Library Trustees and the Kentucky Revised Statutes

SELECTED STATE LAWS AFFECTING TRUSTEES

Open Meetings Act and Open Records Act:

KRS 61.800-61.850 Library board meetings must be open to the public except in certain specific instances. Exceptions to open meetings applicable to library boards are:

1. (b) deliberations on the buying or selling of real property;
1. (c) discussion of proposed or pending litigation against or on behalf of the board;
1. (f) “discussions or hearings which might lead to the appointment, discipline, or dismissal of an individual employee, without restricting that employee’s right to a public hearing if requested.”
(This exception shall not be interpreted to permit discussion of general personnel matters in secret.)

[When going into closed session, the board must state for the record the KRS citation; therefore the exact subsections are listed. Example: KRS 61.810, Section 1, subsection f, to discuss a personnel issue.]

Kentucky Public Library Trustee Manual, 2009
Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives http://www.kdla.ky.gov/

NOTE: What is the penalty if the Board disregards these laws? I have written KDLA and apparently they can do nothing. The only recourse is a lawsuit. At the meeting I attended the Board went into executive session without stating the K. R. S. citation; or, if so, it was done in a voice so low I could not hear it. There were other irregularities that will be discussed later, but it is important to note that there is no one there to tell them how to conduct the meetings, and their lawyer does not know.

Dispute Resolution: Letter to the Board by James Duvall, M. A.

Request for Immediate Attention
to a Dispute Resolution

8 September 2009

Board of Trustees Boone County Public Library
Alice Ryle, President

In July I wrote a letter to Cindy Brown, former director of the Library in an attempt to resolve a dispute with my supervisor, Bridget Striker. This is in accordance with the procedure outlined in the handbook. After waiting for several weeks Cindy and I had a three-hour meeting in which we made a list of issues concerning publication of The Annals of Boone County, the project I have been working on for the last two years. Cindy said that finishing this project was important to the library, and she said she would start the process to have these issues resolved.

Cindy was not able to meet with any of us during the week following, and apparently turned over all paperwork to human resources just before she left. Instead of attempting to address the issues that Cindy and I agreed were important, Bridget began a pre-termination procedure, and scrapped my project, telling me I could complete it on my own time. What she has done instead is to re-name the project, with herself in charge, and is insisting that I work on this project to her specifications, with the explicitly stated threat of termination if at any time she is unsatisfied with my performance or behavior as a "team player." There are many problems with this arrangement.

Last Thursday Bridget told me she was renaming the project because of her concern about intellectual property issues, and she was changing the name of the project to the Chronicles of Boone County. Her project, besides having a copy-cat name, retains my ideas as outlined in my original proposal to Cindy Brown, and the bulk of its content is material that I wrote and collected for the Boone Encyclopedia, a project I began on my own time and initiative before I was hired to work on the Annals. I did not authorize use of my material for her new project. Giving something a new and similar name does not change its origin. The content that Bridget added herself is inaccurate in many respects; I provided Cindy with documentation of incorrect historical statements, and this was one of the issues that Cindy considered important for us to address in future meetings.

I am asking the Board to request and review the documentation from both sides, and make an impartial decision, which is the next step outlined in the employee handbook. I am also requesting a copy of the list of items that Cindy and I discussed, which is in the file she placed with human resources, and which I have unsuccessfully requested twice. The items on this list are the real issues at stake.

Two years ago I began working on the Annals, answering directly to Cindy; within the last year I was placed in Bridget's department for administrative purposes: she signs my timecard, but otherwise I have always been able to pursue the project, and have completed the first three decades of the material, and many other projects, such as the Mary Ingles book, working independently. Now Bridget has ordered me to take home all material for the Annals, and to begin working on her Chronicles project, under her direct and daily supervision, which began without warning this week. This new direction appears to be designed to ensure that her pre-termination policy can be fully implemented. I am requesting the Board to remove me from her direct supervision until a final determination can be made.
Sincerely,

James Duvall

cc: Greta Southard, Director
Boone County Public Library

BCPL Library Board: An Accusation of Bad Faith

22 September 2009

Ms. Elliston:

