Carson City Library Board approves timeline, tools for directors annual evaluation

The Carson City Library Board approved a staff proposal to conduct the library directors annual performance evaluation, setting deadlines for staff feedback and board review ahead of the fiscal-year close.

The action formalizes a process staff said will include an annual self-appraisal by the director, an anonymous 360-degree staff review administered by Carson City Human Resources, and individual board member ratings consolidated into a single evaluation to be discussed at the boards June meeting. Joy Holt, library director, told trustees the director is "meant to receive an annual public performance evaluation on or before July 1 of every year." She said staff and board deadlines are intended to give Human Resources and finance time to complete required paperwork before the fiscal-year end.

The board chair and staff described a timeline the board adopted: HR will distribute the anonymous staff feedback form by April 24, 2025; staff who wish to participate must submit responses to HR by May 8; HR will forward responses to the board chair by May 15; the chair will forward them individually to board members by May 23; each trustee will return their completed unclassified employee performance review form to the chair by May 30; the chair will aggregate those forms for discussion at the June 12 board meeting. Holt said she will also submit a directors self-appraisal to board members by May 1.

Trustees debated whether to add a directed, open-ended question asking staff what library services they would like the director to "explore" or "focus on" in future. Some trustees and legal counsel advised that suggested future objectives could be useful background for future planning but cautioned that such items should not be made part of the formal evaluation of the directors prior 12 months. Adam Tully (identified in the meeting as "DA Tully") said broad policy and vision-setting are the boards responsibility, and suggested that suggested objectives be captured separately or incorporated into the strategic-plan process.

Trustee [name on record] moved to approve "the annual performance evaluation process proposed by staff with the small modifications we discussed." The motion was seconded and the board voted to approve the process. The meeting record does not include a roll-call tally in the transcript; the chair declared the motion passed.

The board directed staff to coordinate with Carson City Human Resources Director Jeff Collins to implement the timeline. Holt said an HR representative (referred to in the meeting as Mr. Cohen) will attend the June 12 meeting when the aggregated evaluation is discussed.