Trustees of the Minneapolis Public Library voted October 23 to request another increase in the director’s salary from the state after the last two finalists for the position withdrew from consideration. The job has been open since March, after the board dismissed Mary Lawson and hired a search firm to find a replacement.
Minnesota state law limits most public salaries to 95% of the governor's pay, which amounts to a cap of $114,288, according to the October 28 Minneapolis Star Tribune. The board had requested a waiver once before in August, at the same time it approved dropping the requirement for an MLS, but the Minnesota Department of Employee Relations only raised it to $120,000.
By that time, one finalist was already negotiating for another job in New York City that paid at least $200,000, and the other two signaled that $120,000 wasn’t enough. Finalist Saul Amdursky, director of the Kalamazoo (Mich.) Public Library, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune, “It’s idiotic from my perspective to have administrators linked to the governor’s salary,” adding that the $1.5 million the board needs to cut to balance the 2003 budget was another reason he withdrew.
The library’s search firm reported in late October that although MPL is well-known nationally, about 25% of the 168 candidates it screened were not interested in the position because of the board’s reputation for micromanagement. Other factors included the short tenures of the previous two directors, working for an elected board, and an unresolved sexual-harassment complaint by 12 staffers that exposure to pornography on Internet terminals created a hostile work environment.
Posted November 4, 2002.