Brown's Resignation Adds to Uncertainty at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library
By Michael Kelley Jan 20, 2011The Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, NC, the 1995 Gale/LJ Library of the Year, has had a tumultuous and stress-filled year, with massive budget cuts and about a third of the staff losing their jobs. Now, a new budget cycle fraught with uncertainty is slowly gearing up, and a library task force will soon be releasing recommendations that will likely radically alter the library's operations.
If that were not enough upset, the library's director, Charles Brown, distressed by the devastation, announced this week that he will resign effective June 30.
"This has been just a devastating ten-month period for the library system and for me professionally and personally," Brown, the director of libraries since February 2004, told LJ.
Over the past year, he has had to lay off at least 176 employees, close four branches, and cut service hours by 53 percent.
"Every layoff has been like a dagger to my heart. It is just painful, heartbreaking," he said. "I pride myself on being a library builder and a nurturer of staff, and this has been the complete opposite. And while there are no signs that things are going to get worse there is every indication that things are not going to get better overnight. And so I think it's a good time to leave."
Vick Phillips, a former banking executive with no library experience, will serve as interim chief executive officer and be responsible for budget planning as the library faces a stark fiscal outlook for FY12, which begins July 1, 2011.
Robin Branstrom, chair of the library's ten-member Board of Trustees, said the move was a mutually amicable departure.
"We did not ask in any way for Charles's resignation. We value tremendously what he has done for this library system," she told LJ. "He really charted a great course for us and had great vision, but when the cuts occurred, it was a completely different situation than the one he had signed on for," she said.
Branstrom said the library will begin seeking a permanent replacement immediately but that the library's financial situation needed to stabilize before any final decision could be made.
Before coming to Charlotte, Brown, who has a stellar track record, spent ten years as director of the Hennepin County Library in Minnesota and eight years as the director of libraries for Arlington County Library in Virginia.
Harry Jones, the county manager, told the Observer that Brown may have struggled with making cuts "because he is so passionate about the delivery of library services."
Phillips worked for 32 years in various managerial roles at Bank of America, and Branstrom praised his "deep appreciation for the rigors of change management."
"In this economic climate, with the Draconian cuts, it makes the business acumen a little more important in terms of the skills set during the interim period," she said.
Staff response
Brown, Phillips, and Branstrom met with members of the library staff today to explain the transition and also to field questions.
"I don't think it could have gone any better," Brown said. "Vick gave every credit to the staff for being the true professionals in the room, and he understands his role in the interim is strategic thinking. I'm hopeful he will lay a solid platform for the new person coming in."
Michelle Gorman, the library's teen services coordinator who has worked at the library for a little more than five years, said she was at first taken aback by Phillips's background.
"I thought 'Wow, a banker,' and I walked in very skeptical but I walked away feeling that we are not going to lose who we are as a system," she said. "That was one of my greatest fears. ... In the interim we need someone who can manage change, and I believe he can."
Phillips could not make any promises about future layoffs, Gorman said, but he told the staff that at least for now there are no plans for more cuts.
"He was very upfront and honest about this, which I appreciate as a staff member," Gorman said.
Brown had nothing but praise for the staff.
"I think when you lose almost a third of workforce through layoffs, and the remaining two-thirds received preliminary layoff notices [as happened last April], you can imagine what that was like," he said. "But even with the reduction in hours and the staff strained to the limits, people are still doing incredible things here. It's a remarkable staff dealing with unprecedented challenges," he said.
A difficult quest for stable funding
The library has been groping for a sustainable funding model since early 2010 when the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners made its funding for FY11 contingent on the creation of a Future of the Library Task Force to recommend ways to improve the library's funding and governance.
The library's operating budget, about 90 percent of which comes from the county, has been reduced 37 percent over the past two years, from $40.1 million in FY09 to $25.5 million in FY11. Mecklenburg County, the City of Charlotte, and four towns made a one-time, nonrecurring contribution of $5.5 million to the FY11 operating budget.
A subcommittee for the task force wrote in its final report released in October that the one-time funding allowed the library to retain approximately 100 frontline employees.
"If funding is not replaced for FY12, additional layoffs will occur and the library will not be able to operate at all current locations," according to the report.
From March to October 2010, the total head count, including attrition, went from 507 FTEs to 300. The library has been filling staffing gaps with volunteers. According to the Herald Weekly, in the current fiscal year, volunteers will account for about nine percent of total staffing hours for the libraries, or 54,000 hours of volunteer time, a 349 percent increase from 2007.
"I think the staff has adjusted to the volunteers admirably. It's gone much smoother than we thought," Branstrom said. "Although everyone recognizes there are limitations and you can't run a library system with volunteers."
Brown said the volunteers have been very helpful in expanding service hours at some branches, but that ultimately the percentage of staffing hours from volunteers should not exceed five percent.
The 17-member volunteer task force is expected to submit its recommendations by March 1. Among other considerations, the task force is assessing "the merit and feasibility of funding a national-class library." Only two members of the task force, Leonora Kaufmann, former director of library and information resources for the Carolinas Healthcare System and Charlotte Area Health Education Centers, and Gloria A. Kelley, dean of library services for Central Piedmont Community College, have backgrounds in librarianship.
The benchmark communities that will be used for comparison purposes are Atlanta; Austin, TX; Baltimore County; Dallas; Jacksonville, FL; Memphis; Nashville; Orlando, FL; and Tampa, as well as Durham, Forsyth, Guilford, and Wake counties in North Carolina.
Gorman said that library voices were at the table and being heard.
"I want to make sure as a librarian profession that the people who make decisions about our future understand our profession," she said. "I've been to every task force meeting and I've really heard them [Kaufmann and Kelley] convey well the point of view of librarian professionals."
"I strongly believe that the task force has taken the time to learn how a library is run and how we serve the community, which is key," she said.
Also, as a part of the one-time funding contingency for FY11, the county commissioners created a steering committee to study unifying some library services with county departments. The committee concluded that it could save "approximately $290,160, primarily from consolidating HR functions and Public information/Communications functions."
The merger resulted in the elimination of the director of organization resources position, Cordelia Anderson, CML deputy director of marketing and communications, told LJ. Brian Beavers, who currently holds that position, will lose his job February 5. Beavers was paid $84,978 in salary and $27,872 in benefits.
Brown will receive 80 percent of his $170,974 salary for February through June, Anderson said. "That is because his duties will be slightly less as he works to help transition in the new CEO," she said. He also receives an $800 monthly auto allowance and a benefits package worth $56,097.
Phillips will receive $13,000 a month, according to the Observer, but the elimination of Beavers's position will result in a net savings of $50,000 in executive compensation for FY11, Anderson said.
"I am looking forward to an outstanding partnership with Charles Brown as I take on this new challenge," Phillips said.
After the transition is over, Brown has no definite plans except one. "My intention is to continue to work full-time in libraries."
