2002-07-30City of Beverly, Massachusetts
Public Meeting Minutes
Board:
Library Trustees
Subcommittee:
Date:
Tuesday, July 30, 2002 7:00 PM
Place:
Beverly Public Library
Board members present:
Joanne Avallon, Todd Balf, Kevin O’Reilly, Joanne Panunzio, Helga
Senko, and John Young
Board members absent:
Neil Olson, Lindsay Diehl, Edward Brindle
Others present:
Police Chief John Cassola, Sgt. Michael Sungy, Thomas Scully, Library
Director, and library staff members Janice Shaw, Kathleen Keeler and Michael Tracchia
Recorder:
Thomas Scully
SPECIAL MEETING
July 30, 2002
John Young presided.
John Young called the meeting to order at 7:05 and everyone introduced themselves. John Young
asked for an informal discussion of the various security issues, beginning with the most recent incident
in the stacks.
Chief Cassola suggested that the Library install security cameras inside and outside the building and
brought a catalog from a company that is providing such equipment to the police department.
Tom Scully read an e-mail from Anna Langstaff expressing frustration that the Police don’t
communicate with the library staff about troublesome teenagers.
Other suggestions that were discussed:
Joanne Avallon suggested library cards have pictures of patrons on the cards and that people coming
into the library would have to have a card. Both Tom Scully and Sgt. Sungy thought there might be
legal issues with that.
Joanne Avallon also suggested that the City might be liable for maintaining an unsafe work place
environment and that the Trustees should put the Mayor and City Solicitor on notice and that we
should request funding for security cameras and possibly a uniformed guard to patrol after school
hours.
Chief Cassola said we should be more aggressive about calling the Police and we should toss out of
the building people who were just “hanging around.” Mike Tracchia said that when we were tough
with kids, they often vandalized the building in retaliation and that the constant repairs were
expensive.
John Young asked if patrol officers could be asked to write up their reports in the library, thus
providing more of a presence. Chief Cassola said that the reports had to be written on the computers
in the Police Station; they don’t write paper reports anymore.
Someone asked about whether the dangerous patrons hung out in the Children’s Room. Tom Scully
said that that had not been much of a problem and that we had a policy that no unaccompanied adults
are to be in the Children’s Room, but that there are times when we only have high school students
on duty and they are intimidated asking adults to leave. He also said teenagers are not good at
judging the dangerousness of a situation. Ideally, there should always be an adult on duty in the
Children’s Room, but with the available staff budget, that was not possible.
Helga Senko suggested more police patrols and possibly uniformed guards. Tom Scully said that
Lawrence and Boston were the only public libraries in Massachusetts that he knew of that had guards
and that he would talk to administrators from both libraries. Tom Scully and Kathy Keeler suggested
that security guards can be heavy handed in dealing with patrons and that we did not want security
guards scaring off teenagers who only misbehaved once or twice.
Several staff members said the real problem times were after school hours. Chief Cassola said this was
also the busiest time for the police and that the downtown was a very busy area.
Joanne Avallon and Chief Cassola both suggested that the staff kept written logs of patrons who
raised the awareness of staff, so that if anything happened later on, we would have a written record.
Tom Scully said that he felt that the police emergency response was generally excellent but that we
were not very successful at either prevention or follow-up. Tom, Janice and Kathy all made the point
that the Library staff had always been able to identify the perpetrators to the police, and Tom pointed
out that that had never resulted in a prosecution.
Sgt. Sungy explained that for many problems the Police cannot make arrests based on the testimony
of others, that the officer actually had to witness the incident personally. For other issues, particularly
disturbing the peace, it requires a complaint from a citizen. He said that we cannot demand ID from
a citizen, even the police cannot do that. We also cannot bar people from a public building without
good cause. Even putting up “No Loitering” signs won’t allow us to kick people out if they are not
misbehaving.
The police left at 8:40 and the discussion continued with the Trustees and staff. Kevin O’Reilly asked
both Kathy and Janice if they ever felt unsafe while at work. Both said that they had on occasion.
Kevin asked Janice if she felt there was anything that the Trustees could do, and were not doing, that
would make her feel more comfortable. She said she did not think that there was anything we could
do, and that these incidents would continue to happen. Kathy said that closing an hour earlier on
Friday eliminated having the hour when there were too few staff members on duty. She also said that
she now spent so much time dealing with various problem patrons that she felt her job was beginning
to have no meaning. She wanted to get back to being a librarian.
Other business:
Tom Scully reported that late Monday afternoon, we were notified that the general contractor for the
Farms project, M. O’Connor Construction, was withdrawing from the job. Tom reported that as late
as Monday morning the G.C. was still telling the architect that they were going forward with the
work.
Tom arranged a meeting today (Tuesday) with the G.C., City Solicitor, Director of Purchasing,
Architect and Chairman of the Planning and Construction Committee. After it became clear that the
G.C. would not reconsider, we offered the job to the second low bidder at a price increase of
$163,000 for the base contract work only. Pascucci Brothers said that they would get in touch with
their sub-contractors and let the Director of Purchasing know.
Respectfully submitted,
Thomas F. Scully,
Library Director