"Two on Atlanta-Fulton Library Board Leaving Under Fire"
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 21, 2000, p. G-1
"Two members of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library board accused in a
federal lawsuit of forcing white employees out of a downtown branch
are on the way out. Fulton County commissioners voted 4-3 Wednesday to
end Mary Ward's service after eight years. Chairman William McClure
has agreed to step down [two years before his term was to end] at the
request of newly elected Commissioner Bill Edwards. The changes will
sharply recast power on a board criticized for micromanagement of the
library system....Ward and McClure became the focus of attention
earlier this year when eight white librarians filed a federal suit
claiming they were reassigned for racial reasons from leadership
positions at the Central Library downtown to lesser positions in
suburban branches. The suit cites Ward's comments at a January 6 [2000]
board meeting that the Central Library was a 'white-dominated
administration' that needed racial equity. The board ordered a
[May 2000] reorganization scattering the white managers. Before the
reorganization, the lawsuit alleges, McClure toured the Central Library
and stated,'There are too many old, white women' in management
positions and the board needed 'to get rid of them.'..."
"Atlanta Library Bias Suit Delayed"
Library Journal web site, December 18, 2000
"A federal bias suit against the Atlanta-Fulton County Library board
has been delayed for perhaps a year while county lawyers argue in an
appeals court whether library trustees have immunity from the suit,
according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Seven white
managers filed suit in August, saying they were illegally demoted and
reassigned from their jobs in the downtown branch to achieve
'racial equity.'"
"Library Suit May Be Shelved a Year:
Appeal Delays Racial Case Filed by Employees,
but Plaintiffs Vow to Wait Out the Legal Process"
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 6, 2000
"A ruling issued...in U.S. District Court halts the case while
Fulton County argues before an appeals court a claim that is library
trustees had immunity [from legal action when it approved a mass
transfer of Central Library employees in May 2000]. The appeal may
delay for a year a trial that had been put on the fast track and
scheduled to begin next week."
"Atlanta-Fulton Libraries Need Taxpayer Oversight"
[Editorial by John Sherman], Atlanta Business Chronicle, October
6-12, 2000, p. 36A, 38A.
"...the AFPL Board of Trustees intensely micromanages the hiring of
branch staff personnel through the Board's Personnel Committee, with
a vote required of the full board prior to such hiring....Four library
directors in four years indicates a serious and perhaps endemic flaw
in the library board, a problem requiring far greater oversight by the
taxpayers. Should a library board of trustees interfere with and, in
effect, dominate the day-to-day functions of the library director by
-- according to official records and interviews with branch library
managers -- downgrading job qualifications, changing job descriptions,
and micromanaging the day-to-day operations of the system? Should a
library board of trustees demote and reassign librarians to achieve
'racial equity' as charged in a recent lawsuit in which the judge
indicated (orally in the record) on August 30, that 'the lawsuit
has a substantial likelihood of success on its merits'?...The record
speaks loud and clear: former Library Director Ron Dubberly...was
forced to take early retirement because, according to published
accounts, 'the Board of Trustees had taken over personnel decisions.'
Former Library Director Julie Hunter...resigned...because, she said,
'Instead of the library director being able to make day-to-day
operational decisions, almost every item must be brought to the board,
requiring numerous discussions and meetings before any action is taken.'
Finally, former Library Director Ella Yates...resigned because
'the library board micromanaged every aspect of hiring/firing as
well as contracting.'...."
"Eight Workers Suing Library Lose Their Bid for Injunction"
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 31, 2000, p. C4.
"...At the end of a daylong hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Beverly
Martin ruled that the plaintiffs [eight female employees who filed a
race discrimination case against the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library
board] had satisfied one of four legal prongs needed for the injunction
[the plaintiffs sought in the case] -- that their lawsuit had a
substantial likelihood of success on the merits [of the plaintiffs'
evidence]. But Martin decided the plaintiffs...could not prove another
prong -- that the loss of their positions through library
board-imposed transfers in May [had] irreparably harmed them....Martin
scheduled the trial to begin in December."
"Atlanta-Fulton County Library Hit with Bias Suit"
American Libraries web site, August 22, 2000. See also American
Libraries, October 2000, p. 14
"Eight employees of the Atlanta-Fulton County Library filed a racial
discrimination lawsuit in federal district court August 11 against 13
members of the library board and Director Mary Kaye Hooker. The suit
alleges that the eight plaintiffs...were removed from their jobs in
the downtown branch in a May 25 reorganization targeting whites in
management positions. The 25-page lawsuit claims that the job
shuffling took place after board Chairman William McClure toured the
central library and stated that 'There are too many old, white women'
managers and that the board needed 'to get rid of them.'..."
