GUILDERLAND — The library trustees on March 19 voted to eliminate one of two posts for assistant director, costing Nathaniel Heyer his job.

Heyer had served as interim director of the Guilderland Public Library as staff suffered widely covered allegations of racism last year, lodged by the owner of a library café, that proved to be unfounded.

“I led the library through a period of intense turmoil and change tirelessly as the interim director,” Heyer told the board members at the start of their March 19 meeting. 

“I have been nothing but kind, reliable, open, hard-working, and enthusiastic in my support of the new director as he has gotten up to speed and my fellow assistant director throughout my tenure here,” he said, reading from a prepared statement.

The library’s director, Peter Petruski, told The Enterprise this week that he respected and appreciated Heyer’s work. Rather, Petruski said, he recommended cutting an extra administrative post to focus on public service.

Heyer, who earned $93,000 annually at Guilderland, said the cut wasn’t for budgetary reasons. He described himself as the primary breadwinner for his family and said he has an 8-year-old daughter to support.

Heyer told the library board his treatment by fellow administrators “has been unprofessional and inhumane,” citing a “total lack of transparency and respect” that he said affects “all of the staff.”

Heyer said he was notified that his post would be cut on Mach 13 and that his last day of work is April 1, leaving him little time to find a new job.

Petruski told The Enterprise this week that, after meeting in executive session, all eight members of the board present on March 19 voted in favor of eliminating the post and then voted, again 8 to 0, on a severance package for Heyer.

Explaining his reason for wanting to cut the post, Petruski said, “Looking at the workload specifically, there just was not enough work to justify the number of positions we had in the administrative unit.”

The library has eight administrative positions, he said, including in human resources, marketing, information technology, and in business management — a post the library is currently looking to fill.

Petruski said his focus is on “keeping our public service really strong … making sure we’ve got staff doing programs, staff at desks; we’re open all hours — that kind of thing.”

The library has upwards of 60 employees, both full- and part-time.

Asked about Heyer’s statements that he had heard no criticism of his work and was given little notice, Petruski said, “I understand it’s not fun when you’re the person whose job is impacted and it’s completely understandable that he … reacted the way he did.”

Petruski went on, “I still have a great deal of respect for Nate as a professional …. It wasn’t about performance. It wasn’t about people. It was the number of positions we had and how many positions do we actually need to do the work of the library, and performance wasn’t even a factor.”

Asked about the severance package, Petruski said the board authorized two weeks of salary. Heyer will also get health insurance through the month of April.

Heyer confirmed in an email to The Enterprise, “They gave me additional severance pay in addition to coverage for one month more of health insurance as a response to the concerns I raised about the handling of my layoff. The health insurance was unexpected and more than I asked for, so I really appreciated that. These supports will be helpful as I tackle my job search.”

History

Heyer had been hired by the Guilderland Public Library as assistant director, a new post, in September 2023 when Timothy Wiles was the library’s director. Heyer had worked for Colonie’s town library for 10 years, leaving as a department head. He had also previously been director of a small rural library in Schaghticoke.

After a decade as director of Guilderland’s library, Wiles retired on Feb. 2, 2024.

Heyer was named interim director as, he told The Enterprise this week, Wiles asked him to “keep the train running” while a search was underway for a new director. That new director, Petruski, started working on May 24, 2024.

“I helped him get up to speed,” said Heyer this week.

Less than a month after Wiles’s departure, the new café at the library, which had been a pet project of Wiles’s, abruptly closed.

Melanie Diaz Partak posted to the Café con Mel’s Facebook page the day she closed, on Feb. 21, 2024, “I have faced racism, harassment and constant disrespect. These issues have not only come from patrons, which I am no stranger to dealing with, but they have come worse surprisingly from the Library staff members.”

Public concerns were swift and widespread. In March, the board hired, for $15,000 plus travel and research expenses, Guidepost Solutions, based in New York City, to look into the allegations of racism.

Seven months later, the library released Guidepost’s report, which found no racism but looked into other matters that “revealed a number of long-standing issues at the GPL that requires deliberative consideration and remediation by the Board, the new Executive Director, and the GPL management team,” the report said.

Guidepost found that the library management team “would often make conclusory statements, reaffirming each other’s version of events about issues such as harassment and poor work performance without conducting adequate necessary investigative inquiries, compiling evidence and properly documenting findings.”

Heyer told The Enterprise this week of his tenure as interim director, “It was daunting but I felt I could do it. I dove headlong into everything …. I led the library through an intense period.”

Heyer noted how hard the accusations of racism had been on the library staff and said he was “very proud” of the job he did.

Heyer said he took a collaborative approach in drafting the annual library budget, working with the board of trustees. “We are bringing in sensitivity training … creating those kinds of conversations about diversity and inclusion,” he said in the wake of the library’s café closing with the owner alleging racism.

Despite the controversy, the library’s $4.4 million budget passed last May with 70 percent of the vote. 

Heyer’s recent work, he said, has been in following through with the recommendations made in the Guidepost report. “I’ve been working my butt off,” he said, adding, “There is enough work for two positions.”

In an email to The Enterprise, Heyer described his current work at the Guilderland library this way: “Improving communication and collaboration across the organization, ensuring consistent sharing of feedback with staff at all levels, and making sure expectations and operating procedures were clear were all areas I was very busy working on right up until I received notice of my layoff.”

He also wrote, “Staff morale was up. I am not sure how all the irons I had in the fire on those fronts can possibly be picked up now by an administrative team that is as busy as GPL’s is. I wanted to make clear with my parting thoughts that if matters of organizational health are set aside by administration in favor of other priorities through restructuring, it is not the staff who are to blame if that leads to poor outcomes. I hope they are able to find other approaches to boosting collaboration and morale there.”

Heyer told the board on March 19, “My tenure here has been marked by rapid progress on previously stubborn problems, completion of projects left open for years, and a surge in staff morale.”

Heyer told The Enterprise he was worried that work now won’t be completed.

Petruski told The Enterprise this week, when asked if the recommendations made in the Guidepost report will be followed through on, “The work is being carried forward. It was never just one person’s job to implement the Guidepost suggestions and recommendations. It was the entire administrative team’s job to improve in those areas. So that is absolutely going to be carried forward.”

Petruski concluded by reiterating, “I respect Nate as a professional. I appreciate the work he’s done and I think he’s going to go on and do great things. I have full confidence in that.”

Heyer concluded his comments to the board with what he called “hard-won leadership advice honed through my trial by fire here”:

“First and foremost, respect is something that is earned through respectable behavior. Second, fear and uncertainty are not good motivators, but rather the greatest productivity killers of all. Third, trust is the fuel that powers effective change management, not force. Fourth, feedback is always an opportunity, even if it stings a little at times. Fifth, mentorship, active listening, and training are the answer to most performance issues. Sixth, leadership requires so much more than a good speech or a slick suit. It is about the relationships you build, and the care, reliability, service, and integrity you demonstrate, day in and out, faithfully and with humility.”