Latest / Rick Outzen: (we don’t) color on the dog / Blaine Wall: Hiring New Library Director
Transcript
- Rick Outzen: Welcome back to Rick's Blog Live. I'm Rick Altson. In the open I talked a little bit about a controversy this week. Library Director Crystal Bell Rivera resigned on Monday, August 10th. On August the twelfth, we had West Marina our county administrator received a letter from Blaine Wall, is the chairman of the West Florida Libraries Board of Governors, asking for to schedule a meeting. of the board which has been canceled for the summer on august twenty fourth and for better communication. We've been lucky enough to be able to get Blaine to join us, so thank you for joining us. All right, ⁓ did you learn about Bel resignation? Dr. Blaine Wall: Glad to be here, always a pleasure. I l I learned as most people did through local media reports. So I saw I saw your story and then of course everyone else was following the story as well. So that's all I've seen and all all that I know is what Rick Outzen: Yeah. No communication from the county, no one telling the board of governors that they've we've got a a position to fill and they need y'all's help to do it? Dr. Blaine Wall: No, Which is atypical from the last time when the director retired ⁓ We received phone calls that let us know what had happened. But been no communication. ⁓ Rick Outzen: You know, it it's ⁓ our in looking at this, the just go we've we've gone through it, I know I've written about it a lot on the blog and in the newspaper, but ⁓ what's role the Board of Governors? Dr. Blaine Wall: So the Board of Governance created to have oversight of the library. Technically, the director does answer to the county administrator, but we the day-to-day operations of the library, we approve the budget, we are responsible for a for the library. That recommendation is made to the administrator. In the past, ⁓ the recommendation of board was honored until the most recent hire. Rick Outzen: looking at this and and it's agreed that the final hire the decision to hire is county administrator's decision, but it's it even Mike brought it up at the commission meeting. If a board is assigned to do this and knows the job is better than anyone, ⁓ why wouldn't you that recommendation? I think that has been an issue in our community since this all began to unravel back in in February. of this year. other thing that comes up though is th and you brought it up in your letter, and the letter is on the blog, rixblog.biz, is been a pattern of ⁓ ⁓ out the county administrator and a a of silence. ⁓ Talk a little some of the requests that you've that how you've reached to him ⁓ since Crystal Bel Rivera first hired, and wha how he's treated you. Sure. treated the board. Dr. Blaine Wall: Right. So the first time that I reached out to him after her hiring was concerning open positions on the board. So the board consists of five people, appointed by the mayor, one by city council, three by the commissioners. And of the commissioner seats are open. So the the library advertised these openings at the end of 2025, I think November and December, ⁓ with the deadline being early January. ⁓ There were received, ⁓ I believe or seven applicants, but The administrator never placed these these ⁓ or the opening on the agenda for the county commissioners. So was never a vote to fill the seats. So I him to ask when he would do that and I encouraged him to do it because it was making it difficult for us to have a quorum. if one person was out at a meeting, for example, then we didn't have a quorum. Right, we had to have three ⁓ and with summer I knew that some people had travel plans, ⁓ so it was to be challenging. Rick Outzen: Because you only have three members. Dr. Blaine Wall: ⁓ he did not respond to that. so I asked that that item be placed on our agenda in in June. And an hour before our meeting was to occur, we received a phone call from ⁓ the director's saying that the meeting had been canceled. And I I him that same day asking why he had canceled meetings. I understood that they were be canceled for the entire summer, ⁓ and I asked him and county attorney to please provide justification for the cancellations ⁓ to show me where he has the authority to do that. Because according to all of the governing documents, including ⁓ our but also the county ⁓ ordinance that created the the Board of Governance, the the are set by the board and they're cancelled by the chair or by the board, not by anyone else. I never heard response back from that either. Rick Outzen: Well then you also asked for a special meeting the end of June. Yeah. ⁓ Dr. Blaine Wall: I did. And I received I received no response from him. I also copied Crystal Belle Rivera. she is supposed to be a liaison to the board. and so that's in the founding documents that that's her role as director. ⁓ And did not acknowledge my request