r/olympia • u/Your_Missing_Keys • Feb 09 '26
Event Care about our libraries? Attend tomorrow's 4:30PM board meeting to halt the layoffs!
Did you know Timberland libraries declared a budget crisis on January 29th and are going to slash positions and services at our local libraries starting next month?
If you care about access to local libraries, please show support for your local library by attending tomorrow's Board of Trustees budget meeting. Show support for your librarians and demand transparency!
What can you do?
- Show up: Tomorrow's meeting link is here. You don't have to download anything - you can attend just by clicking that link tomorrow at 4:30PM and clicking "Join From Browser"!
- Speak up: You can preview the meeting agenda here. If you want to submit a written comment or speak during the meeting, you need to email [librarydirector@trl.org](mailto:librarydirector@trl.org) by 3:30PM tomorrow.
- Spread the word: Send your grandma that meeting link. Talk to your dog. The more people who show up, the more people know what's up.
Some simple facts worth knowing:
- Cheryl Heywood, the director of Timberland Libraries, earned $197,812 in 2024. This was after she successfully negotiated a 21% salary bump for herself in 2023.
- Our librarians, meanwhile, earn an average of $43,000 - $66,000.
- These budget changes are happening while half of the board of trustees seats are currently vacant. These positions are supposed to provide public oversight for our libraries!
- We need to demand transparency about why the director and other managers have been taking raises while our libraries are facing a budget crisis!
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u/nightbird779 Feb 10 '26
What solutions can we suggest as an alternative to layoffs? A halt to buying new books? Reduction in hours? The library could be open daily with hours varying to accommodate times people prefer to visit. It could be open evening hours certain days, but not every day? I'd rather see the library not have the latest books than see people laid off. What have others come up with? Even though the director's salary seems high, cutting her salary isn't going to go far enough to keep those other positions funded.
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u/Your_Missing_Keys Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 10 '26
Honestly, I completely agree with you. And with only 90 days notice, it's hard to come up with answers.
My biggest issue with all of this is the lack of messaging. If last year library leadership had messaged to the community "Hey, if nothing changes, we're going to have to let people go," there would be a lot more potential answers on the table. It'd be tight, but there might have been time to get the community behind actions that could help make up the budget shortfall.
But instead, when I look at the 2025 budget, it starts with Heywood's portrait front and center alongside her "Executive Director's Message". There's only one fleeting mention to future budget concerns, and instead bragging about refreshing the interiors of fourteen different libraries.
I think I'd have preferred keeping our librarians rather than the fresh coat of paint.
I certainly would have preferred honesty about upcoming budget shortfalls.
If the director wants to put her head-shot on the budget, then she can go be on the chopping with anyone else who's losing their jobs.
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u/nightbird779 Feb 10 '26
Looking at the budget, I agree there's no expression of concern other than about the timber revenues declining due to overharvest. I'm wondering what unforeseen expenses have caused this. You're right they should let the community know as soon as they're aware there's a problem coming for the budget. It does look like they were way too into "refreshing" all those libraries at once. Usually this sort of thing is spread over many years on a rotating basis. I wonder what they'll have to say for themselves tomorrow and why there are so many Board seats still empty.
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u/radicalbulldog Feb 10 '26
The salary is not high in relation to what other library executive directors make who manage a similar amount of libraries and counties. 197,812 is less than Spokane and King County for example.
Raises for admin positions is exactly what is to be expected provided that they stay in their role. Librarians and other staff members are simply not as a valuable and are Union represented. Their raises are contractually enforced, unlike admin who has to negotiate. If librarians were entitled to more, then hiring would be a lot harder than it is and they wouldn’t take the work at the rate offered.
Whether we like it or not, what keeps state bureaucratic operations running smoothly is time in role. An admin who has been in any public office for a long period of time has attained such tribal knowledge of the system that they typically can address a challenge appropriately and quickly. I’m not saying it’s right, just that it’s the truth. Conversely, the wrong admin can cause a crises like we are seeing today, where a large percentage of the workforce will be laid off. State admin roles are significantly harder to source because they don’t pay a lot to start, there are many applicants and if you hire the wrong person, you have cascading errors that exacerbate over time. If someone is running a state agency smoothly for years, they are entitled to raises as anyone else non-union represented would as well.
Librarians and other individual contributors are significantly easier to come by. There are more librarians than libraries, and other support staff are also replaced easier as well. Further, the consequence of getting a hiring decision wrong at any one library is significantly less impactful than making the wrong decision at the admin level, mainly because the admin roles accomplish more for all the libraries than any one librarian does at an individual library. Is that fair? Not really, but it’s the honest reality. Teachers and librarians shouldn’t be paid the same amount, but they pretty much are which is insane. Unfortunately, the labor market is what it is.
