A number of Pawlet, Vermont residents are upset with the Library Board for abruptly firing the library director and are calling for her reinstatement.
On November 7th, then Pawlet Library Director Lyndsi Barnes received an email from the Board of Trustees notifying her she had been fired.
“They haven’t said anything to me since this has happened," said Barnes. "I was informed of my dismissal by email. And in the email they said that they had voted no confidence in the director, library director, and that further I was dismissed effective immediately. So that’s the only...only thing that I’ve heard about this situation from the library Board of Trustees.”
Barnes was the library’s first professional director. She previously worked at the New York Public Library, leaving her post there during the pandemic to move to Vermont.
Community members are perplexed over her termination and expressed frustrations at a Town Selectboard meeting Tuesday. Barbara O’Connor is curious about the abrupt move by the library board.
“Lindsi apparently got the support of the whole library board to get a 10 percent increase a week before she was let go," O'Connor noted. "What happened during that week? Nobody seems to know. I’m baffled and I think Lyndsi needs to be reinstated as our librarian.”
Resident Martin Kravitt noted that he had once served on the library board.
“I had heard that the library Board of Trustees has already started soliciting resumes for replacement for Lyndsi," reported Kravitt. "I would like that to be put on hold for the time being until this matter is fully explained to the full satisfaction of the town and the residents. Because I can tell you right now that there are an awful lot of residents that are very angry about this.”
Pawlet resident Aaron Levine is part of a community group that has formed to advocate for Barnes’ reinstatement. He is also her partner.
“There seems to be no oversight or no transparency for this library Board of Trustees," said Levine. "They’re not accountable in any way and it seems this dismissal was totally arbitrary. I’m still confounded as to why she was dismissed. They still haven’t made it public in any formal or officious way.”
In September 2013 the trustees of the Rockingham Free Public Library fired its director, who was reinstated in May 2014 after a wrongful termination lawsuit. Writer, lecturer and advocate Elayne Clift says the Pawlet situation mirrors Rockingham.
“The vast majority of people that are speaking out on this and supporting her far, far outnumber the people who are agitating to get her off the board," said Clift. "They are following the process that we used here. It’s completely the same. It’s an unjustified, arbitrary, nasty removal with no explanation.”
In an email response to WAMC on Friday Pawlet Library Board of Trustees chair Harley Cudley says he appreciates being asked for comment but “.... at this time I have been counseled to not speak directly about this personnel matter. What I can tell you is the Pawlet Library Board of Trustees had immediate and pressing concerns with the former library director, and Ms. Barnes would not cooperate with selecting a meeting time to discuss these concerns. When a meeting time was chosen by two board members and communicated to her, she did not show up. She was also not in attendance at the monthly library board meeting the following week where the trustees voted no confidence. Municipal libraries in Vermont are set up such that the board of trustees are responsible for hiring, working with the library director, and supervision—up to and including dismissal. Specifically, according to our library bylaws, the board chair is the liaison to the library director. An unwillingness to meet with the board chair and another member of the board makes this responsibility impossible to fulfill.”