You refer to my presentation of 17 September as a hearing, but it was not the hearing I was entitled to by law, which should have taken place prior to dismissal. I had requested the hearing from Mrs. Ryle, both on the telephone, and at the email address she provided me, while still an employee, and her statement merely proves that this is not the required hearing, which should have been requested by Cindy Brown within thirty-five days of my initial contact with her. That hearing did not take place, due to the Library's negligence. The meeting of 17 September was a hearing only in a formal sense e.g., "Administrative law. Any setting in which an affected person presents arguments to an agency decision-maker." (Black's Law, ed. 8. p. 737) However, it was not a hearing to settle the dipute with my supervisor, as set forth in the employee handbook.

If further evidence that this was not the hearing to which I was entitled were needed, Ms. Southard's e-mail invitation on 16 September referred to the session as a "presentation", and says nothing about a hearing. I would have prepared quite differently in such a case, and would certainly have protested the ten-minute limit, as well as the short amount of time in which I had to prepare for it. I read a statement which ended with a plea for a hearing in accordance with the employee manual and public policy. If the Board considered my address to be the hearing, they were obligated to apprise me of that during the session.

Your claim that this was the hearing to which I was entitled, to make it appear that the Board had fufilled its obligation, could be construed as evidence of bad faith in any further proceedings. Good faith is "absence of intent to defraud or to seek unconscionable advantage." (Black's Law, ed. 8. p. 713) I certainly understood this as a chance to request a hearing to resolve the dispute on a work-related issue, and used the time to present relevant information, and request such a hearing be granted.

It appears from the several interruptions of Mrs. Ryle indicating that my prepared statement was irrelevant, and the sarcastic remarks of Ms. Goetting at the end, showing her displeasure with my even being there, it may be impossible for me to get a fair hearing from this Board, and that the offer itself was made in bad faith. As you may be aware, good faith is the standard of public policy.

I am requesting a copy of the written statement read by Ms. Southard after my presentation.

Sincerely,

James Duvall, M. A.

Boone County Public Library Board Meeting. re: The Firing of James Duvall, M. A.

18 Sep 2009

Letter to a Friend,

I am happy to answer your question. I have dozens of documents relating to this. I just can't get anyone to read them. I was able to meet with the Board at their meeting last night and give them a ten minute presentation. Cindy Brown was there and attempted to orchestrate it, but not with great success. I was interupted twice by the President, Alice Ryle, probably on her instructions, to say that talking about what happened prior to 1 September was a waste of their time. I was able to convince them that they should hear me out, and to read my entire statement. The new director, Greta, gave a statement as to why she had fired me on her third day, which is that I had refused to work with my supervisor, Bridget Striker. They will not pursue the question of why I don't want to work with her, only that I must or be fired.

I am still pursuing this, and my greatest concern is that other employees of the library will think I was involved in some wrong doing. Unless they manufacture this, by placing something incriminating among the books and papers I still have there, I can assure you there is nothing of the kind. I requested a Hearing from the Board for a resolution of a work related dispute between two employees, which according to the Employee Handbook (2-18) is a process to which I am entitled. Getting that Hearing was what my presentation was all about. Two of the members listened intently, two acted like it was a waste of their time, especially Pam Goetting, who made several smart aleck remarks. They did not say they will grant the Hearing, and if they do not our next stop will be the Fiscal Court, who meet next Tuesday evening.

I have attached a copy of the letter I sent to Ms. Ryle requesting the Hearing. She stated she was not granting that request, but that I was there at their invitation; I am uncertain for the reasons for this distinction. My email has been suspended and I would like to have access to a few more of my letters, and also files of correspondence I have there. I have paper copies of all essential documents and am going to try to get them scanned and made into pdf documents so I can begin sending the whole series to where they need to go. I will be glad to send you anything else you would like to see, and please assure anyone interested that I am trying to get my job back and hope justice will be done.

