The Kanawha County Public Library in downtown Charleston by Kenny Kemp – Gazette-Mail file photo.
By: Ryan Quinn, Staff Writer | Posted: Mar. 12, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail
The Kanawha County Public Library system’s Board of Directors approved Monday paying a search firm up to $21,500 to help find a new system executive director, and OK’d renting space in the former Clendenin Middle building for a temporary Clendenin branch.
Vernon Hills, Illinois-based John Keister & Associates LLC will conduct the search.
“It’s basically a headhunters firm that just does library director research,” said Jennifer Pauer, chairwoman of the board’s personnel committee. She said the firm has been doing this since 1987 and has done over 300 searches.
“If the new Library Director leaves the position within the first year after acceptance, we will, on a one-time basis, reactivate the search upon your request,” says the Executive Search Proposal that was part of the meeting agenda packet Monday. “The library will assume all expenses directly related to a reactived search, but we will expect no additional search fee.”
Pauer said the actual contract with the firm hasn’t been signed yet, and she didn’t know Monday evening whether it would change from the proposal. The proposal says the fee is $21,500, not just up to that amount.
“He told us his longest search was four months, so that’s encouraging to us,” Pauer said.
Current system Executive Director Alan Engelbert is retiring at the end of July. He said he doesn’t work under a contract, and is currently paid $110,000 annually.
Pauer said she doesn’t think a salary range for the new leader has been established, and suggested board members would work with Keister on that.
Engelbert said the rent for the Clendenin branch, paid to the 25045 — A New Clendenin Inc., which owns the building, will be $1,850 per month, and that amount will include utilities.
The former branch there closed after being damaged by the June 2016 flood. Engelbert said he anticipates being able to start operating out of the building in mid-May, following renovations that the Kanawha County Commission has already committed $50,000 toward.
A board resolution document says a previously awarded Community Participation Project Grant awarded to the branch will be used to pay rent costs this fiscal year, and Engelbert said the lease agreement lasts one year before turning into a month-by-month deal.
Engelbert said Federal Emergency Management Agency flood recovery funding can’t be used to pay the rent because the space is “most definitely in the floodplain.” He said there “isn’t any suitable temporary space that’s not in the floodplain in Clendenin.”
“There’s not a lot of property that’s up high enough that it’d be out of the floodplain,” he said. “So it’s a challenging area to look to build in. My understanding is that we would have to be 11 feet higher than our old facility. And so, to do that, either build up higher or you go up higher.”
Engelbert said he didn’t know about when a decision would be made regarding establishing a permanent location for the Clendenin branch, and said the former Clendenin Middle could become the permanent site. But he said “it’s definitely viewed as temporary space.”
The resolution says Engelbert will be securing flood insurance for the contents of the building.
Regarding the board’s plan to renovate its current main library in Charleston, board member Mike Albert said Monday he advocated for not having a temporary main library while the current location is being renovated, mentioning possible high costs for the temporary space, but said “I got drummed out of the corps for that.” He declined to answer questions from the Gazette-Mail.
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazettemail.com, facebook.com/ryanedwinquinn, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.
