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Home Table of Contents Frequently Asked Questions Contact Us In the News--Again! 2001 "Atlanta-Fulton Bias Suit On: Appeals Court Judge Okays Legal Action by Eight Relocated Librarians" Library Journal, November 1, 2001, page 20 "A sex and race discrimination suit filed by eight female librarians against the Atlanta Fulton Public Library in August 2000 has been green-lighted by the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, with Judge Beverly Martin slotting the suit for a December trial. The plaintiffs claim they were illegally demoted and reassigned from the downtown branch to achieve 'racial equity.'...Plaintiff Maureen Kelly told Library Journal that...the...librarians...'just want to get our jobs back.' Although monetary compensation, including legal fees, is also a factor in the suit, she insists that the 'primary purpose is to regain our former positions.' Regarding the library's ongoing problems, Kelly said simply, 'It's a mess. Part of the reason we chose to fight is because ours is only one symptom of a larger issue: what the Board of Trustees is doing to what should be a major Atlanta cultural institution and the arrogance to think that they could demote and move us just because of our race.' [Former Board chair William] McClure reportedly was asked to leave [the Board by the county commissioner who succeeded the commissioner who appointed McClure] but refused. 'It's a large board,' Kelly said, 'and each of them has a certain fiefdom - ...so there are many constituencies and that is part of the problem.' She asserts that even Fulton County officials are unable 'to define what the line of [the board's] authority is, and that's why we're in court.' Kelly claims that the board micromanages to the extent that members go into personnel files and approve part-time appointments. Library officials could not be reached for comment." Blue Ribbon Panel to Streamline Library Board Library Board of Trustees Under Fire Alpharetta News & Revue, October 19, 2001 The Atlanta-Fulton County Library Board of Trustees has come under fire recently as being autocratic, inefficient, unwieldy and plagued by racial and geographic squabbling, now a seven- member blue ribbon panel has been empowered to get on the fast track to streamline the board of trustees and improve its efficiency. The Fulton County Board of Commissioners voted 5-1 Dec. 16 to create the Atlanta/Fulton County Library Study Commission which will study state and local legislation concerning the library system and look for ways to provide for "the smooth and efficient operation of the library system." Each of the seven commissioners will appoint one member to the study commission. It will then make its recommendations to the Board of Commissioners on Jan. 19. Fulton Chairman Mitch Skandalakis had called for the creation of such a study commission in the wake of the resignation of two members of the Library Board of Trustees charging the 17-member Board of Trustees was rife with inefficiency and internecine politics that was paralyzing the board`s ability to carry out its duties. Coupled with a blunt and detailed letter to the Board of Trustees from the library system`s new director, Julie V. Hunter, detailing how the trustees` "micro-management" of the day-to-day affairs cripples her efforts, Skandalakis said it was time the board was overhauled. State Rep. Mark Burkhalter, who was preparing to introduce his own legislation to revamp the library board, said the board is a patchwork cobbled together as it continues to grow, now to 17 members. "It needs to be cut down to a workable size," Burkhalter said. The study commission has been put on a fast track so that it can get recommendations back to the County Commission in time to introduce legislation in the 1998 session of the General Assembly. The study commission itself will dissolve Jan. 30, 1998. It is important to note that five commissioners, Skandalakis, Bob Fulton, Gordon Joyner, Michael Hightower and Tom Lowe, supported the resolution to create the study commission. Nancy Boxill voted against it and Emma Darnell was absent. Without a broad consensus on the commissioners it is unlikely Fulton County`s legislative delegation would support any recommendations to change the composition of the library board, and many observers say it will still be an uphill battle to make any changes. "It`s step in the right direction," said Susan Ducker, president of the Friends of the Spruill Oaks Northeast Regional Library. "We need to get back to the whole issue of letting the library director conduct business, and let the board set the policy." "Fulton's Bias Suit Costs Rise" Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 20, 2001 "Fulton County paid out $625,000 in legal fees this week to a law firm that won a discrimination verdict for 15 white deputies who sued the Sheriff's Department in 1993. The payment brings the county's total for a case it could have settled for as little as $400,000....In September, a federal judge ordered Fulton to pay $1.1 million in legal fees in a case that stemmed from the county's refusal to award a $2,500 landscaping contract to the low bidder because he is white. That lawsuit led to the dismantling of the county's affirmative action program. The county is currently defending a federal lawsuit filed by white employees of the library system who claim they have been discriminated against in a reorganization of the downtown Central Library." "Library's Lost Luster: Twenty Years of Decay and Obsolescence Has Siphoned Central's Cultural Swagger" Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 11, 2001, page G1, G6 "...Atlanta's [Central Library] problems are complicated by a library board of trustees whose bickering and alleged micromanagement are well known in the national library community. The system has had four directors in five years...." "Consider the Source..." Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 8, 2001, page J-1 "Library Board member Bill McClure defended himself last week against allegations of micromanagement during his tenure as chairman of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library Board of Trustees. McClure, of East Point, has been asked to resign from the Board by County Commissioner Bill Edwards, who wants to make his own appointments to county boards....At the Library Board's February meeting, McClure said he would fulfill his term no matter what pressures were brought against him to step down. The former chairman...called County Commissioner Bob Fulton on the carpet for saying [in an article in the Journal-Constitution that] McClure should resign for micromanagment. Fulton, [also] a member of the Library Board, deflected McClure's accusations without denying the quote by saying McClure shouldn't rely on what he reads in the press." "Board Members Buck Call for Resignations" Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 3, 2001. "A majority of appointees of former Fulton County Commissioner Michael Hightower--who is serving a prison sentence for accepting bribes--refuse to vacate their posts at the request of the new commissioner....William McClure, immediate past chair of the Atlanta-Fulton Library Board of Trustees,...said he will not resign... despite numerous complaints that the library board micromanages the library system and the departure of three library system directors in less than five years. McClure also has been named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by eight library employees accusing the library system and its trustees with discrimination for moving the women to achieve 'racial equity.'..." "Atlanta Suit Delayed a Year" Library Journal, February 1, 2001, pp. 18-20. "Eight librarians at the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System who filed a race discrimination case will not see a trial soon. A U.S. District Court ruling delayed the case because Fulton County will argue a claim before an appeals court that its library trustees have immunity. The appeal may delay the trial for a year...." "New Chair Takes Over Embattled Atlanta Library Board" American Libraries web site, "News for January 29, 2001." "Clint Johnson...will face a major challenge in improving the board's image in the midst of a racial discrimination lawsuit by white employees who allege that they were targeted in a mandated reorganization." "Northsider Johnson Picked for Library [Board] Chair" Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 25, 2001 "...A major challenge ahead: improving the Board's image in the wake of a federal lawsuit filed by employees who say they were reassigned for racial reasons. Johnson must also contend with persistent accusations that the board meddles in the system's day-to-day affairs rather than just setting policy...." Ocee Library Funding Comes Grudgingly Boxill Grouses over North Fulton Library, Has 13 in Her District Alpharetta News & Revue, January 23, 2001 The Ocee regional library received final funding for construction, but the $6.5 million regional library has been fought tooth and nail by the commissioner with the most libraries in her district. Sixth District Commissioner Nancy Boxill complained at the Jan. 17 commission meeting that the Ocee library is being rushed through the Capital Improvements budget while the senior $8 million senior multipurpose center in her district has taken much longer. Both are scheduled to open in 2002. "There are many seniors in my district wish this facility were on a fast track. I don’t know how to get my district as quickly served,” Boxill said. Boxill said she wanted to know how an "unplanned library” can get approved and opened so quickly while it took three years to plan the multipurpose senior center in her district. She called the Ocee library’s approval "unconscionable,” although the funding and planning of senior centers are in no way tied to the planning of libraries. Curiously, Boxill’s district has the most libraries (13) and the most square feet (327,431) of any district, while at 21,751 acres her district is the smallest. By comparison, District 3 which is comprises North Fulton is the largest district (150,110 acres) and has the highest population of any Fulton County district yet it has only three libraries totaling 55,000 square feet. "I don’t understand the opposition to this library,” said District 3 Commissioner Bob Fulton. "This library will serve 65,000 people who are not served by any library now – and will be 85,000 people by the time it is open.” Fulton pointed out the population of all of Boxill’s District Six is about 65,000 as well. "It is completely false that this library was unplanned. The need for a library in the Ocee area was identified in 1997, and funding first put in the budget in 1998. But then it was taken out due to a shortage of funds, just as Boxill’s senior center funding was deleted and later put back in,” Fulton said. "But I wouldn’t call identifying a need for Ocee library in 1997 and getting open five years later – if it stays on schedule – a fast-track project.” Boxill also criticized the location, saying it would serve Gwinnett residents more "because that is what it is near.” The former president of the Friends of Northeast Spruill Oaks Library, Susan Ducker, found that comment particularly ironic. She noted that many North Fulton residents west of Ga. 400 have paid a $30 surcharge to carry Gwinnett library cards because of the dearth of library services in their own county. "We would just like to see libraries open of a sufficient size and hours of operation so our children can get work done for school