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Stability vs. Turnover in AFPL Branch Management
Updated August 2, 2008 |
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[This chart, first created in the middle of the chaotic Hooker regime
(1999-2004), was originally called "Missing Links in AFPL Branch Management."
The chart was given its current title, and its introduction was totally or partially
revised on September 11, 2006, April 11, 2007, and July 28, 2008.]
Although the number of branches operating without full-time managers has
decreased since Hooker's departure in May 2004, turnovers in branch
management are often preceded by incredibly long delays in replacing a
departed managers, regardless of whether the previous manager resigns,
retires, or is temporarily transferred elsewhere. Appointments of interim managers
are frequent, due to these permanent departures or to managers being granted Family &
Medical Act-authorized leaves of absence.
Management changes in branch operations are inevitable and inevitably
disruptive, but prolonged delays in appointing full-time managers for
manager-less branches always create unnecessary hardships for the staffs
(and the patrons) at those branches.
At AFPL, the Branch Group Administrators select the managers - or
interim managers - of all libraries except Central, Auburn, and (since 2007) the Bookmobile.
The Library Director - or Interim Director - appoints the administrators, or
interim administrators, of the Central Library and the Auburn Avenue
Research Library. Since 2007, the Central Library Administrator appoints the manager of
the Bookmobile.
| Facility Type |
Library |
Previous Manager |
Current Manager |
| Central |
Central Library |
Bill Munro (Interim)1
January 2006 - July 2008
|
Gayle Holloman (Interim)2 Appointed July 2008 |
| Research |
Auburn Avenue |
Francine Henderson |
| Regional |
Northeast |
Claire Skerrett
Resigned February 2004 |
Carla Burton3
Appointed November 2004 |
| Ocee |
Gayle Holloman |
Orlando Jordan (Interim)4
Appointed August 2008 |
| Roswell |
Lu Conti |
| Sandy Springs |
Dorothy Parker |
| South Fulton |
Cheryl Miller-Holmes
Resigned July 2004 |
Clay Payne5
Appointed February 2005 |
| Southwest |
Stephanie McIver
Retired December 2004 |
Eugene Haskins6
Appointed April 2006 |
| Area |
Alpharetta |
Leona Bolch7 |
| Buckhead |
Katharine Suttell
Retired August 2004 |
Nancy Powers8
Appointed August 2004 |
| East Point |
Michael Hickman |
| Northside |
Emma Stanley-Tate
Retired December 2006
|
Andrea Akiti9
Appointed May 2007 |
| Ponce |
Bill Munro1 |
Bill Munro10 |
| Community |
Adams Park |
Celeste Gibson |
| Adamsville/C.H. |
Donnie Dixon
Retired December 2005
|
Michelle Bennett11
Appointed February 2006 |
| Cleveland Avenue |
Gloria Dennis |
| College Park |
Bonita McZorn |
| Dogwood |
Deborah Perry |
| Fairburn |
Michelle Carnes
Resigned May 2007 |
Ronald Brown12
Appointed June 2007
|
| Kirkwood |
Louise Nails
Retired December 2006 |
Martaire Walker13
Appointed April 2007 |
| Peachtree |
Shannon Duffy
Resigned February 2005
|
Mary Silver14
Appointed May 2005 |
| Stewart-Lakewood |
Andrea Akiti
Promoted to mgr., Northside May 2007
|
Scott Parham15
Appointed July 2007
|
| Washington Park |
M.A. Bennett
Resigned July 2004 |
Sharon Washington
Appointed September 2004 |
| West End |
Rosie Meadows |
| Neighborhood |
Bankhead Courts |
Stephanie Morgan |
| Bowen Homes |
Marie Lee
Resigned May 2004 |
Kelley Flowers16
Appointed September 2004 |
| Carver Homes |
Beverly Hawes-Allen |
| East Atlanta |
Gayle Holloman
Promoted to Ocee mgr. July 2004 |
Kenneth Thompson17
Appointed November 2004 |
| Georgia-Hill |
Maureen Kelly18 |
Daniel Asomah18
(Interim, since March 2007) |
| Hapeville |
Jean Hughes
Transferred to Northeast Nov. 2003 |
Brenda Wright |
| MLK, Jr. |
Marquita Washington19 |
| Perry Homes |
Dorothy Williams
Retired December 2006 |
Kysh Clemons20
Appointed April 2007 |
| Thomasville Hgts. |
Belinda Yellock |
| Bookmobile21 |
Lisa Block
Resigned July 2007 |
Christina Kaulback Appointed October? 2007 |
1Former AFPL Director Ron Dubberly appointed Bill Munro as Central Library Administrator and Munro
served in that capacity during Dubberly's, Julie Hunter's, and Ella Yates' regimes before the trustees
hired Mary Kaye Hooker as Library Director and Carolyn Garnes as Deputy Director.
