.

A Select Board member recently told me "we ignore the Library Trustee [races] at our peril". Indeed we do. Please. Help. Step up.

Chris

##########################################
Original Post Saturday morning

Forever Jones Library Director Bonnie Isman announced her retirement, effective December 10, 2010. Yes, this is roughly the time frame cold bloodedly calculated by Trustee Carol Gray--currently ensconced in Cairo, Egypt--but I'm sure Ms. Isman figured out that her pernicious presence would be felt over the next year since she refused to resign as Trustee and would haunt future meetings via Skype.

Score one for the bad guys.

Sleepless in Cairo

Zzzzzzz
Carol Gray awake (sort of)

It was 2:10 AM her time but only 7:10 PM our time when (Mother) Mary Streeter fired up her Macbook Pro laptop in the Jones Library Trustees Room to synch with Carol Gray via Skype W-A-Y over there in Egypt.

So yeah, I suppose it's understandable Ms Gray was sound asleep in the seated position.

Ms Streeter took umbrage at my attempt to photograph Library Trustee Gray looking like a zombie and quickly covered the screen with a sheet of paper.

Gotta wonder how alert and worthwhile Ms. Gray will be in future Library meetings if the Attorney General decides it is okay for her to remotely participate via Skype.

And let's hope she doesn't snore.

Spectators who did not hide from the camera.

UPDATE: 9:45 PM Meeting must be over as somebody from Cairo, Egypt just arrived via a google search for Larry Kelly blog (sic)

The controversy continues

Well, sort of. The print edition of the Amherst Bulletin hit the ground this morning and like the good old days where you read the breaking news in the major dailies and then waited till the end of the week for Time and Newsweek to provide more in depth coverage, the editorial/commentary section this week is chock full of analysis of the raging controversies in town.

Mainly the Jones Library running battle between the Evaluation Subcommittee and the more normal members of the full board of Trustees.

Interestingly columnist Jim Oldham, an anti-devevelopment compatriot of cutthroat Carol Gray, takes Trustee Chris Hoffmann to task for daring to blow the whistle on Ms Gray's covert war against longtime Library Director Bonnie Isman.

Charging that he "chose attacks in the press and on blogs over debates in the boardroom as the way to express his position." Hmm...of course Mr. Oldham's attack on Chris Hoffmann occurs in his monthly Bulletin column otherwise known as "the press."

And Mr. Oldham is a co-founder of the new regional school discussion blog--an infomercial for the Regional High School--along with Shutesbury School Committee Chair Michael DeChiara, who wanted the DA to shut down public officials who blog namely Catherine Sanderson.

The above the fold front page lead story concerns cutthroat Carol as well--as she is now, mercifully, safely ensconced in Egypt (well...safe for Amherst but maybe not Egypt) and wants to tenaciously hold on to her Jones Library Trustee position for the next year using video conferencing on the web via skype to attend meetings.

Which is fine of course for tuning in to keep in touch, but not so good for the back-and-forth required of public meetings.

The Bulletin must have felt a tad guilty for holding the presses last week so the Evaluation Subcommittee could pen their poor excuse for recent bad behavior, as the editorial basically says enough! They cite that the Eval committee has met an astounding 50 times over 115 hours since January.

Can't disagree with their conclusion: "It's time to bring the director's review process to a close." But now that Ms. Gray is gone, things will simmer down dramatically anyway--especially if somebody can hit the mute button when she visits via skype.

Subcommittee continues to draw fire

Left to right: Whistleblower Chris Hoffmann, Library Director Bonnie Isman, Carol Gray (hanging her head in shame) Pat Holland (Chair) Sarah McKee

UPDATE: Saturday 1:00 PM

So the evaluation subcommittee met yet again this late morning/early afternoon and continued to justify their existence. This time they had some very tepid support from fellow lefties Frank and Ellie Gatti--but not much.

Pat Holland in response to fellow Trustee Chris Hoffmann said she would love to issue a separate, sanitized for public consumption report about the evaluation and goals for the paid, professional Library Director but at that point cutthroat Carol (Gray) immediately went into hyper twitch mode about that, so it's not a safe bet at this point.

Although Ms. Gray is jetting off to Egypt soon for an E-X-T-E-N-D-E-D period so all sorts of good things could return to the Jones Library operations. Happy days are here again.
#######################################
ORIGINAL POST: Friday 6:45 PM
Friday the 13th proved less than lucky for the Jones Library Evaluation subcommittee as the entire Public Comment period this afternoon before the full board was taken up by pointed criticism aimed in their direction, including a "vote of no confidence" by unionized workers at the library for the yet to be released evaluation report.

Statement from union employees of the Jones Library


Tina Swift reads union statement to the Jones Library Trustees

Jones Library Eval Comm: Terminator unleashed

So this subcommittee simply refuses to die!

