GUILDERLAND — The week that the café abruptly closed at the Guilderland Public Library, The Enterprise filed a Freedom of Information Law request for any and all documents related to complaints made by or about the café’s owners.

On Friday, April 26, The Enterprise received 77 pages in response to that request that were heavy on financial and managerial matters but not related to racism.

After being open less than six months, the library’s first café had abruptly closed on Feb. 21 as its owners, Melanie Diaz Partak and Joy Mercado Anderson, whom The Enterprise has been unable to reach, leveled charges of racism on the café’s Facebook page.

“I have faced racism, harassment and constant disrespect,” said a Feb. 21 post on the Café con Mel page. “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.”

Among the sheaf of documents, largely made up of emails, the only one that might be interpreted as involving racism was written by Diaz Partak on Jan. 29, 2024, about a month before the café’s closure, asking if there was “any word on whether or not the woman who came in and verbally attacked me has been identified or banned?”

There was no indication of what the woman said.

The library’s interim director, Nathaniel Heyer, responded, “Unfortunately, I don’t think she was identified because although we had a picture [from security footage] nobody recognized her. I don’t think she is a regular.”

This exchange occurred just six days after Heyer had emailed an update to library staff on “banned patrons.”

He explained a new code to be used over the library’s public address system if police had been called — the words “Code Western” are “to alert all staff that police are en route,” Heyer wrote. 

Heyer went on to list updates on three banned patrons, whose names were blacked out in the documents The Enterprise received. 

One man was banned for six months after he was “caught selling items stolen from our new book shelf.” A second man was banned until Feb. 18 for “cursing and raising his voice aggressively.” And a third man was banned for two years for threatening another patron with physical violence after having had “multiple aggressive interactions with staff over the past 11 months.”

In contrast, complaints involving the café were more subdued.

On Feb. 8, for example, Natalie Hurteau, the library’s assistant director, wrote in an email to Diaz Partak — all of the correspondence obtained by The Enterprise was with Diaz rather than with Anderson —  “Hi Mel, Admin has been notifies that when [redacted name] was removing the trash, he went through the library to the back entrance.

“Unfortunately, the trash ended up leaking and it left a trail in the hallway. Also, due to our internal policies and for safety reasons, only library staff are allowed in the back of the building ….”

Diaz Partak was apologetic, said she’d make sure it wouldn’t happen again, and offered to clean it.

In another typical exchange, Hurteau wrote to Diaz Partak about catering a holiday party: “Considering last year, it was over $500, this falls under the contract’s first refusal option for you.”

A list of responses from the staff from Jan. 29 showed that many were disappointed the food was an hour-and-a-half late and cold although one staff member not there for the party said, “I fully support Cafe con Mel providing catering service moving forward. Mel is a wonderful chef.”

Finances

Many of the documents had to do with finances.

 On Oct. 20, 2023, Timothy Wiles, who retired as the library’s director at the beginning of February, wrote to Diaz Partak, “just reaching out on behalf of the fiscal office to ask when we can expect September rent and book payments, as well as same for October.”

The documents obtained by The Enterprise included a lease agreement dated Sept. 6, 2023, signed by Melanie Partak, CEO Diaz Enterprises NY LLC, doing business as Café Con Mel, and Catherine Barber, the president of the library’s board of trustees.

As The Enterprise reported earlier, the one-year lease listed hours of operation, and outlined the space in the Normanskill Room for the café with a monthly rent of $200 “to cover the cost of utilities, payable on the first of each month.”

As the landlord, the library was responsible for the payment of utilities, including reasonable gas, water, and electrical use for the leased premises only, and for the cost of routine cleaning, maintenance and repair to the common areas, as well as snow removal to the parking lots, the contract stated. 

The tenant was to be responsible for the care and cleaning of the café and the outdoor seating area, the contract said, and to insure it met all health and safety requirements.

The documents released to The Enterprise on April 26 include email exchanges between Meghan Brennen, of Butler Rowland Mays Architects, and Diaz Partak and between Wiles and Diaz Partak, all on various construction details or on items like kitchen appliances or café furniture purchased for the café.

On Dec. 14, 2022, for example, Diaz Partak suggests to Brennan a three-shelf countertop heated display case, undercounter full cube ice machine, and stainless steel back bar refrigerator for a total of $4,058.

Invoices from early April 2023 through late November 2023 total $9,850 from Partak & Sons Builders, a company associated with Diaz Partak’s husband, Jonathan Partak.

The documents include pages of vendor transaction history, including over $6,000 for work done by Partak & Sons Builders. Altogether the “Café Total” is listed as $78,801.75 and the “total café project costs” is listed as $92,784.76.

Staff complaints

On Dec. 5, 2023, Hurteau told Diaz Partak she had met with Wiles and department heads “to discuss the complaints they had regarding the three programs you have coming up featuring a movie and Santa …

“The complaint was that the cafe was violating the contract, under item #2 Use: ‘...The Tenant’s use of the Lease Premises can in no way interfere with the Library’s operations or programs occurring in the Library Facility or on the property.’”

On two of the three dates, the library had scheduled its own free programs. “Library staff feel that your program would not only be a competitive program but also create confusion on the patrons’ end because there is no charge for library programs,” Hurteau wrote.

“There was also a question of whether or not you could legally show movies in that space,” she wrote, after which there was a large swath of redacted text.

A purchased movie-licensing certificate needs to be on file with the library, Hurteau wrote.

