By Alex Brown

The (Centralia) Chronicle

When the Timberland Regional Library board voted to extend the lease of Randle’s Mountain View library in September, the system’s leaders credited an overwhelming public response for helping inform the decision to spare the branch.

But emails obtained by The Chronicle show Timberland administrators discussed closing Mountain View as far back as July, viewed it as a foregone conclusion and explicitly forbade branch staff in Randle from informing the public it was on the chopping block in the weeks leading up to the vote.

“Realistically, I don’t think we’ll make anything public until after the board meets on the 26th,” District Manager Trisha Cronin wrote to Mountain View Library Manager Mary Prophit on Sept. 5.

Prophit emailed Cronin on Sept. 1 to ask if she could tell patrons their library was on the verge of closing.

“If they don’t make a decision at that meeting, it may not be until later,” Cronin wrote. “I truly understand your feelings that it’s unfair to them not to tell the Randle community so that they can attempt to sway the decision. However, although we will make sure that they get to air their feelings, it would be a disservice to them to lead them to believe they can change the decision.”

In an earlier email, on Aug. 30, Prophit was forced to regurgitate talking points from a previous conversation in which she was chastised by Cronin and Public Services Manager Allison Grubbs. Prophit had asked for the upcoming board meeting to be moved from Ilwaco closer to Randle to allow the community a better chance to be involved.

“When you demand discretion it needs to be followed,” Prophit wrote, repeating what she was directed to say, and indicating she had been told the Randle closure was a done deal. “There is a larger plan for East Lewis County to be more effectively served. … You want to vacate and close the library with dignity and grace.”

Cronin responded, affirming that Prophit’s forced apology met her instructions: “Thank you for writing this up. I’m in agreement that it covers all the points we discussed.”

The emails were part of a public records request filed by The Chronicle, seeking information on the near-closure of Mountain View and the controversial Capital Facilities Proposal that would have shuttered a third of Timberland’s 27 libraries.

Asked to address questions about the emails and the lead-up to Randle’s near-closure, Timberland administrators first requested a meeting with The Chronicle on Nov. 26 or 29. Told the story would be published before then, they offered to meet the morning of Thursday, Nov. 15. A few hours before that meeting, they canceled it, saying the unspecified manager who had been designated to answer questions had called in sick.

Instead, TRL staff said they would answer questions over email by the end of Thursday, saying no one else would be able to speak on the record. Later that day, they followed up to ask what time The Chronicle’s deadline was on Friday, Nov. 16. They did not respond to a query asking whether the manager who was sick on Thursday would be available Friday. Ultimately, Communications Manager Jeff Kleingartner emailed responses on Thursday evening.

According to Kleingartner, TRL administrative staffers could not have been operating under the assumption that Mountain View would be closed, saying the board only had the authority to approve the decision.

When Prophit was reprimanded and told not to share details with her patrons, it was because Timberland wanted to be “consistent” and share the closure proposal with all audiences at the same time, he said. The town meeting in Randle was held on “short notice,” Kleingartner added, because library staff members shared details with some community members, which only then “created the need” to explain the situation.

Asked when TRL decided it was necessary to share the potential closure with the public, he said that decision was made when the administrative team decided to hold the town meeting, without naming the date staff came to that conclusion. Cronin’s assertion that community input would not “change the decision” was not accurate, Kleingartner added.

“TRL’s intent was to provide the board information they could use in determining next steps for the library district and the building we have leased for several years,” he wrote.

Kept in Dark

The first mention of a possible closure at Randle was in an email from Cronin to Library Director Cheryl Heywood on July 27. It again discussed Mountain View’s fate as seemingly predetermined.

“I still wanted to toss out an idea I had,” Cronin wrote. “Since Mountain View’s lease is up in December 2018, and it will likely be closed under any new service model, I would propose that we close it in December 2018.”

Heywood responded: “Thank you, Trisha for your input.”

Cronin’s message was erroneous, as the lease was actually set to end Oct. 31, but the intention to allow it to expire due to its inclusion on the closure list of the Capital Facilities Proposal was clear. Decisions on library closures are made by Timberland’s board, all of whom said they were kept in the dark about the Mountain View situation until days before the board meeting on Sept. 26.

“I think it’s always better to make things as transparent as possible,” said board President Brian Zylstra, one of Lewis County’s two representatives on the board. The board is made up of seven members from TRL’s five-county region. “The Randle situation could have been handled better. … I was not aware of the discussion of Randle being closed until a day or two before the actual town meeting was held.”

The town meeting in Randle was held Sept. 20. Zylstra and fellow Lewis County board representative Hal Blanton were informed of that meeting on Sept. 17, the day it was announced to the public, according to email records. The two were told the meeting was part of Timberland’s “efforts to be as transparent as possible.”

However, in the weeks leading up to the meeting, administrators repeatedly denied or ignored Prophit’s pleas to inform the public, only changing course after a Randle pastor emailed his congregation about closure rumors in a message on Sept. 13.

“I did not think I could wait until this rumor is confirmed to share this news,” wrote Dennis Degener, pastor of Randle United Methodist Church. “I do not know what should be done, but I do know that the loss of the Randle library would be a great loss to our community.”

After Degener’s words made their way through the community, Cronin — who had proposed letting the lease expire in the first place — drove to Randle on Sept. 15, the next day the library was open, to do damage control as resident after resident streamed in with questions.

One Narrative

When the town meeting in Randle, which was also run by Cronin, was first announced, TRL staff were given talking points encouraging them to emphasize the uncertain nature of the lease, which was set to expire Oct. 31.

