Library Director, Trustees Working on Severance Agreement

Dedham Board of Library Trustees voted against renewing library director Patricia Lambert's contract, which expires on June 30, 2012.

Trustees voted 4-1 against a motion to renew. Trustee Mike Chalifoux was the lone person voting in support of Lambert at Thursday morning's meeting.

"We've had a lot of difficulties in the last year. We are going to have more difficulties this coming year, financially," Chalifoux said at the meeting before the vote. "Ms. Lambert maybe a little acerbic, maybe a little prickly, but she is also qualified.

Lambert was hired as director in 2004.

"It isn't that I want to go, I cannot stay. There is a difference there," Lambert said after the meeting. "It is a contentious board, and they want me gone. I think that is very obvious."

The library board and Lambert now will begin discussions on possibly terminating the contract early, the director said outside the .

"I hope not to be here. We will try to negotiate me being out of here," she said.

Lambert's two-year contract, signed in 2010, states that she would receive 8 months salary if the board terminated her contract before June 30, 2012. Under the contract, Lambert would receive a $57,380 severance package.

Lambert also receives four weeks of vacation time and 15 sick days per contract year.

Lambert said she requested the new contract as a formality, knowing full well the board would vote against it.

When asked if she thought about stepping down, she said, "I could, but I need the money. At the end of the day, I'm 55 years old, and I want a [severance] package."

Selectman Paul Reynolds thanked the library director for her years of service, but said he supported the board's decision.

"It's clear that expectations are now very high for our public and school libraries," he said in an email.

Tension arose last winter when the library was forced to due to budget constraints, and escalated in May after the , and then had to hire them back only days later.

Board chairman Joe D'Amico apologized for to the pages - although he said he had nothing to do with it. Lambert refused in May to apologize for an action she did not take - and reiterated her position Thursday.

The director said the founding of the Dedham Library Innovation Team played a role in the board's action.

"With groups like the Dedham Library Innovation Team pushing for a best-in-class system - shining the light on longer-term strategic plans," stated Reynolds, who started DLIT, "as well as the kind of governance that values transparency, inclusiveness, accountability and external and internal customer service."

Lambert said she doesn't want to serve as a lame duck director for the next 12 months.

"[This year has] taken a real physical toll on me," she said. "I'm ready to go. [...] I need to get back to the garden."