I can tell you that the whole thing was a collaboration between Sherri Slavey and Bridget Striker. They presented me with a letter purporting to be a "progress improvement plan" which was a cover for Bridget's attempt to take away my project. She had been telling people that Cindy Brown said she was not doing enough work. X. in our department told me she said this, as well as Y. I asked Cindy Brown about it at our meeting on 19 August, and Cindy said she had not said any such thing, but that the department was not publishing enough; she did not address the issue of how Bridget understood that. It seems to the the major cause of what has happened since.

The improvement plan and Bridget's subsequent agenda was designed to insure that I fail (I only have a paper copy), and included weekly meetings, close monitoring of my schedule to be sure I was productive, and video taped weekly meetings. At the big meeting we had about the project about the only positive thing that came out of the meeting was Jennifer Gregory's declaration that I had amassed so many documents and so much information that it was going to take a year to get it all online. What's unproductive about that, especially when she is accusing herself of not doing enough work. (Neither Cindy or I ever said that, so why did she jump to that conclusion so quickly; she knows what she is doing or not better than anyone else.) I do not, of course, have time to tell you everything here, and I may not be entirely clear about this, however I hope you will understand and will let people know that I may be back. I also hope to point out some major defects in the policies as I go along, as there are some things that need fixing — I hope that doesn't come as a surprise.

Thank you for your kind interest and regards.
With all best wishes,

James

Attached to this was LTR.REQ.Dispute Resolution.to Board. 8 Sep 2009.pdf

BCPL "Employee Handbook" — Page 2-18: Employee Dispute Resolution

BOONE COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY DISTRICT
PERSONNEL MANUAL

2. EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES

DISPUTE RESOLUTION

A. All employees are entitled to timely review of employee disputes. A dispute is considered to be any conflict between an employee and the library that affects an employee’s ability to do his or her job. Purely personal matters between employees would not ordinarily be subject to the dispute resolution procedure. The dispute resolution procedure encourages the informal resolution of disputes.

B. PROCEDURE

1. To encourage informal resolution, the employee should bring the dispute to the attention of his/her supervisor. No written form is required. The supervisor and employee will discuss the dispute and determine a plan to resolve it. The dispute should be raised within thirty days following the event/circumstances leading to it.

2. If Step 1 is not successful or if the dispute is with the employee’s supervisor, a written statement of the dispute should be submitted to the Director. The Director will meet with the staff members involved to discuss the dispute and determine a plan to resolve it. This step should be initiated no more than thirty-five days following the event/circumstances.

3. If no mutuallyacceptable resolution is reached in Steps 1 or 2, a copy of the written statement and a written report from the Director will be submitted to the Board of Trustees. A hearing will be granted to the employee at the next regularly scheduled Board meeting or a special meeting may be called. Within one week of the meeting, the Board will notify in writing the Director and all parties involved of its decision.

12/86
Revised 8/92
Revised 10/99
Reviewed 6/07

2-18

Request for a Dispute Resolution from Director Cindy Brown

24 July 2009

Lucinda Brown, Director

Boone County Public Library

Cindy

I am sending the following notes for a meeting I thought would take place weeks ago. I am disturbed at the direction our project has taken in the last month or so, and I think you should become aware of the problems before it is too late to act in an effective manner. It may take the new director months to figure out what we were supposed to be doing, and what went wrong.

I was under the impression the project (after weeks of semi-secrecy) was being turned over to me to complete, so I began the next afternoon, a Friday (in the two hours I had before I went on the desk for the evening), by adding 99 new pages. I completed some of them, intending add the text to the rest on Monday. Monday I found myself locked out of the project. Bridget said I had changed the structure of the wiki "behind her back", etc. (I pointed out that it would have been senseless to think I was doing anything behind her back, since I knew she would be in Monday morning.) She decided she did not want me to add any pages, as she disapproved of the structure I have been developing for the last two years for the page tags. She said I could edit her pages, but not add any of my own. That I said would cause nothing but trouble, and predicted that if the current direction was continued that whole thing would become a nightmare very soon. I offered to resign from the project, so then she decided that I would only supply "content" (a word to watch), and she would edit everything.

