Fall River officials split vote on new library security hires, approve temporary processing archivist

The Fall River City Ordinance and Legislation Committee on a motion split and tabled consideration of two proposed full-time security officer positions for the Fall River Public Library while approving a separate, temporary processing archivist position to move forward with funding from library state aid.

The committee heard testimony from Felicia Desmeris, director of the Fall River Public Library, who described repeated incidents at the library that she said have strained staff and raised safety concerns. "We have had issues where some of our staff have had to step in and deal with the problem," Desmeris said, citing a series of behavior incidents that included an attempted suicide in a library bathroom and staff injuries. She said the library currently employs two part-time security staff who work evenings and that those employees have not met the qualifications the library now seeks.

The committee's action split the ordinance so members could consider the security positions and the processing archivist separately. Committee members repeatedly pressed for more detail about the proposed security posts — on training, how to maintain coverage during leave, potential liability to the city and whether state library aid could fund sworn police instead. Emily Erpke, interim chief financial officer for the library, said the library intends to use a reserve of annual library state aid for the hires and that some money has accumulated in a special fund that the director may use without a separate city appropriation.

Desmeris described the security position as intended to cover from about 7:30 a.m. (half an hour before opening) through roughly 2:00 a.m. (half an hour after close) to ensure coverage before opening and after closing; she also recommended candidates with prior law enforcement, military, museum or security experience to handle high-value collections and de-escalation. "We need someone who's able to get through that building very quickly," she said, adding that current part-time staff sometimes do not show up and have expressed they want to leave the role.

Councilors asked whether the city could instead pay for a police officer to cover a full shift at the library. Erpke and Desmeris said the library state aid is designated for library uses and cannot be simply reallocated to the police department budget. "The state aid is library state aid, and it’s intended to be used as the director and the board suggests only for the library and needs to be spent by the library," Desmeris said.

On the archivist position, Desmeris described a large backlog of uncataloged historical materials in the library’s special collections and said a processing archivist would make records accessible and begin a multi-year digitization and cataloging effort. "We have an entire room, full of our history and special collections…a lot of them are not cataloged, a lot of them are not processed, and a lot of them are not accessible to the public," she said. Committee members were told the archivist would likely be a temporary hire (one to three years) funded from the same library state aid reserve; interim CFO Emily Erpke said there is more than $300,000 available in the fund this year.

After discussion, the committee voted to table consideration of the security-officer positions pending additional information on training, liability, coverage and budget impact. The committee approved the processing archivist position to proceed using library state aid funds and noted the hire is intended as temporary and subject to future budget review.

The committee asked library and human-resources staff to return at the next ordinance committee meeting with more detail on security training, staffing plan, a financial analysis comparing in-house versus outsourced security, and legal or union implications for where the positions would sit in city payroll and benefits.

Votes at the meeting: the committee voted to split the ordinance (motion passed), voted to table the security-officer positions (motion passed), and voted to approve advancing the processing archivist position (motion passed).

The committee scheduled follow-up discussion on the library security proposal for its next meeting and asked staff to provide detailed cost, training and liability information before any final vote.