Library director, board under fire

Whitefish group threatens to secede from county system

A group of Whitefish citizens showed up at a Library Board meeting Thursday and said Flathead County Library System Director Kim Crowley should be investigated to decide whether she deserves disciplinary action.

Allegations made by the group include an unjust suspension without pay for Whitefish library employee Jocelyn "Skeeter" Johnston, incompetent management, tense working atmosphere and meddlesome practices.

And they say the Library Board is negligent in allowing the problems to go unchecked.

Jake Heckathorn, a retired attorney and Whitefish Library Association member, reminded the county Library Board that Whitefish citizens raised the money to build and largely furnish the library building and that the city owns it today.

Heckathorn and others have said that Crowley has unfairly questioned Whitefish head librarian Joey Kositzky about how she runs the branch.

"There's a saying up there - the community built the building, but Joey Kositzky built the library," Heckathorn said.

Dr. John Forsberg concurred: "I have never been in a library run more smoothly or that has happier people."

In a dig at the Library Board's management choice, Forsberg decried the board's plans for a new main library building in Kalispell, which he called "a big edifice to yourselves," funded by taxpayers countywide.

Another thorn in his side was Crowley's apparent order for Kositzky to remove a VFW-donated flag from the Whitefish library because it created clutter inside the building. "Our nation's flag may be clutter in your life," he told Crowley, "but it's not in ours."

Heckathorn laid blame at the feet of the five-member county Library Board.

"We're not just put out any more, we're enraged," he said, repeating an assertion in a letter that former Library Board member Anne Moran had read earlier.

"Our library cannot survive under Kim Crowley. Some think that if she is gone, everything will be fine," he told the board. "I don't think so. I think we need to get out from under you."

He said he is working on legal ways for Whitefish to secede from the county library system.

He also told the board a group of Whitefish backers is willing to put up the money for "Skeeter" Johnston's defense in the event of a labor lawsuit. Library Board members confirmed Johnston's suspension at their July meeting. Johnston waived her right to privacy at an Aug. 7 hearing, entering details into the public record.

From an account provided to the Inter Lake by former Library Board member Marge Fisher, the conflict arose when Johnston refused to take part in a "kudos' game at the end of a library staff meeting in Kalispell, saying many hard-working employees are never recognized and that she did not want to single out a few others.

A disagreement between Johnston and Crowley ensued after Johnston had walked to her car and was about to drive home, and two days later Johnston was notified she would be suspended four days without pay.

The letter Moran read on Thursday morning detailed concerns arising from that suspension. Moran, Connie Heckathorn, Fisher and Jerry Hanson (all former board members' and Jake Heckathorn signed that letter.

Those concerns focused on the board's culpability in management of library staff. Among the issues raised were:

n Did library staff realize there would be consequences for voicing opinions at meetings?

n Did Crowley show competent management in pursuing Johnston out of the work setting?

n Why did Crowley not suggest a cooling-off period before discussing the issue?

n Why was unpaid suspension the first resort for an employee with a clean record?

Board members at the disciplinary hearing, the letter continued, focused on Johnston when they should have focused on Crowley's responsibility instead. And since the incident was not an item Johnston could be suspended for under county policy, why did the board even consider it at the hearing?

Moreoever, why was Kositzky left out of the loop regarding actions against Johnston, the letter asked. "We know of no management environment where this failure would be acceptable," the letter stated, "and it warrants a serious disciplinary response."

The letter writers said library trustees failed to recognize management concerns, putting the staff in jeopardy and the library system at risk of a lawsuit.

"The taxpayers cannot afford such lethargy on the part of their representatives, and it is time that you took responsibility for an abysmal management situation," the letter continued. It questioned the review process in place for the library system director, suggesting a process the former board members proposed last summer.

"Perhaps if you do so immediately, you may yet spare the taxpayers the cost of what appears to be inevitable at some point if things do not change drastically - a very expensive labor lawsuit."

LIbrary Board President Jane Lopp said the board will respond to the complaints at its September meeting. Crowley was present at Thursday's meeting but did not address the complaints lodged against her.

Controversy is not new to the county Library Board. The board essentially dissolved in summer 2008 - with Moran and Hanson leaving the board - during a bitter dispute involving library politics.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com