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Library staff and patrons urge council to restore branch supervisor positions in FY2025 budget
Summary
Multiple librarians, former staff and community members told council that proposed elimination of branch services coordinator positions and an internal reorganization would harm service and morale; speakers urged restoring positions or increasing the library budget.
Several library employees, former staff and community supporters told Virginia Beach City Council on April 16, 2025, that proposed cuts in the library budget would eliminate frontline supervisory roles and damage service and morale.
Steven Shapiro, who said he worked more than four decades in local government, testified he opposed the city manager’s proposed library budget reductions. “My understanding is that city departments with exception the library only eliminated vacant positions. Your library director has chosen to eliminate 5 permanent positions, 4 of which are branch services coordinators who are the backbone of our branches,” Shapiro said.
Jill Blake, identifying herself as a professional librarian with more than 30 years’ experience, told the council that branch service coordinators “are the backbone of libraries” and said the proposed reassignments, two-week move notices and cuts looked like retribution. Rebecca Kreitner, who said she is a librarian, added that branch service coordinators handle essential software and operational tasks and that cutting those positions would pass those responsibilities onto already stretched staff.
Neil Jeffries, who said he has been raising library concerns publicly for months, described the sequence of events as “smoke and mirrors” and “chaos,” saying a planned shuffle of coordinators preceded the later proposal to eliminate positions. Jeffries said the proposal would cut five branch positions while adding administrative roles, characterizing the change as mismanagement.
Speakers asked the council to restore the positions or increase the library appropriation. Steven Shapiro said the director told council in written remarks that “if counsel will be so kind as to plus up the library’s budget, we can save those positions,” but speakers said restoring funding should not be necessary if positions had not been targeted in the first place.
No formal council vote or directive appears in the transcript segment provided. The remarks were made during the public-comment portion of a special session that included the FY2025 operating budget and capital improvement program on the council’s agenda.
