LIBRARIES: Leadership is lacking

As a former Community Library Network employee, I watched the dissolution of the CIN with heartbreak but no surprise. This collapse was the inevitable result of poor leadership and political theater by CLN’s board and administration.

During my 19 months at CLN, I witnessed firsthand the institutional erosion that was a direct consequence of administrative dysfunction, including mass layoffs, disproportionately affecting disabled staff, under the interim director. Nearly an entire category of lower-classified staff was pushed out. Role consolidations and wage compression followed. When I sought clarification, I was met with reprimand and devaluation. Accountability and transparency were absent. 

Further role restructuring compressed wages again, forcing qualified staff to reapply for their own jobs — more complex roles with no pay increase or growth. 

In my final weeks, I spoke with a new HR professional who recognized these harms. I had hope. She’s (surprise!) no longer with the organization. 

The recent posting for a single role split across two distant libraries, juggling both adult and youth programming for the same lower pay classification, reflects how divorced CLN has become from the realities of sustainability and basic fairness.

Now, CIN is gone. CLN’s bad-faith “leadership” severed patrons from regional resources, including thousands of rural users. A team that silences feedback, devalues staff, and clings to control cannot steward partnerships. This lack of integrity just cost the region an entire shared infrastructure.

Taxpayers should ask: “How long can governance hostile to collaboration and transparency continue without consequences?”

DALLAS JADE GRAVES

Former CLN Employee

Osburn