By Dave Fidlin
Correspondent
A recent tweak in benefits offered to employees within the Irvin L. Young Memorial Library shined a spotlight on governance within the quasi-independent body overseeing the public amenity.
The Library Board making policy and budget decisions within Irvin L. Young recently made a motion to provide a paid holiday to staffers on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in mid-January. The same benefit is not currently offered to Whitewater municipal employees.
At a Common Council meeting Feb. 18, Library Director Stacey Lunsford discussed the process of adding the benefit, as well as other salary adjustments this past year.
Council member Jim Allen had previously asked for a discussion of decision-making, particularly when it impacts the budget, within the library system. The conversation delved into what input City Manager Cameron Clapper and the council should have before the Library Board makes decisions.
From his vantage point, Allen said he saw a disconnect between the plan to add a paid holiday without consulting with other city officials.
“I was surprised you didn’t bring it back to Cameron before you took action on this item,” Allen said to Lunsford. “Stacey, you probably opened the door here for a little bit of disgruntled people in the rest of the City of Whitewater and how that is going to cost the city.”
As he continued his views on the benefits change and how it was carried out, Allen said he would have preferred Lunsford had taken a different course of action.
“When the Library Board wanted to move forward, Stacey should have said, ‘Hold on, put the breaks on. How is this going to affect the rest of the city?” Allen said.
Lunsford, however, pushed back and noted that the Library Board did act within its legal authority, as outlined in state statute.
While the city funds the lion’s share — $470,000 annually — of Irvin L. Young’s operations, a portion, to the tune of $136,000, also is funded through a rural reimbursement program. The additional designation is related to the library’s service to surrounding townships that do not have a library of their own.
“Under Chapter 43, it is one of the areas of authority for the Library Board — to be able to set compensation, in any of its forms, for library staff without recourse to anyone else within the city,” Lunsford said.
Council member Brianne Brown, who serves on the Library Board, said the appointed body did put thought into making benefits changes before a final vote was rendered.
“When we found out that it was budget neutral, we went ahead and approved it,” Brown said. That was a concern. We wanted to make sure it didn’t cost any extra money.”
Clapper conceded that the semi-insulated nature of governance in the library does post a challenge at times, though he said he was supportive of the Library Board’s recent decision.
“I wouldn’t deny that it would be much easier from a management of all personnel perspective to have one uniform means by which all our benefits and wages are handled,” Clapper said. “Perhaps the way to go about this is to simply draft a statement to the Library Board.”
Although a formal decision was not made at the recent meeting, council member Patrick Singer suggested looking into making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a paid holiday in other departments within the city.
“There is an equity component to this,” Singer said. “It might behoove us … to discuss this. We have so few tools to increase competition, so sometimes you want to do the fringe benefits to help with this. I would be open to looking at how we can uniform this.”