However, emails show building owner Cynthia Berne had reached out to Timberland about a renewal in early August, just days after Cronin had proposed allowing it to expire. Berne had already sent potential lease terms to Timberland before the town meeting was scheduled, at which point Timberland said Berne’s mention that she might sell the building in the future had led to the uncertainty.

Cronin’s July 27 email suggesting a premeditated closure and communications between TRL staff further cast in doubt the narrative that lease uncertainty was on the landlord’s end.

Later, in a Sept. 11 email, Prophit — the Randle librarian — told Cronin that she had heard Grubbs, another member of the TRL leadership team, had been telling people the closure was landlord-initiated.

“I heard that Allison announced in a coffee chat that the MV landlord isn’t interested in extending the lease. No one told me. Can you please update me on what is happening at this location and what the timeline is to vacate the building?” Prophit wrote. “If it’s a done deal, as it seems to be with the landlord, then let’s just announce it now to give people time to adjust.”

Internal rumors had begun to spread long before Timberland brought the potential closure to the public. On Sept. 13, a library manager from another Lewis County branch emailed Heywood and the public services team about “widespread rumors” of Mountain View’s closure, advocating to keep it open and seek other options.

Meanwhile, collection services manager Andrea Heisel responded to another internal email about what would happen to the book collection in Randle, saying that she had a meeting set up with other TRL leaders to discuss that issue.

Despite the internal questions from staff — and Prophit’s frequent requests to inform her patrons — emails show Timberland’s administration did not discuss informing the public about a potential closure before Degener’s email leaked it to the public.

Emails between early September and early October frequently include Tom Biro, who crafted many of Timberland’s talking points amid the backlash to the proposed closures. Biro, a Seattle-based marketing specialist, worked for about a month on contract with TRL to shape its messaging around the Capital Facilities Proposal, Kleingartner said. His contract was “up to $10,000.” According to the proposal in question, the monthly budget for the entire Mountain View library is just more than $11,000.

“Appalling, just appalling,” said Lewis County Commissioner Edna Fund, when briefed on the TRL emails. “It’s making these community meetings just a front, a window dressing.”

Fallout

Fund, a former Timberland board member, had harsh words for the administrative team members who planned the Randle closure while attempting to shield it from the public.

“Hearing this just gives me a headache,” she said. “This really solidifies what has been rumored. I just didn’t want to believe we had a system that would not involve their own governing board and their populations. … This seems very cavalier and like they had a false sense of power. To think that this could explode like it has, and they didn’t anticipate something like that, I just can’t understand it. It makes you lose faith in folks who are administering the library system in that manner.”

Fund and her colleagues have a meeting with Timberland leadership scheduled for Dec. 10, and she is hoping to hear contrition following the board’s decision that the Capital Facilities Proposal will be tabled until August.

“It makes me think — will it make any difference?” she said. “How will I know the attitude is going to change? What certainty can we give to constituents that their voice will be heard?”

GHC member

Corby Varness, a TRL board member from Grays Harbor County, has been among the most outspoken critics about the way potential closures were brought forward without public input. She said she was not surprised about the behind-the-scenes discussions, since the board had also been kept in the dark about what was coming.

“I’ve been quite unhappy with the way this plan was brought to the board, to the public, to the staff,” she said. “To be honest, I’m not really sure what the intention of the administration was at that time in how they had planned to roll out the entire plan.”

Varness said she was hopeful Timberland would begin public outreach and increased transparency to restore trust with the public, a process she said would take “decades.”

Meanwhile, Blanton, Lewis County’s other board member, said Cronin was wrong to say that public input couldn’t change the fate of Randle’s library, as evidenced by the board vote to save it following a strong show of support.

“It might be a poor choice of wording there,” he said. “The board seems to be open and willing to hear input from the public.”

Still, Blanton said he was largely happy with the “processes and procedures” that allowed such decisions to be made by the board, and didn’t blame staff for “brainstorming” ideas.

On Oct. 24, Timberland’s board created an ad-hoc committee to begin working on Timberland’s budget issues and try to find solutions that don’t include closures. Zylstra, Thurston County representative Joe Wheeler and Mason County representative Brenda Hirschi were chosen to serve on that committee, which held its second meeting Thursday.

The ripple effects from the closure proposals have gone beyond the TRL administration and board, as staff have described widespread fear at the library system’s branches and confusion in dealing with patrons who want to know if their library will close.

“Our Union had no prior knowledge of Timberland Regional Library’s Capital Facilities Proposal before it was released to the public,” AFSCME 3758, the union that represents TRL staff, said in a statement. “We were surprised and disappointed that Timberland did not collaborate with our Union in the development and release of the proposal.”

The union said it was in the midst of polling members about its response and seeking alternative solutions, with a clearer idea of next steps in December.

One former Timberland library worker, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Chronicle library branch workers were kept out of the loop throughout the ordeal.

“It doesn’t sound as if any of us were included in the discussion or decision process,” the library worker said. “The plan in itself had nothing to do with my leaving, but the culture that created the plan did.”

The former TRL employee alleged that Heywood, the library director, chooses her leadership team based on loyalty and a willingness to follow orders, resulting in “dictates coming down from the top with little regard or input from those on the front line.”

Kleingartner said staff at library branches were first made aware of the Capital Facilities Proposal on Sept. 25, the day it was released to the public.

Following the discussion of administrative emails, Fund said she would like to see TRL board members take a strong stance.

“I’d like to see what response they will have to this release of information,” she said. “I’m like — wow. … We have good people on the board. I’m hopeful when they find out, they also will think about steps to be taken.”

On Nov. 19, Fund and her fellow Lewis County Commissioners unanimously voted to reappoint Blanton to the Timberland board.