Garnes replaced Central Library Administrator Bill Munro with Ponce Branch Manager Susan Earl (and Munro became manager
at Ponce).
Earl resigned as Central Library Administrator in October 2003. Garnes appointed Child & Youth Services
Administrator Doris Jackson as Acting Central Library Administrator (as well as Child & Youth Services
Administrator) in late 2003; Jackson resigned on December 27, 2005.
In January 2006, Library Director John Szabo appointed Ponce Branch Manager Bill Munro as Interim Central
Library Administrator. Szabo returned Munro to Ponce in July 2008.
2Holloman was branch manager of the Ocee Branch, and before that had
managed the East Atlanta Branch.
3Burton's appointment was announced on
November 15, 2004, over three months after the library announced (on
August 4th) it would recruit a replacement for Skerrett. For the nine
months before Burton was hired, Northeast's Acting Manager was Leona Bolch,
who was transferred to Northeast from her position as manager at Alpharetta.
As a result of an employee grievance, Bolch returned to Alpharetta on
November 5th.
4Approximately a week after Szabo announced the appointment of Ocee manager
Gayle Holloman as the next Interim Administrator of the Central Library, Branch Group Administrator
Anne Haimes appointed Jordan as Ocee's Interim Manager
5Payne's promotion created a vacant manager
position at Stewart-Lakewood, which Payne had previously managed.
Backgound of the amazingly convoluted management situation at South Fulton:
South Fulton's first manager, Gladys Dennard, was murdered by a branch
employee in August 2002. Then-Deputy Director Carolyn Garnes eventually
hired another manager, Cheryl Miller-Holmes. Miller-Holmes was eventually
transferred to Alpharetta (whose manager had been transferred to fill a
vacancy at Northeast), but later resigned.
A series of different managers were temporarily reassigned to manage South
Fulton for varying lengths of time. At first, various C52-level managers
of other branches were dragooned for this assignment: Bill Munro (from Ponce), Stephanie
McIver (from Southwest Regional), Maureen Kelly (from Georgia-Hill),
Lu Conti (from Roswell Regional), and Michael Hickman (from East Point).
Recruitment of lateral transfers for South Fulton branch manager position
was not authorized until July 29, 2004. (Due to the county's hiring
freeze, no requests for promotions were were permitted, and whoever
would've successfully gotten that job through a lateral transfer would
have created a vacancy at their own location.) Although it is unclear
whether any requests for lateral transfers were made, no lateral
transfer was announced.
At this point, library administrators began drafting C-51-level managers to
manage South Fulton, apparently because South Fulton's own C-51 Assistant
Manager has already served several times as Acting Manager in between the
parade of C-52 level managers who had been temporary assigned to manage
South Fulton.
The first C-51-level manager assigned to South Fulton was Fairburn "Interim
Manager Michelle Carnes, but--presumably because of her C51 status--her assignment
there did not last until Fairburn re-opened January 3, 2005. (Carnes'
salary status aside, observers find it interesting that Carnes continues
pursuade her supervisors to allow her to pick and choose her job
assignments, while others do not enjoy this privilege.)
Former Northside Branch (and C52 level) Manager Emma Stanley-Tate (who at the time was
"working" in the managerless Branch Services Office) was assigned to
work at South Fulton after Carnes's stint there, but SFB staff reported
that Stanley-Tate showed up at the branch only a few times during her
official tenure there.
Margaret Bradford (from Roswell, and another C-51-level employee) was then
assigned to temporarily manage South Fulton. Haimes said at the December
2004 managers' meeting that Bradford would be staying on at South Fulton
until a permanent manager was hired, but on December 22, 2004, Haimes announced
that she had replaced Bradford with Eugene Haston, a C-52 manager who had
been managing the Northside Area Library ever since the Bookmobile Service
(which he previously managed) was suspended. Haimes also announced
December 22nd that Emma Stanley-Tate, who had managed Northside before
Haston, would resume managing Northside.
