District Library Board to interview three candidates for director

The Belleville Area District Library Board plans to spend all day Friday, May 15, interviewing three finalists for library director.
At a special, hour-long meeting last Friday morning, the board agreed on four finalists from the seven applicants. Other details were worked out with consultant Marianne Hartzell, who was on hand from Lansing via a Skype connection.
Hartzell said she would call the finalists and set up the times for the 90-minute interviews, starting at 8:30 a.m., with 15-minute breaks in between the interviews.
Finalists for the $75,000-$80,000 director’s position were:
• Raymond Arnett, Jr., Director of the Freemont Area District Library;
• Denise M. Bearre, Director of the Inkster Public Library;
• Mary Jo Suchy, Deputy Director, Belleville Area District Library;
• Karen White-Owens, Director of the Lenox Township Library.
On Monday, Arnett withdrew his name from consideration, leaving three candidates to be interviewed.
Each candidate has been asked to begin by giving up to a 10-minute presentation on the subject of his or her choice concerning libraries and then Hartzell will ask about 20 questions. Board members can pass her additional questions.
A special board meeting will be held at 2:30 p.m., following the interviews, to discuss the candidates and determine the next steps, which could include extending an offer.
“You can always decide not to decide,” said Hartzell, noting 90% of her clients extend offers, even if they say ahead of time they won’t be doing that.
The successful candidate would be an at-will employee and a verbal job offer could be made, contingent on an acceptable background check, Hartzell said.
After an hour of discussing the interview and hiring process, board Secretary Joy Cichewicz said to Hartzell: “Marianne, you’ve been worth every penny,” referring to the $3,800 agreement to use her services.
Friday’s session was led by Tanya Stoudemire, the interim chairperson of the board’s Personnel Committee which recommended four finalists after studying applications from the seven candidates.
Debra Green, present director, is retiring as of May 15 after 28 years of service.