I do not think this is a good resolution to the difficulty, for reasons that should become apparent below, but I thought it was a good tenative solution until we could have a meeting. Time is now slipping away. I tried to cooperate by sending her a great deal of material. I sent her that week 150 items, some things short notes, some long papers (I sent you documentation that I supplied these items), as well as additional essays and papers in the period following. There should have been enough material there for at least 500 entries in the wiki, but I have not noticed any appreciable addition since then. I cannot at this point promise you that the Annals of Boone County will ever appear in anything like the form we initially agree on if the current rate and kind of progress continues. I think this is explained sufficiently in the essay I drafted, which appears below. I hope it will be clear that I have thought this over well, and hope that the project can take a new direction.

You can well understand that I do not wish to go head to head with Bridget. Since I am now fully at the mercy of this department I do not wish to aggravate any problems here. However, I think that there will be nothing but problems if I am locked out of the project, when I proposed it, and am supposed to be responsible for its ultimate success. I see now that she proposes to be the editor, but she does not understand how the material fits together. I know how it fits, but I cannot hand someone else the pieces and hope they get things right. It will never do for me to be constantly standing over her shoulder pointing out yet another mistake, or stylistic misjudgment, or . . . anything at all! I am not happy with what is there now; I think it can only get worse; but, I have a proposal for constructive changes that should make everyone happy. So please consider carefully the following, which I have also attached as a pdf document, so that you may print it, and consider it carefully, if you will.

James Duvall, M. A.
Local History Research Specialist
Annals of Boone County
Boone County Public Library
1786 Burlington Pk.
Burlington, Kentucky 41005
859-342-2665

Note: Attached to this letter was a 14 page essay outlining the importance of the structure of the material, and the problems with the direction it was being taken by Bridget Striker and Jennifer Gregory, who had assumed editorship. This document will be posted else where, and a link established.

James Duvall, M. A.
Big Bone University
Nec ossa solum, sed etiam sanguinem.

A Defamatory Document

Performance Improvement Plan

To: James K. Duvall
From: Bridget Striker
Date; 1 September 2009
Subject: Performance Improvement Plan

During the past two months, it has become increasingly evident to me that you have not been performing your assigned work in accordance with what is expected of a Local History Associate. On July 6, you were coached about your unacceptable behavior within a team environment. BCPL values you as an employee, and it is my intent to make you fully aware of this situation and to assist you in improving your work performance. However, it is important that you realize the responsibility to improve is yours alone. The Local History Department functions as a team, where all staff members are as equally valuable to the department within their assigned roles. It is expected that all staff members treat one another with common courtesy and professional respect. To that end, you are being placed on a written improvement plan. For the next 60 days to October 31, 2009, your work will be closely monitored by me. You must demonstrate immediate improvement in the following areas: A cooperative attitude is necessary in a team environment to promote successful interactions. You must maintain a professional demeanor in the workplace that exemplifies a team attitude, whether in a meeting or with one to one interaction. Your behavior needs to show professional respect to all staff members regardless of their education or skill set. In addition, develop communication skills to both give and recieve productive discussions that demonstrate goodwill. I will review your progress on each of the above behaviors requiring improvement on an ongoing basis and at weekly HAT meetings. I trust in so doing, I can guide you into becoming a contributing employee of BCPL. Improvement must occur immediately and must be maintained. If any portion of this improvement plan is violated at any time during the specified timeframe, disciplinary action to include separation from the organization may occur. A decrease in performance after successfully completing the improvement plan may result in being dismissed from Boone County Public Library without the issuance of another warning or improvement plan. As always, we are available for you to discuss any concerns.

Your signature acknowledges this discussion. It does not indicate agreement or disagreement with this plan.

Employee Signature: [Not signed]

Bridget Striker Supervisor Signature [Signed] 9/3/2009

Sherri Slavey HR Manager Signature [Signed] 9/3/09

Typed from the paper copy provided by Sherri Slavey on 3 September 2009.