"Atlanta Librarians File Bias Suit"
Library Journal web site, August 21, 2000.
"Diversity Debacle: Fulton Targets Whites (Again)
[with Mass Transfer of Central Library Employees]"
[Editorial] Creative Loafing, August 26, 2000.
A blockbuster civil rights lawsuit filed earlier this month has ripped the lid off an egregious
case of racial and sexual discrimination by officials at the Atlanta-Fulton County Library
System. On May 25, eight librarians were abruptly reassigned and demoted in a bizarre
effort by library board Chairman William McClure, system Director Mary Hooker and others
to impose diversity at the Central Library by, as the lawsuit quotes McClure, "get[ting] rid
of all the old, white women."
Seven of the eight librarians were shipped out because they are white women. Another
librarian, a black woman, was also reassigned when she objected to plans to remove her
colleagues on the basis of race and gender.
On Aug. 11, the eight women filed suit, charging McClure, Hooker and the entire library
board with violating the white plaintiffs' 14th Amendment equal protection guarantees,
and the black plaintiff's First Amendment right to free speech.
McClure has denied the charges, telling the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the plaintiffs
were not reassigned based on race and describing the reorganization as "a business
decision." But CL's review of the case files makes it clear that -- assuming there's any
justice left in the American legal system's strange hall of mirrors -- the defendants will be
hard pressed to refute the damning evidence against them.
Concerned about the racial mix at the downtown branch, the board late last year told
Hooker to create a system-wide list compiling the race, gender and job level of all
managers and administrators. Hooker's Jan. 4 list found, among the system's 44 managers,
26 black females, 13 white females, four white males and one black male. (The breakdown
was similar for administrators.)
On Jan. 6, according to board meeting minutes, Vice-Chair Mary Ward spoke of the
"problem [of] a white dominated administration" at Central. In a letter attached to the
lawsuit, a former board member recalls Ward saying, at a meeting early this year, "There
are too many white faces in management at the Central Library." McClure wanted
something done.
While Hooker had compiled the racial tally sheet in January, by spring she appears to
have become concerned about possible legal fallout from reshuffling librarians along racial
lines. In an April 13 memo, she urges McClure to "refrain from advancing the
reorganization," warning of possibly "significant legal ramifications."
On the same day, Hooker sent board members three newspaper articles detailing several
reverse-discrimination cases against Fulton, including successful bias complaints by a
white firefighter, a white deputy county manager and a group of white sheriff's deputies.
(In 1998, the county paid $500,000 just to settle the firefighter's complaint.)
Hooker forwarded the news clips with a simple "for your information," but her intent seems
clear. Without directly contradicting McClure, she wanted to dissuade the board from
precipitously reorganizing the Central Library -- and adding yet another chapter to
Fulton's growing reverse-discrimination saga.
A day later, on April 14, Hooker called County Attorney June Green for an opinion. Green
did not mince words in a reply memo: "The reorganization that has been proposed by the
[board] will likely violate Fulton County Personnel Policies and Procedures."
None of this, it seems, mattered to McClure, who wanted the white women out of Central
-- no ifs, ands, buts, county policies or constitutional niceties about it. In an April 17
letter, he ordered Hooker to proceed "in accordance with the timeline you established of
April 2000." Six weeks later, the dirty business was done, the offending white faces
scattered far and wide in branch libraries across the county.
While it is all well and good to celebrate America's diversity, it is something wholly
different and profoundly sinister to assign people to jobs based on race and gender in the
name of diversity. Such schemes are anathema to the American system -- and they are
unconstitutional.
The next time some pathetic, power-drunk board of public functionaries considers
imposing diversity by decree, it would do well to listen to itself in Technicolor. Perhaps
someday the very idea of complaining about "too many" whites or blacks or Hispanics will
be foreign to us. Until then, there are the courts.
"Revenge of the Librarians"
[Summary of the week's local news headlines] Creative Loafing,
August 19, 2000, p. 17.
"New-Look Library Leaves Some Searching"
Creative Loafing, August 12, 2000, p. 22.
"Atlanta Librarians File Federal Bias Suit"
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 12, 2000, p. H1.
"[Roswell Legislative Representative] Campbell Seeks Library [Board]Reform:
Offers Reduction in Board Number to Fulton Legislative Caucus"
Alpharetta-Roswell News & Revue, January 27, 2000
As the 2000 state legislative session gets under way, state Rep. Tom
Campbell (R-Roswell) has prepared a bill to reduce the makeup of the
Atlanta Fulton County Library System Board of Trustees.