either. Rick Outzen: Yeah, thing I heard, I don't know if if if you can confirm this or not, but I you had one board member that was eligible for another term and he was discouraged or I was sorry, flatly told not to apply. Dr. Blaine Wall: ⁓ I think he did re apply for a second term, ⁓ when there was a gap and he was not reappointed, ⁓ he sent an email asking that his name be pulled from consideration. ⁓ a wonderful person, a retired attorney. He had wonderful information about the legal components of many of the topics that we address at board meetings, so his presence definitely been missed. And he was willing to continue serving. Rick Outzen: th let's all let's say let's say get better. there's an August 24th meeting, that's allowed to happen. would you like to the process ⁓ handled this time? Dr. Blaine Wall: I would like to see the process be incredibly transparent. think that we need to agree to the requirements for the position. ⁓ requirements that were that were in place when when Ms. ⁓ Bel took the really related to requirements state has to get grants for the library. So ⁓ they weren't unique to It's not like we said, ⁓ these are ⁓ some, you know, high high ⁓ expectations that we have in Escambia County that other people don't have. so we mirrored it after those requirements. And I like to do that again. So here are the requirements. Let's have an open application period. Anyone who's interested can apply. ⁓ Let's review applicants, invite the best to interview if it needs to be a multi-step process, ⁓ as it was ⁓ we had some interviews first and then in-person interviews. ⁓ Let's do that. I would like see more involvement of the community. ⁓ the interviews last time were held at the county offices, so it was kind of complicated and difficult for some people to make it in. You know, you have to go through layers of security and it parking can sometimes be a challenge. I would like to see them held at the library in an open room so that people could come. I suggested ⁓ we solicit questions from staff members. I think if you're hiring someone to lead the staff, it's important that you hear from them. ⁓ do they value in a leader? What are they looking for? ⁓ kind of support do they need? So I think it would be nice to hear from them as well. Rick Outzen: You I went back and looked at the minutes from 2015 when when Todd Hummel was hired. And right, the the board itself, you know, on what requirements were gonna be, worked on the questions, ⁓ reviewed all the applications, the board decided ⁓ who would be the to go to the next step, and then ⁓ there was a series interviews and then another step after that. This was all handled in house this last time primarily very input from the board on who got pushed forward who didn't, who met the The requirements, in all honesty in looking at it, the requirements were written ⁓ for Belle Rivera. ⁓ even she didn't fit the requirements, but they gave her exemption to go ahead and move her forward. so hopefully we can go back to the requirements that were used ⁓ in twenty fifteen, update it Because I think in the end, it just seems common sense that the person in charge of the library should a librarian. And I not a really high bar for me. Dr. Blaine Wall: Right. Right, and it's like any other position, you know, when you're starting out in a career, you start at the bottom most of the time. Right. And you work your way up and you learn all along the way. so I think it's important that that person has experience and they've learned on the job ⁓ and they what it means to work ⁓ at a branch library, or they know what it means to work at a reference desk and help people who come in with questions and who need to find information. ⁓ Or maybe worked behind the scenes and they've worked in technical services. But I think it's important to have someone with a Wealth of knowledge and experience. Rick Outzen: So because you understand what you're asking people to do. And you understand if a library system or a branch doesn't be seem to be functioning well, you have the experience to understand how to fix it. I I where we are right now, and Blaine, I really appreciate you coming on, ⁓ where are with this is you need contact your county commissioners. Let ⁓ know. can put this on the agenda where you get a ⁓ to weigh in at county commission meeting about how you want the hiring of the next director to be. ⁓ I hope that happens. hope that West Marino responds to your letter and that we get this ⁓ that is so desperately needed in this process that we didn't have before. So that will get start clicking for us. I think no one's happy that someone loses their job, but but in the end ⁓ we an opportunity to get our huge do-over and get the right person in the job. So Blaine, thank you for thank you for joining me. I appreciate it. Yes. We'll take a break, we'll be right back. You wanna stay with us. Mm-hmm.