Although the venerable Amherst Bulletin did stop the presses to extend the deadline for the subcommittee's long-winded OpEd column response to Trustee Chris Hoffmann's initial SOS that sparked a spotlight on their nefarious activities attempting to fire/retire the current Library Director who is about the celebrate 30 years of service.

And just to demonstrate how dedicated these drones are to their pernicious program, the subcommittee has met 44 times between January 4 and July 16 for a grand total of 112 hours. This does not include July 29th, August 4, August 7 and this morning's August 11 meeting, or the next one they have scheduled for this coming Saturday morning.

The August 4 meeting was supposed to be their final one.

The Subcommittee's whinny letter/column to the Amherst Bulletin

The sad saga continues and continues...

So I could not cover the "final meeting" last night of the Library Director Evaluation Committee's supposed final meeting, but fortunately Jones Library Trustee Chris Hoffmann (who is not on the subcommittee--and they hate it when he shows up) is a glutton for punishment and attended, even writing an overview that he sent out to a private listserve of 24 concerned citizens. One of them forwarded to me and he gave me permission to publish.

I think before this Jones Library Trustees snafu has ended somebody should award trustee Chris Hoffmann a Silver Star for going above and beyond the call of duty. Or maybe a Purple Heart. Considering his field dispatch I'm kind of glad I could not make the Evaluation Subcommittee meeting last night at 7:30, supposedly their final one. But, apparently not.
####################################

Jones Library Trustee Chris Hoffmann reports:

Thank you Pat, Sarah, and most especially Carol, for wasting three hours of my life. We got out at 10:35pm.

I never knew a meeting could be excruciatingly boring in content while simultaneously being infuriating in tone.

They spent three hours crafting a letter to the editor/column for the Gazette. Some of my notes:

"Should this be a comma or a semicolon?" "Capital M or lowercase m?"
Pat: can't we each draft our own letters in the comfort of our homes and meet later to merge them?" Carol: "C'mon just give me 10 minutes. I can do it."
Pat: "I don't know if that's important. Hey, Chris is here. Perhaps he could tell us what he thinks the most important parts of his memo were." Me: "No, I think I'll leave that for you folks to figure out."
blah blah blah
"Wordcount?!
I think they are just trying to bore us to death
Pat: "Carol, couldn't you just write the draft yourself? Here in the Police Station if your house is a mess. Then let the rest of us go home?" Carol: "But then we may not make the deadline for the Bulletin"
"Wordcount?!"
Sarah: "Carol, only lawyers would use the word 'jurisdiction'"
Carol: "A certain other trustee has disagreed with our report". Me: "Carol, I don't mind if you use my name". Carol: "No, we're taking the high road."
Carol: "I really think we should say something about X", Sarah: "Let's see... wordcount is 649. NO!! That's it! No more!!!"

Basic summation -- I have never seen three people who so completely miss the point. They thought my report was entirely about a formal process, and their column is almost entirely about how they followed a process to the letter of the law: how they interviewed people, what they said to them before the interview, what an executive session is, with an extended quotation from the lawyer's letter proving they needed to go into executive session, and so on. Even if the Bulletin prints it, I can't imagine anyone actually reading past the first paragraph!

Pat jumped ship around 8:30pm. Carol begged her to stay, and told her she could just go home, get her hearing aids, and come right back. "That's NOT the problem, Carol!", Pat snapped back.

One thing I found grimly amusing. Since they are the only Evaluation Committee in Bonnie's tenure to insist on creating a confidential document as their evaluation, they are now forced to tie themselves in knots to find ways to talk about out in a public way! As ye sow, so shall ye reap, or similar aphorism comes to mind. Pat had a mini-meltdown while trying to convince Carol there must be a legal way to tell people what the Director's goals are, at least. God bless her, Tina even suggested they create a separate generic summary of the goals as a public document, but Carol would have none of it.

Believe or not, they are going to meet at 8am on Wednesday so Pat can read it and then all of them will formally approve it. They said they're going to contact the Bulletin right away and ask for space for a column if the paper will wait until Wednesday morning to see it!

For what it's worth, it's all on video. As is the public comment section of our Trustee meeting. The part covering Carol's remote participation didn't come out. Once I figure out how to get the video off the camera, I may post bits to YouTube.


Tiredly,
Chris

Attention: Jones Library Trustees

Click the link to the petition presented at Public Comment period 8/3 Jones Library Trustees meeting.

A petition to make nice

Amherst Inquisition nears the end

Carol Gray center (hiding behind monitor) Pat Holland (Chair) to her right, Sarah McKee to her left.

UPDATE: 5:00 PM. So the original post went up just before high noon. The meeting went from 9:00 until 10:03 AM. Somebody sent me a PDF of the full Jones Library Trustees minutes from 3/19/10 and since I'm having so much fun with Google Docs I floated them for your perusal. Down at the bottom of the original post.
##############################################
The Jones Library Evaluation Subcommittee met this morning and spent the entire hour drafting a letter to the Springfield Republican demanding corrections on an article published last week covering their previous meeting.