Meanwhile (apparently in late November 2004), Interim Director Haimes
finally asked the County Manager to thaw South Fulton's frozen vacant
manager position so it could be filled permanently. On December 20th,
Haimes authorized a recruiting announcement for this position, but
"only...to full-time permanent employees" of the library system (vs.
outside candidates). January 7, 2005 was the deadline for applications,
and interviews were conducted in late January. Haimes announced at the
February managers' meeting that Payne was the successful candidate.
6McIver's retirement created a vacant position at Southwest.
Interim Library Director Anne Haimes authorized recruitment to fill this
position through an internal promotion or a lateral transfer. The deadline
for applications was January 7, 2005. Interviews were held in late January.
At the February 3rd managers meeting, Haimes announced the name of
Southwest's next manager, Cynthia Hunter, who was among several inside and outside
candidates who had interviewed for the position.
Hunter reported to work on February 23, 2005; she resigned in October 2005.
Shortly thereafter, Branch Group Administrator Anne Haimes transferred former Bookmobile
manager Eugene Haston (who had been working since the abolition of the
Bookmobile in Haimes' office) to Southwest as its Acting Manager.
Recruitment for Southwest's manager position was never announced.
On April 6, 2006, Haimes announced to the other branch managers that
funding for the vacant manager position at Southwest had been sacrificed
in the most recent round of county budget cuts, and that she had appointed
Haskins as the branch's permanent manager.
7Bolch's management of Alpharetta was interupted by a nine-month
(March - November 2004) temporary appointment to manage the Northeast Branch.
8In May 2000, Mary Kaye Hooker
transferred two C-52 Central Library managers (Suttell and
Powers) to the Buckhead branch, and Hooker named Suttell the branch
manager. When Suttell retired, Interim Library Director Anne Haimes
did not conduct competitive interviews for the vacancy Suttell's retirement
created; instead, Haimes appointed Powers as manager of Buckhead.
9On April 25, 2007, Branch Services Administrator Anne Haimes
announced that Stewart-Lakewood manager Andrea Akiti had been promoted to
manager at Northside, effective May 2, 2007.
Background:
For most of 2004, Northside's Acting Manager was Eugene Haston,
the former manager of the Bookmobile, whose services the Board had
"temporarily" suspended. On December 22, 2004, Interim Library Director
Anne Haimes transferred Haston from Northside to the South Fulton Regional
Library to be its Acting Manager. Two days earlier, Haimes had authorized
recruitment for the South Fulton manager position from a pool of qualified
candidates currently working in the library system; a manager was hired
in February 2005. Meanwhile, Emma Stanley-Tate, Northside's previous manager, was
transferred back to Northside, where she again served as manager until her
retirement on December 12, 2006. Recruitment for the vacant manager position
was authorized December 27, 2006.
10Library Director John Szabo appointed
former Ponce manager Bill Munro to the post of Interim Central Library
Administrator effective January 25, 2006; Szabo appointed Ponce Assistant Manager Cal Gough as
Interim Ponce Manager effective the same date. In July 2008, Munro returned to Ponce as manager.
11Former Adamsville/Collier Heights manager Donnie Dixon retired
effective December 27, 2005. Branch Group Administrator Anne Haimes
replaced Dixon by soliciting applications from within the organization.
After interviews with those applicants, Haimes selected Ms. Bennett, who
had previously worked in the Teen Center of AFPL's Central Library.
12Brown had worked with Brenda Hunter at
the Southwest Regional Branch; after former Deputy Director Carolyn Garnes
hired Hunter as Collection Development Librarian and downgraded the salaries
of the two selection specialist positions in the Collection Development Unit,
Hunter hired Brown as the Unit's Adult Selection Specialist. A few years
later, Brown transferred to a vacant position at the South Fulton Regional
Branch, where he was working when Branch Services Administrator hired him
as manager of the Fairburn Branch to replace Michelle Carnes.
Although Brown reported to Fairburn sometime in late June, Haimes did not announce
his appointment until a library managers' meeting on July 5th; she announced
the appointment to the library staff in a July 20th email message.
Background:
The branch's manager (until her death in the autumn of 2002) was Janis
Steingruber; the branch's next manager (until her resignation effective
May 1, 2007) was Michelle Carnes.
From 2001 to 2003, Michelle Carnes had been administrative assistant to
former Deputy Director Carolyn Garnes. After Garnes resigned, Interim Acting Library
Director Anne Haimes appointed Carnes as Interim Manager of AFPL's
Collection Development Unit, a position Carnes held for eight months.
