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January 4, 2008

Board takes control of library

By Karen Williamson

KARENW@CULLMANTIMES.COM

When library employees became county employees seven years ago, the biggest perk was the annual cost of living raises, according to Cullman County Public Library System Librarian Max Hand.

And for county employees, that won’t change in 2008. They will continue to be county employees, but new hires will be library employees falling under the governance of the five-member library board.

Commissioners voted during the Nov. 27, 2007, County Commission meeting to return administrative duties to CCPLS board members.

County Commission Chairman Wiley Kitchens said board members will pay new hires and obtain benefits for them.

When the county took over the duties in 2000, Hand said, “They took over responsibility for payroll.”

Prior to that the county would appropriate money to the library and the library would pay its own salaries.

Benefits and retirement didn’t change any, according to Hand.

Another benefit to being a county employee is that there is a grievance board if an employee has a problem, said Hand.

CCPLS Board Chairman Dr. Dan J. Scott said he is not sure how the new changes will affect new hires. He has served on the board for more than 20 years as well as serving as board chairman previously.

The board will have the authority to hire employees and also to dismiss workers or turn that function over to the head librarian, said Scott.

“We get our funding from the county and the state and the city,” said Scott. “Assuming they continue to fund as they have in the past for these positions, it will mean very little change to the employees except they will file any grievances directly with the library board rather than the County Commission.”

Current board members are Jane Turkett Abt, a retiree; Dean Green, a retired teacher and wife of city Mayor Donald Green; Ron Hogue, an accountant, and Trina Walker, a teacher at Holly Pond Elementary School. Scott is a former instructor at Jefferson State Community College in Birmingham.

While county commissioners make the appointments to the board, one slot is recommended by the city. Green currently holds that slot. Board members serve four-year staggered terms.

The library currently employees five full-time employees: the librarian, assistant librarian, a reference and adult services employee who selects book material, a circulation head and reference assistant who also manages interlibrary loans.

Hand said he needs to fill a position for a book mobile driver and would like to hire a cataloger and a youth services librarian.

Most of the library employees are part-time workers that equate into 13.5 full-time equivalent workers, he said.

Two senior aides manage two of the branches, Hanceville and the Tom Bevill Library in Colony through a federal program run by the North Central Alabama Regional Council of Governments. There are two other branches in Garden City and Fairview. The town’s pay the librarians’ salaries.

The NARCOG program helps low-income workers, age 55 and up, find employment and personal development through community service and training. Host agencies provide training and agree to consider hiring workers whenever job openings occur.

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