And since this particular item was not on the agenda, a rather clear violation of the new-and-improved Open Meeting Law, which requires any issue to be discussed should appear on the agenda 48 hours before the meeting.

Attorney Carol Gray was concerned about reporter Diane Lederman quoting Select Board member Alisa Brewer calling the meeting "bizarre" for going into executive session to discuss the "process" of skewering longtime Library Director Bonnie Isman.

Ms. Gray was particularly upset the reporter did not mention that they went into executive session under the written advice of town council, although later in the meeting seemed to indicate that they could have done that business in open session thus making it public.

And Ms. Gray essentially called fellow Trustee Chris Hoffmann a liar for telling the reporter that in a conversation at their 4/23 meeting Ms. Gray stated she had researched the library director's time of service and amount of retirement benefits accrued and hoped the Director would indeed retire rather than "take on" the subcommittee.

Mr Hoffmann was in the room but since there was no "public comment" on the agenda was ruled out of order a few times by Ms. Gray and Chair Pat Holland. In their letter, the subcommittee calls the quote "very mean spirited" and denies it was ever made.

Classic case of he-said she-said.

Their "Final Report" will be presented to the entire Jones Library Board of Trustees at the August 10th meeting under the cloak of an executive session. Tonight the full board meets and apparently a petition from former Trustee Nancy Gregg will be presented during public comment period. Safe bet it defends longtime Library Director Bonnie Isman.

Also tonight they will discuss the Open Meeting Law and consider whether Ms. Gray can participate in meetings via Skype (instant video conferencing) as she is headed to Egypt soon for an extended period.

A few years back the state ruled that committee members cannot participate in meetings via speakerphone, so the current rule still in effect does not allow "remote participation".

But since the Attorney General is now in charge of Open Meeting Law, it will be interesting to see how she rules on this--although that may take six months or more.

I'm sure at this point, the Jones Library can get along just fine without Ms. Gray.


The subcommittee dissecting media reports of their last meeting. Library Trustee Chris Hoffmann seated center audience

The Springfield Republican Reported

Minutes from the 3/19/10 Trustees board which speak volumes!

What could have been...

The Charter revision attempt to streamline and professionalize Amherst town government by switching to a modern Mayor/Council replacing the antiquated volunteer form of dogooders-- Select Board, Town Meeting, and highly paid Town Manager--form we currently endure had another benefit that would come in handy about now:

A common sense recall provision that would already be underway in the Library Trustees travesty now unfolding.


SECTION 8-11: RECALL OF ELECTED OFFICE HOLDERS
(a) Application - Any holder of an elected office in the town, with more than six months remaining in the term of office for which the officer was elected, may be recalled therefrom by the voters of the town in the manner provided in this section. No recall petition shall be filed against an officer within six months after taking office.

(b) Recall Petition - A recall petition may be initiated by the filing of an affidavit containing the name of the officer sought to be recalled and a statement of the grounds for recall, provided that the affidavit is signed by at least two hundred fifty voters for any officer elected at large and signed by at least fifty voters from the district represented for a district councilor.

The town clerk shall thereupon deliver to said voters making the affidavit, copies of petition blanks demanding such recall, copies of which printed forms the town clerk shall keep available. Such blanks shall be issued by the town clerk, with signature and official seal attached thereto. They shall be dated, shall be addressed to the town council and shall contain the names of all the persons to whom they are issued, the number of blanks so issued, the name of the person whose recall is sought, the office from which removal is sought and the grounds of recall as stated in the affidavit. A copy of the petition shall be entered in a record book to be kept in the office of the town clerk. Said recall petition shall be returned and filed with the town clerk within five days after the filing of the affidavit, and shall have been signed by at least five per cent of the active voters of the town for any officer elected at large and signed by at least five per cent of the active voters of the district for a district councilor.

The town clerk shall forthwith submit the petition to the registrars of voters, and the registrars shall, within five working days, certify thereon the number of signatures which are names of voters.

(c) Recall Election - If the petition shall be found and certified by the town clerk to be sufficient, the town clerk shall submit the same with such certificate to the town council within five working days, and the town council shall forthwith give written notice of the receipt of the certificate to the officer sought to be recalled and shall, if the officer does not resign within five days thereafter, order an election to be held on a date fixed by them not less than forty-five and not more than sixty days after the date of the town clerk's certificate that a sufficient petition has been filed; provided, however, that if any other town election is to occur within sixty days after the date of the certificate the town council shall postpone the holding of the recall election to the date of such other election.

The Mayor Council Charter (that failed by 14 votes--less than 1%) in 2003

Trustees Carol Gray and Pat Holland both made 'Hall of Shame' for voting against American flags

Library Trustee issues SOS

The great thing about the Web is you can generate a dispatch of distress, turn it into a PDF and instantly email it to those gatekeepers of all things news and get the scary story out to thousands, almost overnight.

Jones Library Trustee Chris Hoffmann is just such an example: Click on his report below.

Chris Hoffmann reports