Firing of James Duvall, M. A. to the Board of Trustees

Presentation to Board of Trustees

Boone County Public Library
In Executive Session
Concerning the Firing of James Duvall, M. A.
Local History Research Specialist
17 September 2009

Members of the Board of Trustees,

I have been invited here this evening to tell you about a work-related dispute I had with my supervisor, Bridget Striker, the Local History Librarian.

For the last two years I have been working on a special project for the library called the Annals of Boone County. I originated this project based on historical research I had been doing on my own concerning Boone County history. As I began researching the history of the county it became obvious to me that there was a basic lack of original documentation accessible to the average person. Except for vague statements in various second-hand books and articles, it was impossible to answer some of the most basic questions about our earliest history.

The Annals of Boone County was written and submitted as a proposal to Lucinda Brown in March 2007. The aim of the project was to publish ...

[At this point I was interrupted by the President of the Board, Alice Ryle, and told that the Board was not there to hear about the Annals of Boone County, but to hear what I had to say about the "improvement plan" the library had in place. I stopped and pointed out that I had not been invited to speak on any particular topic, and that everything I would say was important in the Dispute Resolution process. I said that what I had to say was not very long, that I had read it to my wife and it took eight minutes; if I could not continue with my statement I had nothing to say. There was communication between Ms. Ryle and Cindy Brown, the former director, and I was allowed to proceed. Note inserted 20 Sep 2009.]

The aim of the project was to publish the basic documents of county history; and much of the collection and transcription of these documents is done for the years between 1799, when the county was established, and 1830. This includes the Court Orders, many deeds, wills and inventories; copies of early letters, state laws relating to Boone County, maps and pictures, as well as other material such as tax records.

I announced aat the end of January that I had reached 1830 and would begin getting ready to edit and publish the material within the next couple of months. The history department, I was told at that time, was acquiring a fusion server that would hold much of the material, but it wasn't ready yet.

[I also remarked that I belived it had cost the history department $23,000 dollars, which was assented to by Ms. Brown.]

After some period of time I was also told that the department was looking into publishing the material in a wiki format, like Wikipedia. I was not convinced at the time that it would work, and it was not until June that I came to the conclusion that it would work, if the basic structure I had been developing over the last two years could be left in place.

It was this structure, that was quite simple, that Bridget objected to. She has implied in the letter she wrote 1st September that there was a loud ugly argument, which it was not. We were at her desk, there were plenty of people about, and it may have gone as long as 5 or 6 minutes. We each spoke with some warmth, but there was no escalation such as she speaks of. We parted with her saying I would supply content for the project and she would edit it. And at this point she had taken over my project, without authorization from the director.

[At this point I inquired of Cindy Brown if she had authorized Bridget to do this, and she indicated that she had not. Note added 20 Sep 2009.]

Bridget and I had no further communication on this subject until the surprise meeting 3 Sept, when she presented me with this letter. She is now calling that incident a "coaching session" because that is a required step in implementing an improvement plan.

The week following this agreement I sent her over 150 documents, large and small, as editorial content for her project, which she has since renamed.

[At this point I made some remarks about the Chronicles of Boone County, which was derived from mine, and is currently online, and some of the flaws and inaccuracies in that project, but this was vigorously objected to by Cindy Brown, and Mrs. Ryle indicated her displeasure, so I desisted and continued reading.]

I requested Cindy Brown to resolved this dispute. Bridget and Sherri Slavey said this was "going over my supervisor's head" and that this was cause for charging me with unsatisfactory performance and not working as a team member. At no time was any specific instance of performance or lack of co-operation stated or documented. Bridget failed to give me my annual review at the end of July, which would have been her best opporunity to discuss and document any alleged problem with my work or performance. I have copies of all my correspondence with her and anyone else related to the project, but I cannot find anything she asked me to do that was not done.

At the meeting with Sherri and Bridget 3rd September I pointed out that I had been working on my project on my own for two years. I had answered directly to Cindy Brown for the first year of the project; as she became busier she put me in Bridget's department as an administrative convenience. Bridget signed my time card, approved my vacation requests, and did the basic paperwork. She was officially my supervisor, but I was allowed complete freedom with regard to my project, and it remained that way until 31 August, when Cindy Brown left.