On March 31, 2004, the library administration had announced it was recruiting
for a librarian interested in and qualified for a "temporary assignment" as
manager of the Fairburn branch; the application deadline was April 8th.
However, after library director Mary Kaye Hooker was dismissed in May 2004, Interim
Library Director Anne Haimes transferred Carnes to Fairburn as its new
manager, announcing the reassignment at a monthly meeting of AFPL managers
on June 3, 2004.
Library employees were notified April 20, 2007 that Carnes would be
resigning from her position as Fairburn's manager effective May 1, 2007,
and would be moving to Chicago
13The Kirkwood manager position became
vacant on December 12, 2006, when Ms. Nails retired. Recruitment for the
vacant manager position was authorized December 27th. Ms. Walker's
appointment was announced April 9, 2007. Walker was formerly an employee
of AFPL's Southwest Branch.
14Recruitment for the
Peachtree manager vacancy was not announced until March 25, 2005.
The position was filled in early May 2005.
15At a managers' meeting on July 5th, Branch Services Administrator Anne
Haimes announced that a candidate from outside the library system had
accepted the position, but would not be reporting to the branch until
August 2007, due to the county's latest hiring freeze. In a July 20th email
message to library staff, Haines announced the new manager's name.
Background: Stewart-Lakewood manager Clay Payne's promotion to manager at
South Fulton in February 2005 created a vacant manager position at Stewart-Lakewood. Recruitment for that position was
announced March 25, 2005; it was filled in early May 2005 by Andrea Akiti.
Ms. Akiti was promoted to manager of the Northside Branch effective May 2007,
creating the latest management vacancy at Stewart-Lakewood.
16In early September 2004, Haimes transferred Kelley Flowers
from the South Fulton Branch to manage Bowen Homes. This lateral transfer
was not announced until several months later.
17Recruitment for the East Atlanta Branch manager position was
authorized July 29, 2004, and interviews were conducted by early September.
In a November 29th memo, Interim Library Director Anne Haimes announced the
Thompson's appointment by Branch Group Administrator Barbara Osborne-Harris.
(Osborne Harris resigned shortly thereafter.)
18Library employees were notified on
March 23, 2007 that, effective March 26th, Ms. Kelly had been temporarily
reassigned to the library system's Acquisitions Unit for six months, and
that Georgia-Hill's interim manager for that six-month period would
be Daniel Asomah, assistant manager of the Central Library's Children's
Department. Kelly and Asomah both continue their respective "temporary" appointments.
19When the former board of trustees closed the MLK branch, Ms.
Washington was transferred to the East Point Branch. When the MLK branch
reopened on November 20, 2004, Ms. Washington resumed managing it.
20Ms. Williams retirement was effective
December 30, 2006. Recruitment for the Perry Homes vacancy was announced
February 15, 2007, with a March 1st deadline for internal applicants.
Clemons, an employee with the Central Library's Instructional Learning
Center, was appointed Perry Homes manager on April 9, 2007.
21Background of the status of the library's Bookmobile:
Several years ago, the former board of trustees "temporarily"
suspended the library's Bookmobile Services, and its manager, Eugune Haston,
was reassigned to temporarily manage the Northside Branch (its former manager,
Emma Stanley-Tate, having been temporarily reassigned to the Branch
Services Office).
Haston was later reassigned to serve as South Fulton's final Acting Manager;
when a permanent manager was hired for South Fulton in February 2005,
Haston was again reassigned, this time to temporarily operate the library
system's Branch Services Office while Anne Haimes served as Interim Library
Director. After Haimes returned to her position as Branch Group Administrator
and the manager hired by Haimes to manage Southwest resigned in October
2005, Haimes reassigned Haston as Southwest's Acting Manager.
In April 2006, Haimes announced that she had appointed Hastin as Southwest's
permanent manager.
For several years there was no public discussion of the Bookmobile's future
until it was announced at a February 2007 library managers' meeting that
"limited" Bookmobile service would be reinstated sometime in 2007.
The revived Bookmobile service will operate out of the Central Library
rather than, as before, as a part of Branch Services.
Recruitment for two Bookmobile positions (a C42 librarian and a B22 driver)
was authorized February 14, 2007, with a March 1st application deadline for
internal candidates.
Librarian Lisa Block was hired effective May 2, 2007; she was supervised
by Central Library Children's Department manager Kellye Carter.
Just before interviews for a bookmobile driver were conducted at the end
of July, both Carter and Block resigned. Kaulback was hired in October (?) 2007
to replace Block.
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