Library Board unanimously selects Suchy as new director

After conducting three interviews of finalists on Friday, May 15, the Belleville Area District Library Board voted unanimously to offer the position of director to Mary Jo Suchy, who has been the library’s assistant director for more than 20 years.
The position carried a base salary of $75,000 to $80,000 and Suchy indicated she would be glad to take the lower figure and share the additional funds with her staff. Tanya Stoudemire, interim chairperson of the personnel committee, said the board found that move “very noble.”
The board interviewed two other candidates on Friday: Karen White-Owens, director of the Lenox Township Library, and Denise Bearre, director of the Inkster Library.
Friday was retiring director Debra Green’s last day on the job and she wiped tears of happiness from her eyes after learning her co-worker would be moving up to the director’s position.
During her interview Suchy said, if selected director, she would review the staffing and instead of filling the position of deputy director, which she had held, possibly hire a technology librarian.
She said the director/assistant director has worked very well for the library, but when someone leaves it’s a chance to review and possibly reconfigure everything. She said she would first talk to her staff.
Library board president Mary Jane Dawson explained that the board hires only the director and the director hires the rest of the staff.
As her PowerPoint presentation at the beginning of her interview, Suchy gave a 10-minute report, “Bloom at Your Library,” which focused on five staff members: Michele Wloch, Jessamy Green-Husted, Tara McCann, Jackie Douglas, and Joe Lebron. She said she could go on with all the other valuable staff members, as well. She said 61% of the Belleville Area District Library budget pays the staff. Statewide the figure is 64%.
In explaining her goals, Suchy said she has been at this library for 28 years and knows every facet of the job. With Green, she said, they kind of acted like co-directors.
“I am strongly committed to this library and this community,” Suchy said, adding she pays extreme attention to details and watches the budget. She said she helped to birth the district library and then to put in place things needed for the district library.
“My fingers are on every single policy you have approved,” she told the board.
She said she is handy in fixing things, “like MacGyver,” and installed the garbage disposal, shimmed up the book return with popsicle sticks, and, “I’ve been on the roof.”
When talking about diversity, she said they have lost a lot of kids in the community and, “We’ve aged a little bit. We have to reach out to seniors.”
She said she would like to write a grant for laptops so they can go out in the community to seniors.
When asked to rate herself in terms of library technology, on a 1-5 basis, with one being bad and five being pretty good, Suchy said she was a 3.8, “but you can round that off to four.”
She said she is an excellent problem-solver and has guided the staff.
“I have a very high standard of public service,” Suchy said when she was asked about what she expects from her staff. “I try to encourage them to meet people more than half-way…”
When asked about three words her staff might use to describe her, she said: “Calm, creative, perseverant.”
When asked about the failed millage and bond campaign and what she would have done differently, she said after they prepared the proposed budget for the new building, they should have had a bit more time to prepare the campaign.
“There was not enough time to get out in the community and sell it,” she said, noting it should have been on the November ballot, where there were more voters.
When asked about grants, she told of a $16,000 federal grant she wrote and obtained for outreach to children, among other grants.
When asked about ways to motivate the staff, without money, she said: “Give them responsibility. It’s like we all own stock in the library, all co-owners. Give them a project. Give them ownership.”
When asked about what surprised her in the library survey results, Suchy said she was surprised by the lack of support for a branch library.
“Money is always an issue,” she said. ‘What we were proposing was too costly for them … They said we were building a Taj Mahal. OK, what can we build? What can we do? People like their library downtown. We saw it in Dexter and Chelsea.”
Suchy said she spent her entire career here and she and Green had a very close relationship, with them communicating without finishing sentences.
“I’ve been the anchor,” she said. “Deb goes off with different ideas and I tell her why don’t we focus on two?
“I excel at implementing. I’m a little vague about vision,” she said.
“I didn’t follow a traditional career path,” she told the board. “I was here. I loved the library, the staff, I love our community… I don’t feel I’m finished here.”
She said the library in Belleville is “like the corner pub, without the alcohol. We meet our public where they are coming from, without judgment… We’ve helped so many people.”
Suchy said recently they got a call from a lady planning a birthday party and wanting to know how much ice cream it takes to feed 66 people.
She said her work at the library is a labor of love. She said some people, who had barely even touched a computer, came in and got help with honing their resume skills so they could be posted on line.
Suchy earned her bachelor of arts degree in 1987 at the University of Michigan – Dearborn, magna cum laude. Her Master of Information and Library Studies degree was earned at the U of M in 1988. She has worked at the Belleville library since then.
She is a member of the Belleville Rotary Club and is president-elect for 2015-16. Among other activities, she taught T’ai Chi at the Van Buren Township Recreation Department from 2000-2013.
After the board voted to offer the position to Suchy, board president Dawson read a letter from Keith and Ginger Bruder of Willis strongly supporting Suchy’s candidacy.
The interviews were conducted by Marianne Hartzell of Hartzell-Mika Consulting. She brought along her husband Dr. Joe Mika who helped her with details in the interview process.
After the interviews were complete, Hartzell suggested each board member identify one candidate this library needs and the person who would be the best director. She said there was no reason to delay a selection if there was a consensus.
She said she would like a unanimous vote when it finally comes.
So, one by one, in alphabetical order, the board members each said “Mary Jo” and, at the end, Stoudemire said she knows that Hartzell wanted a unanimous vote – and then paused.
Everyone leaned forward to hear what she was going to say.
And she proceeded, “And I’m happy to say it is unanimous,” Stoudemire said, adding when she was being interviewed, “Mary Jo’s passion filled the room.”
Later Stoudemire said, “I wanted to stand up and cheer,” during the interview because Suchy showed herself to be a strong, passionate person and intelligent and she wants the job.
“This is the best choice that could have been made,” Dawson said.
After Suchy was brought back into the meeting room, board member Sharon Peters said to Suchy: “You’re a smart cookie – ability, intelligence, and breadth.”
“I feel very lucky,” Suchy replied.