For the second time this year, the Somerville Public Library has landed in the news for unfortunate reasons. Following the "amended hours" at the Central Library at the start of the school year, a former librarian at the West Branch Library went public on Facebook with allegations of workplace misconduct against a former co-worker. A Cambridge Day article followed with some very troubling details, as well as a statement from the City of Somerville (also posted to r/Somerville on Reddit):

The City takes allegations of discrimination, harassment, and abuse seriously and the administration investigates these allegations whenever received. Given the significant privacy interests of all parties involved, the City cannot comment on the details or outcome of such investigations. It is important to understand, however, that the majority of the City’s employees, and nearly all of the City’s Library staff, are union employees, which means they have additional rights established by collective bargaining agreements and the City must follow certain processes when managing them. The City must have just cause to discipline a union employee, which generally includes progressively disciplining an employee. Whenever it makes a personnel decision, the City must take into account the rights and concerns of all parties involved. Again, thank you for sharing your concerns.

I heard from a large number of constituents upset about the situation, from the handling the personnel matter itself to the statement put out by the City that seemed to place the blame at the feed of the union representing the workers involved, the Somerville Municipal Employees Association (SMEA). In response to that City statement, SMEA wrote to the City Council to clarify how discipline of union employees actually works and to explain their approach in this particular case.

The City Council hasn't received any information on the situation beyond what's out there in the public, so councilors don't know anything more than the public at this point. In response to two items submitted by councilors at our December 12 regular meeting, the Mayor's Chief of Staff, Nikki Spencer, spoke to the council about the City's Equal Opportunity policy and offered to have staff attend a future council meeting to discuss generalities around how it all works.

Every employee is entitled to a safe, respectful workplace and it's clear this has not been the experience of all City of Somerville employees, so in that way we are failing as an employer at that responsibility. It would be irresponsible to comment on specifics of this situation without knowing all the facts, but I am deeply alarmed by what I've been reading and hearing, and the public seems to feel the same way. I'm interested in hearing more from the Administration about how they are ensuring Equal Opportunity and anything they're able to share about their processes. And then I want to see a satisfactory resolution to the situation at the West Branch Library.