Plainfield
“Continuing employment at the discretion of a new director after December 31, 2016,” the transitional job description she signed as part of the agreement in July 2015 reads, according to a copy obtained by the Valley News under a public records request.
The Plainfield Library Board of Trustees — formed after voters in 2011 approved merging the respective boards of the town’s Meriden and Read libraries — eliminated her position as of Dec. 31 based on a recommendation from Library Director Mary King, according to the Dec. 2 trustees meeting minutes.
King said in the letter to the trustees that the duties in the associate director’s job description on the special collections in the basement of the Read library had been completed and other duties could be reassigned, the minutes state. Norwalk had worked as director of the Philip Read Memorial Library for 40 years before becoming associate director last July as part of the transition agreement.
At the Dec. 2 meeting, Norwalk disputed that her work on the collections was finished, and after the trustees voted to eliminate her job, she asked for a public hearing.
At the Jan. 17 public hearing, Norwalk’s attorney, Brad Wilder, said if the trusteed did not employ Norwalk for another year so she could complete her work, it was likely a lawsuit would be filed.
At that same hearing, the trustees met briefly in private with their attorney after Wilder spoke. They then voted to reaffirm their earlier decision on Norwalk’s job but also agreed to continue the dialogue.
On Wednesday, the Selectboard will meet behind closed doors with the town’s attorney, Barry Schuster, to discuss the potential for an amicable settlement.
“Everyone would like to see a resolution to this,” Schuster said Monday in a phone interview.
Town Administrator Steve Halleran also held out hope that an agreement that satisfies everyone could be reached
“We will see if there is a position that allows Nancy to continue the work she values,” Halleran said.
Although the library trustees are an elected board, the Selectboard got involved because the town funds the library and the trustee board was effectively established by the board, Schuster said
“The Selectboard wants to see what it can do (to resolve the dispute,)” Schuster said.
The transition agreement, reached through mediation and signed July 27, 2015, by Norwalk and library trustees Emily Sands and Mark Pensgen, lays out in detail Norwalk’s job description, pay, hours as well as a restructuring plan as she transitions from the position of library director to associate library director. She has been with the library since 1976.
The transitional period in the agreement was to be from July 1 to Dec. 31, 2016. “Continuing employment at the discretion of a new director after December 31, 2016,” the agreement stated.
There are two other indirect references to Norwalk ending her employment on Dec. 31. One is in the agreement, when it states she would provide input into staff evaluations through December 31, 2016. The second in an undated joint statement from Norwalk and the trustees that states: “Nancy will continue to be a valued member of the (Philip Read Memorial Library) staff during the transition through 2016.”
Plainfield paid New London resident John Garvey, a professional mediator and professor at UNH School of Law, $350 an hour for the mediation, for a total of $10,700. Attorneys fees totaled more than $11,000, town officials said.
Wilder said Monday he would wait to hear from the town after Wednesday before deciding how he would proceed on Norwalk’s behalf.
At the trustees meeting on Jan. 17, and again Monday, Wilder said his client’s termination violates both state law regarding library employees, who he said can only be terminated because of “malfeasance, misfeasance, incapacitated or unfit to perform duties,” and the terms of the mediated transition agreement. Wilder said Norwalk’s duties in the agreement include overseeing transition of the special collections to a new room, which was named for Norwalk; help develop guidelines and policies for the access and organization of the special collections; and catalog the material.
“It is rather disingenuous to have an agreement where Nancy was to complete certain things, then not give her the opportunity to complete them,” Wilder said. “She couldn’t finish the job responsibilities she agreed to.”
Regarding state law, Wilder said his client never waived her rights under state law.
“State law trumps that agreement,” Wilder said.
Wilder said the work on the special collections, comprised of material on Plainfield’s past, including such as town records, ledgers, diaries, letters and photographs, is not done. But Schuster said at the Jan. 17 meeting the trustees see the collections as “useable” and the work “satisfactorily complete.” He said the trustees were merely following the transitional agreement with respect to Norwalk’s employment.
Wilder ended his remarks at the Jan. 17 meeting by stating that the town could avoid litigation if it allowed Norwalk to work another year at her hourly wage of $18.19 and let her finish her work on the library’s special collections.
Schuster declined to respond to Wilder’s assertions
“We are proceeding as we are,” he said on Monday.
Halleran said another issue involving the libraries surfaced recently when resident Diane Rogers asked both the Selectboard and library trustees to consider an article on the town meeting warrant asking voters whether they wanted to close the Meriden library. Halleran said neither were interested and Rogers said on Monday she has begun circulating a petition to get an article on the warrant that would stop tax dollars being used to pay for the operation and maintenance of the Meriden library.
“This is not a reaction to that issue (involving Norwalk),” Rogers said. “I have been thinking about this for some time.”
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
