Library Leader Pushes For Higher Pay

Pay the city’s top librarian a higher salary. Pay every library worker a higher salary.

Interim City Librarian Maureen Sullivan made that funding pitch as she detailed the budget asks for one of New Haven’s most cherished and nationally celebrated public services — which, she argued, could do with a little more city fiscal love.

Sullivan was one of six department heads to present budget requests to the Board of Alders Finance Committee on Monday. That in-person meeting in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall marked the alders’ latest departmental workshop for Mayor Justin Elicker’s proposed $662.7 million general fund budget. The alders are expected to take a final vote on an amended version of that budget in late May or early June before it takes effect on July 1.

During Monday’s library-focused workshop, in addition to elaborating on proposed budgetary changes — including a new full-time children’s librarian position for the Hill’s Wilson branch and $300,000 in capital funds proposed for building improvements — Sullivan offered her vision of what the library system needs in the long term in order to thrive.

Specifically, more funding — and higher wages.

The mayor’s FY 24 proposed budget raises the salary of the city librarian position from $124,000 to $145,000. Sullivan lauded that proposed raise, noting that the library system has gone nearly one year without a permanent top librarian since the passing of John Jessen last May. She said the increased salary will help make the position more competitive as a search process for the next library head is underway.

Still, she added, ​“It can’t stop here.”

Sullivan urged alders to ​“look at what the market pay is” for library positions across the board. Currently, New Haven salaries begin at $45,374 for library technical assistants and $51,648 for librarians. Several library workers have recently left for higher pay in nearby towns, including Stratford and Hamden. Both unions covering library employees — American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Locals 3144 and 844 — are in the midst of negotiating contracts with the city. Library workers have not had a contract since June 2020.

In general, Sullivan said, the city should aim to fund its library system with at least 1 percent of the overall city budget — a metric that Bridgeport (at 1.6 percent), Hartford (at 1.3 percent), and Stamford (at 1.4 percent) all surpass. New Haven, meanwhile, currently funds the library at 0.7 percent of the total budget.

“If you can’t do it this year,” Sullivan said, ​“I really encourage you to plan for next year.”

The mayor’s FY24 budget proposal would increase overtime funds for the library from $40,000 to $150,000.

When asked about that change, Budget Director and Acting Controller Michael Gormany explained that the extra funding is ​“primarily related to Sunday hours” — Mayor Elicker’s signature and yet-to-begin library proposal to extend the institution’s operating hours to include Sundays.

Union members have pushed back on the Sunday hours proposal, arguing that the library is stretched too thin trying to fulfill its current obligations already. The Elicker administration has pressed on. ​“We are making very good progress,” said Gormany.

Another change under debate on Monday was the Elicker administration’s decision to reclassify the library to be under the Community Services Administrator’s purview — alongside departments like Youth and Recreation, Community Resilience, Health, and Elderly Services — rather than under the Chief Administrative Officer, who oversees the police and fire departments and the budget office, among others.

That decision initially generated some controversy among library leaders, who said they were not consulted ahead of time about the proposed departmental shift. 

Committee Chair Adam Marchand pressed city Community Services Administrator Mehul Dalal on this decision. He recalled public testimony that New Haven Free Public Library Board of Directors Chair Lauren Anderson gave in March, during the committee’s first public hearing on the budget. 

At the time, Anderson criticized the transfer as potentially framing the library as a social service provider rather than an informational and educational hub. ​“The Library is not a social service provider. It respects enormously social services and integrates them beautifully. But it has also been true that in this city, like in others, librarians have been expected to do social service work that is not part of their professional training and job description,” she said at the time. ​“We have to be careful about this, because our libraries are important places for service integration and our librarians and library staff have valuable work to do in their professional domain that needs to be understood clearly and compensated appropriately for what it is.”

Dalal responded on Monday to Marchand’s paraphrase of this testimony that ​“the intent here is to identify issues across all departments” and see how various city offices can work together. He assured alders that the librarians would not be asked to serve as social workers. ​“I would look forward very much to doing some joint visioning” with the incoming city librarian, Dalal said.

After hearing presentations from nearly every other department under the Community Services Administrator’s purview Monday, Sullivan expressed that she had changed her mind about the transfer. ​“As I’ve sat here this evening, I am persuaded that the shift to Community Services Administration makes sense.”

Sullivan continued, ​“What is important to me is that there is recognition of the important work the library does.” She noted that ​“every morning, I see the incident reports from the day before” — write-ups of encounters with library patrons who needed to be escorted out of the building due to a behavioral issue. The library needs help in handling these encounters, Sullivan said, and she’s now convinced that stronger partnerships with other departments and with Dalal himself will relieve, rather than increase, some of the burdens on her staff. 

“I can envision a scenario where we look together at incident reports and see how we can find the resources” for those individuals, Dalal suggested.

Sullivan said she’s especially excited to ​“be in a room” with the other Community Services department heads who bring expertise from a variety of fields.

“It was just a little bit difficult to hear this at the last minute,” she said about the shift in oversight. ​“But we moved on.”