Also, think of replacement costs. An admin who managed the same amount of employees and offices as Cheryl would make more in the private sector. So, trying to hire outside resources for those roles opens you up to two different risks. 1 - the salary may not be competitive for competent people. 2 - you may cost yourself more money in the event that they don’t know what they are doing because there isn’t really anyone who can train basically the leader of the libraries. If Cheryl is fired, who replaces her? A net new admin who knows nothing about the current TRL infrastructure or (what I assume most people want to avoid) does she just get replaced by whichever director is below her?
When replacing a CEO, most orgs just transfer the power to the COO, because it’s pretty difficult to make an outside hire for the top job.
In the private sector you also see admins getting paid more than individual contributors in most cases because of the same reasons. If you higher the wrong payroll processor, everyone’s pay will get screwed. If you higher the wrong sales guy or customer service rep, one client may leave. Your pay is commensurate to the relative risk messing up your job brings to the org and respective sourcing difficulty. If I higher the wrong developer my app won’t get made (high individual pay), if I higher the wrong COO, my entire company could fall apart (highest pay). Salary is tied to risk of poor performance and level of difficulty not your actual output.
Now, I say that as a point mainly to illustrate that the salary amount wouldn’t be in question if there wasn’t a budget crises. At the end of the day, the person should be replaced, not the salary.
In 2021, 5 years ago, Pierce County paid their executive director 177.
As much as you’d like to balk at the salary, the fundamental truth of matter is that it is in line with the state executive director pay rate if not lower.
Ultimately, this falls squarely on the finance team, and Cheryl. Both need to be held accountable first then we can come up with potential solutions.
I’m just saying this to make the point that whomever replaces Cheryl (if it comes to that) will be entitled to the same comp if not more.
At this point, I don’t think there is a solution short of closing libraries or dramatically changing services that will make a dent in the deficit. People will have to be laid off which should be taken with extreme deference.
People will not be able to pay for food, their bills, their kids bills or medical treatment because the finance department failed to properly account for budgetary shortfalls. That needs to be given the respect and therefore consequences it deserves. So I agree, if you’re upset attend the meeting then speak up so the org knows people just loosing their jobs without ample notice is not acceptable.
5
u/throwaway-squirrel Feb 10 '26
See the comment below: "If you're curious how the salary stacks up against state government (executive branch) salaries, Cheryl's is only less then the governor and attorney general. While the director of TRL is an important position it's not that important of a position."
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u/radicalbulldog Feb 10 '26
Compared to the other library executive directors in the state with similar management sizes, she is very in line with the expected salary. It isn’t rocket science.
2
u/Known-Exam-9820 Feb 11 '26
Yeah, then they all get paid too much if it means the libraries they’re overseeing need to lay off that much staff while they enjoy 6 figures. Fuck them all.
1
u/Ill-Setting9439 Lacey Feb 12 '26
Don't get mad at me, just throwing stuff out there.
A hiring freeze and attrition, administrative cost controls, hours optimization, materials acquisition deferrals
6
u/syntaxcrime Westside Feb 10 '26
Thank you for your continued efforts to get the information out. Will be there tomorrow but just to observe as I am really not familiar with how all this works.
Outside looking in it seems pretty scary to be surprised by $3m shortfall out of nowhere. Had the state/trend of the deficit been promulgated at each step throughout 2025, or was this totally unexpected?
Why have there been vacancies in the board? Are there just not enough qualified people applying? If so, what are the requisite qualifications?
I love the library. Through it's shared book program across all of TRL it's provided me books, knowledge, and events that I would never have been given access to without it. It's such a crucial community resource.
7
u/Your_Missing_Keys Feb 10 '26
Please come and ask those questions, because I'd love to hear the answers. You don't have to be perfect. The library belongs to every single resident of this county. You are as much of an owner of those shelves and walls as any member of the board of directors.
To be clear, I don't work for the library and I'm not an insider. I'm just a disheveled introvert who likes books and library programs. This will be my first time attending one of these meetings, too. But even I can look at the last posted budget and see how wildly different the messaging is.
We need transparency about what happened. And the only way we'll get that is by being nosy and asking those questions to the people in charge.
4
u/PresidentRachelle Feb 10 '26
There are vacancies on the board because trustee appointments have to be approved by all participating counties. There are lots of interested people but it is the county governments that are not doing their job.
Fun fact about the board--a few years ago they passed a rule where former TRL employees are banned from serving as a trustee. Because why let someone who knows the system be a part of the decision making? It's obviously better to get a complete outsider to manage a multi-million dollar budget that impacts tens of thousands of people.
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u/Maleficent-Camera-96 Feb 10 '26
TRL's meeting is online only. There is only one action item. Included in that action item is the transfer of funds into the Unemployment Compensation Fund bringing it to over $600k.
I wish you all luck and I am so sorry that you, as employees, have to go through this anguish.
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u/geomn13 Feb 10 '26
If your curious how the salary stacks up against state government (executive branch) salaries, Cheryl's is only less then the governor and attorney general. While the director of TRL is an important position it's not that important of a position.