Does Detroit Public Library Have a New Director?
Flint's Joanne Mondowney is offered position, pending negotiations
Lynn Blumenstein -- Library Journal, 6/5/2009
- Report: commissioners at odds
- DPL finally makes official statement, after numerous requests
- Online snarkfest over current administration, commissioners
Does Detroit Public Library (DPL) have a new director? According to the DPL administrative office, there is not much news to report yet. LJ called four times since May 22, when the South End newspaper reported that DPL’s library commissioners would decide on a new director that afternoon. (An official response came today, after LJ communicated to DPL that a story was being written.)
The day after the vote, an anonymous poster wrote that JoAnne Mondowney, director of the Flint Public Library, MI, got the job offer. A second special meeting on June 2 confirmed the selection, library commission president Georgia Hill told LJ today.
Mondowney voted in, pending negotiations
Today, the Detroit News offered the first public acknowledgment of Mondowney’s selection, but the point of the story was that three out of seven commissioners question Mondowney’s ability to run a system as large as DPL. (Flint has four library facilities, versus DPL’s 24.)
"The commissioners quoted in the article obviously didn't get their wish," Hill told LJ. She confirmed the News's report that Mondowney has not yet formally accepted the position and that her salary and benefits were being negotiated. She would replace Nancy Skowronski, who is set to retire later this year.
Allegations of cronyism
The subject of DPL seems to inspire accounts of financial cronyism. Among the comments (mostly anonymous) attached to the South End story are allegations of financial improprieties aimed at several library commissioners and slaps at current administrators over failed services.
Another contributor, "George Boings," alleged that DPL deputy director Julie Machie, one of the four finalists, wanted to challenge the vote, which was four to three in favor of Mondowney.
The News story includes the allegation that in April 2008, LRM Consultants was billed $9000 in three separate invoices ($3000 being the maximum amount that could be processed without commission approval) for "emergency consultation in succession planning." The consultant was never paid but previously billed the library as much as $170,000 a year for services, until the firm was removed as an approved vendor, according to the newspaper.
About DPL
The new director will be leading the largest library system in the state of Michigan, consisting of a majestic main library facility built in 1921, 23 neighborhood branches, and bookmobile.
DPL’s current objectives, outlined in the Strategic Directions 2008-2013 document, include plans to build six new library branches, renovate nine branches, and update the main library, including a new children’s library. These plans will necessitate the creation of a capital improvement fundraising campaign.
Finalists’ backgrounds
Mondowney is a native of Baltimore and spent most of career in that city at the Enoch Pratt Free Library. She has held her current position for seven years. Machie, currently deputy director of DPL, has been at the library ten years; she also served as director of public services.
Among the other finalists, Kitty Pope is executive director of the Alliance Library System, East Peoria, IL, a multitype regional library system. She previously was director of the Calgary Public Library, AB. Roosevelt Weeks is deputy director of administrative services at the Houston Public Library (HPL). He formerly was assistant director of information technology at HPL.
