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Board begins CEO recruitment; staff turnover falls to 10.9% amid hiring at branches
Summary
Board president Jim Hanley outlined a three-stage CEO recruitment process; director Michael Blackwell reported staff turnover dropped to 10.9% and described imminent hires at Lexington Park and Charlotte Hall followed by interviews for a Charlotte Hall branch manager.
The St. Mary's County Library Board of Trustees reviewed staffing trends and the beginning of a CEO recruitment process.
Jim Hanley, board president, described a three-stage process to fill the library’s CEO role: resume review, remote interviews with a narrowed candidate pool, and then broader remote interviews involving library leadership and the state library. Hanley said the board expects to receive candidate resumes by the end of the month and to start the screening process during the final week of July.
Michael Blackwell, the director, reported a staff-turnover rate of 10.9 percent for the fiscal year — roughly half the prior year’s rate — and attributed part of the reduction to hiring lags during the pandemic. He told trustees two branch managers had left during the year: one for family relocation and one who accepted a comparable position at Charles County Library for a roughly $20,000 higher salary. Blackwell said that regional pay differentials create ongoing recruitment and retention pressure.
The director announced recent hires and pending interviews: a youth-services assistant manager (Mattingly) at Lexington Park who began as an intern in the system; a youth-services manager for Charlotte Hall with about 20 years’ experience set to report soon; and a Charlotte Hall branch manager search with five candidates (one internal, four external) to be interviewed later in the month.
Trustees discussed the high portion of part-time staff in the system — board members estimated roughly two-thirds of positions are part time — and agreed to prepare comparative staffing-composition data from neighboring systems for presentation to county commissioners in August. The board framed the comparison both as an efficiency metric and as context for recruitment and retention challenges tied to pay and benefits.
Blackwell also noted the system continues to recruit and that a final demographic report on staff composition will be available at the next meeting when the remaining branch submits its data.
