In the wake of a consultant’s report that critically examined personnel procedures and employee morale at the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library, the board of trustees, at a special two-hour meeting February 11, voted to give Library Director Mary Kaye Hooker increased authority over personnel decisions. But it also directed her to undergo management and sensitivity training, the February 12 Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Trustee Bob Fulton, who also serves on the Fulton County Commission, said Hooker’s new responsibilities will allow the board to evaluate her performance more effectively. “She’s never had the chance before,” he said. However, board member Clint Johnson questioned why a manager with an annual salary greater than $100,000 needed to be retrained. “If you are dissatisfied to that extent, you are dissatisfied to the point to change directors,” he told the Journal-Constitution.
“I’m at a loss to understand how this organization is controlled by rumor, innuendo, and outright lies,” said trustee and commissioner Emma Darnell, alluding to a watchdog website that many staffers apparently read and contribute to.
The $112,000 consultant’s report—written at the board’s request by Nancy Reynolds of the Atlanta law firm Elarbee, Thompson, Sapp, and Wilson—recommended changes in the way employees are evaluated, and described many of them as extremely afraid and distrustful of both Hooker and the trustees.
Posted February 13, 2004.