Library Workers Sign Contract, as Building Repair Costs Hit $1.4 Million (and Counting?)
Newly-unionized workers at the East Lansing Public Library have signed a contract with the Library’s Board of Trustees, securing a guaranteed raise for all library workers, paid time-off, clear work expectations, and specified disciplinary policies and procedures. The administration has retained the right to use volunteers and to make workforce size decisions.
When the contract was approved on Nov. 17 by the ELPL Board of Trustees, Library Director Kristin Shelley refused to provide ELi a copy. We finally resorted to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to obtain it.
The contract was released to us, although City Clerk Jennifer Shuster says there is no written version of the resolution that the Trustees used to approve it. A copy of the contract was also attached to the Dec. 15 meeting agenda, after ELi had filed its FOIA request.
ELi reported in August that library workers had rejected a contract proposal and that, in September, the workers held a rally outside the building to draw attention to their cause.
Although the contract was approved unanimously by the Trustees present at the Nov. 17 meeting, the Trustees decided to do a formal signing with union reps at the Dec. 15 meeting.
However, the Dec. 15 schedule was changed without public warning, and the contract ended up being signed before the Trustees’ meeting started, with only a minority of the Trustees present.
Library worker and union Unit Chair Angelo Moreno said his team was happy to now be “formally part of the labor movement, which includes roughly 14 million fellow workers in this country alone, and remains one of the largest and most diverse forces for justice in the United States.”
In his remarks at the signing, Moreno recognized Diane Goddeeris as a “union sister,” as Goddeeris has worked in the leadership of local unionized nurses.
Goddeeris, who is former mayor of East Lansing, told the union reps that the process of getting to a contract had been relatively short for them, “and sometimes you feel like you go through a war and that’s unfortunately part of it, especially on a first contract.”
Speaking to her own experience in tough labor negotiations, Goddeeris urged the workers to “come together” with the administration for the community’s benefit in future contract negotiations, saying it usually gets easier after the first contract.
Costs of construction are ballooning at the library.
Meanwhile, the library’s administration continues to struggle with repair costs, as an initial plan to spend $700,000 on repairs has ballooned to a current total of $1,444,490.
At the Nov. 17 meeting with Library Trustees, Director Kristin Shelley told the Board, “We are using up a great deal of our fund balance” with the project “going in the wrong direction” in terms of costs.
The library underwent major renovation in 2015-16 following receipt of a donation of $1.5 million from a donor who was not publicly named.
While the renovations at that time created nicer and more usable spaces inside the building – adding a new cybercafé with vending machines, new mobile shelving, new furniture, an improved children’s area, a larger teen space, an expansion of the maker studio, new small group meeting spaces, and new bathrooms – it turns out that the building was in need of major repairs that are now costing as much as the prior big donation for renovations.
Following up on a question from a reader earlier this year, ELi asked Shelley about how this had all happened. She said that, “When the city’s facility person has to make adjustments or work on the electric [system of the library], it pops,” suggesting danger of electrocution.
Additionally, the HVAC system has required replacement of the boilers, thermostats, and more.
Shelley told the Trustees in September and again in November that library staff had found wind blowing through holes in the building, with water from rains also blowing in, soaking the interior in spots.
There’s been no explanation as to how the need for new windows and the holes in walls were not discovered until this late in the process.
At the Nov. 17 meeting, Shelley told the Board that “hopefully we’ll have a much stronger foundation” soon, so that water won’t seep in.
The contractor who had won the bid for this recent long round of work, Gordon Construction, has been steadily given the job of taking on additional problems, with no additional bidding process.
Payments to Gordon have skyrocketed from a bid of $699,000 to what is now a total of $1.35 million.
StructureTec and Bloom Roofing have been paid an additional total of about $92,000 for roofing repairs.
By the latest Board meeting, on Dec. 15, Shelley reported that the library’s $2.2 million fund balance (savings) had fallen to about $750,000.
While Shelley’s written “Fund Balance Report” for December 2021 referred to a “total project budget,” she referred to this page at the Dec. 15 meeting as a “running tab.”
When asked by ELi if that means the costs could still go up further, Shelley replied that because it is a building project, costs could certainly keep going up.
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