Hurteau concluded, “I know this has been a difficult relationship so far. Going forward, I know we can have a more communicative, collaborative relationship to the benefit of all parties and the Guilderland community.”

Complaints from Diaz Partak

The café opened at the library on Aug. 30, 2023 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sept. 9.

A year earlier, on Sept. 7, 2022 Diaz Partak had emailed Wiles, “I’m a little concerned that there are way too many hands in the pot stirring things up for this process. So far we haven’t been able to get a clear answer on what to do with this kitchen situation, and it’s a hurdle that prevents us from making a proper contract.

“It’s apparent that the board and most staff would love to have a full blown cafe available for the public to enjoy vs. a snack bar. Profitability I would prefer it, but want to work with the account either way.….”

She concludes, “Thanks for riding this rollercoaster with me! We will get your daily rice bowls and empanadas in your office ASAP!”

Although the documents detail the work ultimately done to the Normanskill Room for the café, some of it by Diaz Partak’s husband, and paid for by the library, the use of the Helderberg kitchen continued to vex the relationship between the café and library staff.

Oct. 6, 2023, Wiles wrote in an email to library staff, “To address the concerns that have been raised, the Building and Grounds Committee met last night and we had a problem-solving session with the cafe management this afternoon.”

Four items were discussed: use of refrigerator, storage, and oven in the Helderberg kitchen; cooking in the café and smells that result; book sales in the café; relationship between cafe and library staff.

Details to solve each of those problems were suggested.

“The relationship between the Cafe and Library will ultimately be what we all make of it,” Wiles concluded. “The Cafe is not just an amenity for the community, but also for us as we do our work … In our discussion with Melanie and Joy, we have found them to be extremely flexible and eager to collaborate.”

Diaz Partak also appeared to have an ongoing problem with at least one member of the library’s maintenance staff, whose name was redacted in documents.

On Sept. 22, 2023, Wiles wrote to Diaz Partak: “[Name redacted] and I had a chat with [name redacted] this week, and you should see a better attitude going forward. Related to that, can we agree that requests for help or issues of concern about the cafe need to go through me… Minor requests can still be made to maintenance staff but big stuff, please work through me ….”

Diaz Partak responds: “Not a problem! ….I do my best to ‘kill ’em with kindness’. Say hi every morning extra gratitude when he does something personally, etc.”

 On Oct. 9, 2023, Diaz Partak wrote to Hurteau, “Natalie this is getting ridiculous. First [name redacted] now this. We saw the bottles. They had a note on them from [name redacted]. We would never touch them and certainly wouldn’t sell them because we sell Poland Spring bottles … I’m sorry I’m not upset at you, just the accusations and I understand why they would ask, but I don’t understand why they won’t question other staff members before questioning us. We need to do something to build the trust levels …

“Maybe remind the librarians that I have photos of MY sodas that they attempted to chill for the program. Or maybe we should bring up my cups they used for the program?

“I really don’t want to do this back and forth stuff with them. It’s annoying and it’s going to burn you and Tim out if a war starts with this.

“We gotta fix this. Maybe staff lunch day where they can all get to know us???”

Hurteau responded that a long exchange between redacted names was “mind blowing” and said she liked the idea of a staff day. “I also encouraged them to speak to you directly when things like this come up,” she wrote.

Diaz Partak then responded, “Thank you! We are trying here, but it seems like something so small is getting bigger and I don’t want that to spread like a cancer in our relationship with the library.”

Finally, Hurteau responded, “All I can think to say at this point is that it’s just a few staff members. We have a staff of 70 and it’s literally just a few. Granted I know those few bad apples are poisoning the whole pie but as [name redacted] said we just need to keep having open communications with them. You and your staff are not the problem. We know this. We are working hard to get our staff on board.”

On Jan. 12, 2024, Diaz Partak sent Wiles what was labeled as a “Grubhub Incident report” with large swaths of text redacted as well as individual names.

The Enterprise in February had filed a Freedom of Information Law request with the Guilderland Police for any complaints regarding the café and immediately received a response that there was just one.

On Jan.10, Melanie Partak had lodged a complaint with the police, alleging that a library employee, whose name is blacked out on the incident report, “signed for a package of hers and kept it in a storage room for a week before giving it to her.” The package was opened but undamaged, the report says.

Partak told the police that she and her husband, Jonathan Partak, “had constant issues with this individual since opening her business in September” and “wished to make a report in the event that behavior like this continues.”

The police incident report does not include a response from the accused employee, and no arrest was made.

The text in the April 26 FOIL response from the library describes the same incident in more detail.

“The cafe had not been performing as well as needed to survive in the space for the month of December,” Diaz Partak wrote.”In order to gain a bigger customer base I signed up for a delivery service named  Grubhub.”

A Grubhub representative told Diaz Partak she had a FedEx receipt saying a Grubhub tablet was received at the library on Jan 2. A man at the library with a redacted name told Diaz Partak he would ask around and returned in an hour with “no news,” she wrote.

Six days later, on Jan. 9, Diaz Partak wrote, the package was brought to her after it was retrieved “from a top shelf next to chemicals inside of his office storage closet.”

Diaz Partak concluded, “I was able to easily open the package as it was clearly previously opened.” She added that she filed a formal complaint with the Guilderland Police the next morning.”

Presumably, Guidepost Solutions, a firm based in New York City, which the library trustees have hired for $15,000 plus research and travel expenses, will have access to unredacted documents as well as witnesses to discern the legitimacy of Diaz Partak’s claims of racism and harassment from library staff.