When the Atlanta and Fulton County library systems merged, the resulting
Board of Trustees was created by what is called an act of local legislation.
Acts of local legislation give local laws and other legislative acts the
strength of state-level incorporation but are passed as a courtesy to the
members of local district or districts affected.
Thus such a bill as Campbell’s will pass only if it has the support of the
majority of the Republican and Democratic members of the Fulton
legislative delegation.
Campbell said he thought his bill, which would reduce the membership from
17 to seven trustees, with each appointed by one county commissioner, had
a chance at passage.
"This will at least get the ball rolling,” Campbell said. "The current
set-up [of the library board] is unwieldy and should be changed. This will
begin the process to do that.”
Campbell said he hasn’t "shopped” the bill to other members to get their
reaction, but he said he will take the bill to state Rep. Billy McKinney
begin negotiations.
Campbell said there is plenty of evidence that a change is called for. He
cited the library’s own management audit by DMG Maximus which found the
current makeup of the board inefficient and not representative of the
geographic population. Last summer the mayors of the cities of Fulton
County (Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell was not present) voted unanimously to
support a resolution calling for reform of the library board. Finally, a
blue ribbon commission made up of former library board chairpersons came
to the same conclusion, that the library board number be reduced and its
representation be drawn more broadly.
"What has changed is the credibility of the County Commission,” Campbell
said.
The county commissioners voted unanimously in December to support its own
resolution calling for legislative delegation to look at the issue. The
commissioners avoided recommending a certain number for the library board,
leaving that to the state legislators. But it is clear they recognize the
need to reform the library board as well, Campbell said....
"Time Has Come to Reform Library Board's 'Excessive
Bureaucracy'"
[Letter to the Editor by Donna A. Brassell] Alpharetta-Roswell
Revue & News, January 18, 2000.
"Library Board Draws Fire on Representation Issue"
Alpharetta-Roswell Revue & News, January 5, 2000
In the face of overwhelming evidence, the Fulton County Board of
Commissioners agreed the make-up of the county library board should be
examined.
During the last year, the Atlanta-Fulton County Library Board of Trustees
drew fire from several municipalities for allegedly stacking the board
with Atlanta residents, and thus making lop-sided decisions which affect
North Fulton residents.
In February, nine city mayors in Fulton County unanimously agreed to send
a resolution to the Fulton County Board of Commissioners calling for
fairer representation on the 17-member Library Board of Trustees.
Conspicuously absent was Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell.
The Board of Trustees have 12 appointed members and another five the board
elects itself. As a result, the majority of trustees live within the
Atlanta city limits.
The Fulton County Board of Commissioners empaneled a blue ribbon committee
made up of former board trustees to study the board’s makeup and it
recommended paring down the 17-member board which many say is unwieldy and
marked by factionalism.
Fulton County Commissioners then asked the Fulton delegation to the state
legislature to create a joint taskforce to study the issue. It also asked
that the library director come under the authority of the county manager,
who would have the sole authority to appoint or remove the director.
Ultimately, the issue will go to the Fulton County delegation of the
General Assembly, because it will require an act by the legislature to
make any changes in the way the Library Board is configured. It was such
an act that created the original board about 20 years ago that united an
ailing Atlanta Library System with that of Fulton County.
In addition to mayoral and county commission support, and study by the
state legislative delegation, an independent study of the Atlanta-Fulton
County Library System (AFLS) has reported the present 17-member Board of
Trustees should be reduced to seven members to make it more efficient and
more representative of the county’s residents.
Supporters of a smaller board welcomed the report from DMG-Maximus as
vindication that the present board is too Atlanta-centric and meddles too
much in the day-to-day operations of the library system.
The audit stated a smaller board of seven members matching the districts
of the Board of Commissioners would be more efficient and geographically
representative.
For years, North Fulton residents have said the area does not get its
share of resources in a system where most libraries are inside the Atlanta
city limits. But Commissioner Emma Darnell, who also serves on the library
board, said she would not be a party to improving services in
predominately white suburbs at the cost of services to city libraries with
predominately black patrons.
The board has openly squabbled with its past director and interim director,
and a petition of library staff has supported charges that the library
board is too involved with trying to manage the system rather than set
policy for the professional staff to implement.
Julie V. Hunter resigned in disgust in 1998 over repeated "micro-managing”
by the trustees and their insistence on having a say in running day-to-day
affairs of the library system.
Then the trustees did not renew the contract with its interim library
director, Ella Gaines Yates, when she made many of the same allegations.
Click here to read headlines and/or the texts of news stories about the library system that were published in 1999.
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