without going to several different places,” Ducker said. Commissioner Fulton said Ocee library has been a political football in the fight for budget dollars. "Fundamentally, it is always a political fight to build anything in North Fulton,” Fulton said. "Library Board Continues as Hindrance to Good System" [Editorial] Alpharetta/Roswell Revue & News, January 9, 2001 The racial discrimination lawsuit against the Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library System Board of Trustees is just the latest in what has become a long line of controversies surrounding the library board. It appears eight white library managers were transferred out of the central branch to work in branch libraries. These eight managers allege in a case of reverse discrimination that race was the real reason behind their transfers. All of the eight women had responsible jobs at the central library in Atlanta, but they have since been transferred to less meaningful jobs in the branch libraries. Where they had once held well-defined supervisory posts, some are now reduced to just shelving books. That’s quite a lot of salary tied up not to be doing more than that. The library board and the director vehemently deny any racial discrimination. They say the transfers were made to get these supervisors’ expertise into the branch libraries. Race was never a consideration, the board members say. They decline to go into any detail about their actions due to the pending litigation and on advice of the county attorney’s office. Well, that may be. But once this gets into court, they will have to answer to some pretty damning charges. For instance, in the board’s own minutes, under the heading of "Branch and Unit Management by Race,” is mentioned a document by that same title. Why would such an inquiry be made in the first place? Further on in the minutes, board member Mary Ward – who was not reappointed in January – said she "did not know the point of comparing total amount of staff.” It seems there is a 2-to-1 ratio of black supervisors to whites in the library system. Ward zeroed in on the staff at the Central Library, which, according to the minutes, she described as "a white dominated administration.” Then-board chairman Bill McClure noted the library system has no non-African American American branch managers south of Atlanta’s Five Points. He claimed that situation has "essentially created two separate systems.” Is the race of the branch manager really such a major concern? Most of the branch managers are black, yet the library board has spent a lot of time and effort – and gotten slapped with a lawsuit in the bargain – worrying over the precise racial makeup of the Central Library. Is this what the library board should be devoting its time to? Reverse the races of the people involved. Wouldn’t there be a hue and cry raised if eight black supervisors had been transferred from their positions to ones of clearly inferior responsibilities solely because of their race? That would have made the front page and the six o’clock news. But since it is eight white women, most local news outlets have let it pass without much of a murmur. A judge will ultimately decide if the board crossed the line. The move is indicative of the type of micro-management this board has been guilty of for years. Personnel decisions are rightfully the duty of the library director to make. But the library board continues to usurp that power as a way to hold sway over the entire system. Meanwhile, the board has shown a continued propensity to study needed actions to death. Look at the library system’s opportunity to leverage its dollars three-to-one to get the entire system hooked up on the Internet through a government grant. The only stipulation the federal grant made was, bid out the work via the Internet. The board didn’t think that gave minorities a fair chance to bid, and the window of opportunity went by unused. That has been more or less typical of the board’s actions. The board has fired its last two directors, both highly respected in this community, because they stood up to the board and tried to do job they were hired to do. Meanwhile, the board continues to dither while the library system gets further and further behind. A blue-ribbon panel of former library board chairs made a study in 1998 and recommended the 17-member board be reduced to a more wieldy number. In 1999, the Fulton Board of Commissioners bowed to public pressure and had a study done of the library system. Again the recommendation came back that the board’s numbers be reduced. In response to that, the Board of Commissioners unanimously petitioned the Legislature to amend the legislation that created this board, which has been amended three times since 1984. Each time, more members were added to deal with a perceived lack of representation, growing from 14 members to 17. But last year, the local delegation let the bill that would reorganize the library board languish in committee. It would behoove county and legislative elected officials to resurrect that legislation. The library system is one of the most important institutions supported by our taxpayers. It needs to be an institution in which the people have confidence. That is not the case now. "Discrimination Charged: More Woes following Troubled Library Board" Alpharetta/Roswell Revue & News, January 9, 2001 "In a case of reverse discrimination, eight white women, all supervisors at the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System's Central Library, have filed a federal lawsuit for undisclosed damages alleging they were transferred and demoted from their positions solely based on their race." Click here to read headlines and/or the texts of news stories about the library system that were published in 2000. Home Table of Contents Frequently Asked Questions Contact Us