Library chief in line for raise as union forms

Discontent among lower-level employees over King County library chief Bill Ptacek's management style and library restructuring has spread to mid- and lower-level supervisors, who have formed a union to bargain over working conditions.

But even before a union-certification vote was counted, the library's governing board set the stage to give Ptacek a raise.

The King County Library System board voted unanimously last month to give the longtime director an unspecified pay raise effective Jan. 1. The board will evaluate his performance in April, and if it decides a raise is merited, Ptacek would be paid retroactively. He currently earns $152,914 a year.

The performance review will take place in the wake of a supervisors' vote to join the Washington Council of County and City Employees (WCCCE) and a survey commissioned by the library system that showed managers and rank-and-file workers are deeply unhappy with Ptacek's restructuring.

WCCCE organizer Bill Keenan said supervisors voted 37-20 to join the union largely because they "didn't have a voice" in the restructuring.

The restructuring scheme last year put libraries in the hands of "cluster managers" who oversee several libraries and rotate staffers among the branches. The plan was touted as a way of making operations more efficient and flexible in King County's 43 libraries.

But the clustering plan sparked protests from employees and patrons, who said it weakened the personal connections between librarians and patrons.

Library report


Waldron & Company representatives will discuss their report on library clustering with the King County Library System board of trustees at 5 p.m. Tuesday at 960 Newport Way N.W., Issaquah. The report is on the Web at kcls.org/board/FINAL_REPORT_V_1_23.pdf

Last May, unhappiness over the clustering plan led to a 92 percent vote of no confidence in Ptacek by librarians and other library workers represented by WCCCE Local 1857.

Consultant Waldron & Company, hired by the library board to evaluate the restructuring, reported last week that only 11 percent of employees who responded to a survey believed the change improved service to patrons. Of 1,122 staffers, 712 answered the survey.

Nearly 70 percent of managers and workers said restructuring had not improved service to patrons or improved the effectiveness of their teams.

A library assistant wrote in the survey that upper management "has never, in the 12 years I've worked here, ever taken input from people at my level."

Managers also were critical of top management and clustering. They are "overwhelmed and demoralized by this mess," one wrote. "They are operating on the basis of fear -- they have been told that if clustering doesn't work it will be their fault."

"The director does not value the staff or what it thinks," said another manager.

The Waldron report, written by Ann McCreery, attributed much of employees' unhappiness to the requirement that they work in several library branches rather than in a single branch. Despite that discontent, Waldron said, library clustering is an appropriate way of managing such a large library system "with the goal of becoming one unified system."

Waldron also surveyed patrons, most of whom weren't familiar with clustering. A majority of those who were said it had improved customer service. More than 90 percent of patrons and nearly 90 percent of employees said the library system provides good service.

Ptacek said administrators have been listening to workers' complaints and are adjusting the restructuring plan. Under a three-year contract approved Friday by 550 WCCCE-represented librarians and assistants, workers who were previously assigned to a single library won't be required to work at other libraries in the cluster.

"The ball's in our court to take this and make it work," Ptacek said. "That's what I think we have to do." He said the Waldron report suggests "we have a structure that has promise but we've had so much noise around the thing that we haven't had much chance to utilize it well."

Gary Robinson, a Mercer Island Library patron who has fought the clustering of his library with three other branches, expressed amazement that the library board would consider giving Ptacek a raise in the face of the Waldron survey.

"How can you even think of that? In a corporation they would fire the director for those marks," Robinson said.

King County Superior Court Judge LeRoy McCullough, president of the library board, declined to say whether the board has confidence in Ptacek. But, he said, "I can say that I think we are probably one of the best systems -- if not the best -- in the nation, and I don't think that was by accident. Certainly there have been some concerns raised about a number of things, but overall I'm very proud of the system we're part of.

"We will, of course, be taking a look at all of the elements when we do the review later on in this year."

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105

or kervin@seattletimes.com