[At this point Ms. Brown interrupted saying that Bridget was my full supervisor. Her statement in this regard does not change the de facto situation, which can be fully documented. Note inserted 20 Nov 2009.]

When Bridget said I did not meet her expectations I pointed out I had no list of expectations, as I had been working on my own. Over the past weekend she wrote a list, and assigned me to work on her project: The Chronicles of Boone County. She budgeted my time, setting up a series of hoops through which I should jump, discuss my team-work at weekly meetings, etc. This was, in my opinion, an attempt to derail the Dispute Resolution process I had begun, and was designed to make me fail. The timing of this was crucial to the success of this attempt by Bridget and Sherri to force me into an awkward position, but it also left the new director vulnerable, and not in a position to know the whole story.

I do not have time to present my case in ten minutes. I have tried to present you with enough information to see I deserve a Hearing. I am requesting a resolution of this dispute in accordance with the employee handbook and public policy. I hope to be reinstated and begin publishing the Annals of Boone County.

Thank you.

James Duvall, M. A.
Local History Research Specialist
Boone County Public Library
Typed from the handwritten MS in my Administrative Journal for 2009 on 20 Sep 2009. JD.

Note: This was followed by a written statement by Ms. Southard, which emphasized the events from 3 Sept to the tenth when she fired me after being director for three days. Mrs. Goetting made several remarks indicating her disapproval of everything I had said, raising concerns of whether I could possible get an impartial hearing from this board. Then the executive session was closed. My father, James R. Duvall, returned to the room, after being excluded against my wishes, and requested to make a statement. He said that he was a native of Boonee County, that he had a graduate degree in history from the same institution as myself, that he was the vice-president of the Boone County Historical, and had volunteered in the history department of the Boone County Public Library for three years. He said I had two advanced degrees in historical studies, and knew a lot about the subject. He pointed out that the Local History Librarian was not from here, had no degree in history at all, and did not know much about Boone County. He talked about how this situation had come about, and called for an investigation by the Board. Mrs. Ryle thanked him for his volunteer work, and for making a statement, ending by saying: "Thank you, Rev. Duvall."

In lieu of a Resignation

Letter to Greta Southard

Director of the Boone County Public Library

In lieu of a Resignation

Note: This letter was written in Greta Southard's Office in response to her request for my resignation. I have transcribed it from my original handwritten copy for ease of reference. This was Greta's third day in office. She started on the eighth, and immediately began a round of visits to five of the six branches of the library. She spend almost the entire morning of the tenth at the Lents Branch and had not read the letter in which I requested that the meeting be deferred or that Bridget Striker or Sherri Slavey not be present at the meeting; however she insisted, saying I would be "in insubordination" if I did not attend. The entire meeting was recorded and Ms. Southard presented me with a copy on a disc at a meeting with the Board of Trustees 17 Sep 2009.

10 Sep 2009

Dear Greta,

I am in a very difficult situation at the moment. I do not think my resignation is in the best interest at this time. I have a wife and children at home whose well-being depends on me. I would never have hazarded their well-being if I did not think the issues here worth that cost. I think you should engage in a period of fact-finging before doing anything hasty. I will be willing to take several weeks of vacation, as I have more than 100 hours accumulated, while this is done. This will give everyone a breather, and there will not be any bad feelings between us.

I would like for you to read the letters I have sent you; they are very important. The Chronology of events I gave you will also be important as you work through the documents.
If you chose not to do this I shall have no choice but to continue my appeal to the Board of Trustees. The issues raised will be substantive. They are these: discrimination, defamation, and intellectual property rights. I think you really ought to read my documents and hear my concerns.

If you have further questions and concerns you may contact my lawyer.

With all due respect,

James Duvall, M. A.
Local History Research Specialist
Annals of Boone County
Boone County Public Library

Transcribed from my original handwritten copy 20 Sep 2009. JD.