u/throwaway-squirrel

Honestly it's my fault at this point for starting to believe them when they say they're listening to the public and working to rebuild relationships and restore trust and blah blah blah. Nope! The five-person clown show just appointed one of the administrators who squandered $3.8M taxpayer dollars as the library's interim director.

For the curious, Andrea Heisel, who they just appointed:

-Said out loud and with her whole chest and I quote "we don't decorate our shelves with books anymore" when a librarian requested more large print books for her branch in response to patron demands (then denied the request for more books)

-Told librarians in one branch they needed to reduce their collection from 14,000 items to 7,000 in a refresh (staff negotiated her back to 10,000; not sure about the other branches whose collections she cut)

-Told staff she knew there were a lot of "big feelings" about her paperless holds—a phrase which here means "staff no longer pull holds for patrons; patrons download an app that tells them their book has come in, and then they have to find it on the shelves themselves, good luck or whatever"—but they needed to get over it because it was going to happen anyway (she quietly rolled it back, but stay tuned for a reappearance now that she's in charge)

-CREATED THE LAYOFF PLAN that laid of 61 frontline union staff only (but it's okay, the board promises she wrote a GOOD layoff plan this time!)

-Bravely took a paycut to checks notes $169K. Good thing she was given $105K in raises over the last three years or else she'd be living in poverty like the rest of her staff

-Either actively collaborated in or simply stood back and watched while $3.8M taxpayer dollars disappeared

-Similarly, either actively collaborated in the creation and enforcement of or stood back and quietly oversaw the implementation of a disgustingly toxic, punitive, nightmarish work culture that has led hundreds of staff to resign over the last 16 years, many of whom struggle with ongoing mental and physical health concerns because of the APPALLING environment she helped create and cement

I can't believe this has to be spelled out, but: The person who blew holes in the ship cannot be trusted to right the sinking ship. Endorsing a levy lid lift with a person who destroyed the budget herself would be SHEER unhinged insanity at this point, and I hope and pray no one goes for it. I also hope and pray the staff walk out or stage a wildcat strike. Best case scenario: all the libraries straight-up close until Andrea and this entire insane board resign

Eyoooooo once again and it's always it's me ya boy bringing you the most recent TRL tea. I've been posting pretty regularly over in the r/TRLPatrons subreddit, but in case you've missed the drama over here on the main, I am here to give you the most popcorn-worthy updates.

DISCLAIMER: I am alas v busy and therefore unavailable at this point to explain everything that led to the budget "crisis" since it's been hashed and rehashed on this sub and I assume everyone engaging in good faith already knows what's going on, but if you're out of the loop I HIGH KEY RECOMMEND reading parts one and two of the crisis. Join us in the loop! It's horrible here and we are all Suffering

I'll try to be brief but I am regrettably VERBOSE so buckle up etc. etc. If you just want the actionable highlights, they are:

email TRLBoardofTrustees@trl.org and tell them you want the eight remaining involuntary layoffs paused until the interim can review AND for people who opted for "voluntary" layoffs to have the chance to stay on if they'd like to. Feel free to cc your county commissioners so they also know what's going on.
email the same address with policies you want discussed at the policy committee board meeting. Give the Orwellian social media policy a look if you feel so inclined.
listen in on the policy committee board meeting next Tuesday, May 12th, at 4:30 pm; public comment isn't allowed, but listening in is a great idea even though it will likely enrage you perhaps beyond the point of endurance. I personally combat this by taking extensive critical notes during the meeting that I send to the board immediately thereafter 😄 Look at the "related docs" tab at the top of the page to see how TRL admin redlined (and thereby defanged) the proposed financial transparency policy. Feel free to send your thoughts to the board once you're mad enough.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

OKAY now here is a quick hitlist of news updates, some of which are good and some of which are uh let's go with Not Good

Caelen at WIP published a FANTASTIC article today focusing on Amanda Park and how the union and Patron Coalition for Local Libraries (group I co-founded; join ussssss by emailing WeLoveLibraries@proton.me) are (successfully!!!) pushing back on admin's attempts to reverse engineer their 2018 plan to close rural branches.
Most library branches will have their hours reduced starting next week. The harm done by the reduction in hours could be mitigated if the board told admin to pause the layoffs. There are MUCH more effective cost-cutting measures, including asking admin to rescind the raises they got in December and looking at furloughing service center workers whose jobs aren't as essential as those of frontline workers' (said by a former marketer who's been laid off multiple times because: my job is so far from as essential as that of a frontline workers' ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
I BELIEVE the five boards of county commissioners have established a committee specific to TRL issues and updates. Ideally this additional layer of oversight will push the board to start acting like the governing body they are instead of just doing whatever admin tells them to do.
Apparently two of the trustees have been receiving death threats. This sucks, obviously. Another thing that sucks is that one of the trustees more or less accused members of the Patron Coalition of sending these threats, a thing she did with exactly zero evidence. She and one of Brenda's direct reports have also accused us of sending people to threaten Brenda at her home (apparently she says someone yelled THE COALITION SENT ME! which is funny because: no they didn't, I got the police report this week and I am not kidding when I tell you that it JUST SAYS she called dispatch the morning after a car she didn't recognize full of people she didn't recognize drove past her house on March 1st. She didn't report them saying anything, and the follow-up incident report is completely blank because there was nothing to follow up on.) Obviously I'm not saying people who nominally belong to the Coalition aren't capable of sending threats; idk what people do in their spare time, and we all know that people are assholes, especially anonymously online. But a grassroots coalition of anxious introverted library lovers who just want to read books are not doxxing people and dispatching threats. Come on now. Girl PLEASE be so fucking for real.
We wrote up a press release about the aforementioned accusations and I will post it in the comments below For Your Viewing Pleasure.
The Board STILL hasn't appointed an interim director, though they've scheduled two additional executive sessions for next week to continue reviewing candidates. PLEASE GOD we end next week with a capable, competent interim director.
At the last Board meeting, they authorized the creation of two ad hoc committees that can include members of the public: an audit committee and a levy lid lift committee. If you're interested in learning how to participate, please email the board at TRLBoardofTrustees@trl.org.
We have an EXTREMELY limited amount of time to get a potential levy lift on the ballot. I personally cannot and will not support a lift until I see evidence that the Board is committed to enacting real, lasting change and the remaining top administrators are gone from their positions, but that's just me and my personal stance.
I sent an unfortunately very graphic and annoying email to downtown Olympia's branch manager complaining about the lack of feminine hygiene or whatever trash cans and am pleased to report that the aforementioned trash cans have been restored to the stalls there.
We pulled the public records regarding the number of accidents and injuries that have happened to children on Brenda's playsets and they are Upsetting

OKAY THAT IS IT FROM ME....FOR NOW. If YOU have additional updates please put them in the comments! And please, if you can, have SUCH a blessed weekend—I will personally be having a great time pursuing one of my passions, which is spending several hours of interrupted time looking at historic wooden boats with awe and delight. UNTIL NEXT TIME, Y'ALL

The bar is in hell and yet the TRL trustees will not stop gleefully flinging themselves beyond it with willful abandon and I'm starting to worry they have a public humiliation kink but tbh i did not consent and this has gone on long enough

Your friendly neighborhood bimonthly bisexual TRL update complete with the world's MOST UNHINGED social media policy