Employees Ask Council to Remove ‘Threatening’ Library Chief From Post

More than 70 librarians and their supporters Monday night asked the City Council to remove Library Director Rob Richard from his post because he “terrifies” his employees.

“We’re asking that the city protect their employees by removing the library director,” Ed Bentley, president of the Santa Ana City Employees Assn., told the council. “The fear is real in the libraries.”

The employees raised yellow flyers at the meeting asking that Richard be ousted. However, Mayor Daniel H. Young said the council will refer the matter to City Manager David N. Ream, who will report back in two weeks.

Bentley said the situation has gotten so bad that one of the librarians told him: “If I had a gun I would blow (Richard’s) head off.”

Ream said he could not comment on the dispute because it is a personnel matter.

Richard said the dispute stems from a disagreement with his employees over money. He said that he has “conflicts” with his employees but that he does not know why they are afraid of him.

Bentley said tension between the librarians and Richard has been going on for more than two years. Librarians, who asked not to be identified by name, said their main dispute with Richard has been his management style, which they described as “threatening.”

Richard, who has been director for four years, is in charge of Santa Ana’s three libraries--the Central Library at the Civic Center and branches on McFadden Avenue and Newhope Street.

In the past few weeks, librarians have been passing out anti-Rob Richard buttons with red circles stamped on his name. Richard has issued a terse memo forbidding librarians to wear the buttons while on duty.

The librarians also say Richard has created intolerable working conditions for some employees because of a $1.6-million renovation project at the Central Library.

In August, 60 employees and patrons were evacuated from the Central Library, which had just reopened after two weeks of asbestos cleanup. The 30-year-old library had to close again after more laboratory tests detected asbestos in a closed-off section of the building.

Workers had to barricade the rear section of the building to remove mastic, an asbestos-based glue used to set the library’s original tiles in place.