{"id":1776,"date":"2026-05-20T22:40:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T03:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/?p=1776"},"modified":"2026-06-10T22:49:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T03:49:34","slug":"library-board-dangles-raises-but-wont-hand-them-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/?p=1776","title":{"rendered":"Library board dangles raises but won’t hand them out"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Gary Public Library employees have been waiting since November for budgeted 5% salary increases<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The 5% cost-of-living-adjustment budgeted for Gary Public Library workers seems more of a mirage now, says staff members represented by AFSCME Local 2760.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Library staff have been waiting since November\u2019s budget adoption to see a bump in their pay checks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When will staff members see the salary increase, a library employee asked at Monday\u2019s Library Board of Trustees meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s under discussion,\u201d was the answer from board president Lucille Washington, who then moved on to other business on the agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier in the meeting, the board elected new officers for the 2026-27 year. Starting June 1, Jacquese White will become president; Crystal O\u2019Brien is the new vice president, Linda Collins is secretary, and Dr. Washington is treasurer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the meeting, Washington and White explained that the salary increases \u201care pending.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe 5% increase was included in the budget but we haven\u2019t approved the spending yet. We\u2019re being cautious,\u201d Washington said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re thinking about Senate Bill 1 and the trajectory of our spending for the next 5 years,\u201d said White.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indiana\u2019s Senate Enrolled Act 1 of 2025 delivered what many voters have wanted for years: lower property taxes. On the other side of that is less funding for local governments to provide services to its communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to get in a position where we have to be like other government units, putting freezes on some of our operations,\u201d Washington said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The estimated cost of the 5% COLA is $92,000 a year. The Main Library and its 2 branches are not heavily staffed; in 2025, the library system only had 43 employees on its payroll. According to the union fact sheet, the annual interest on the library\u2019s cash reserves would easily cover the raises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of April, the annual interest had grown to $57,747. The cash on hand was $4,802,264.55.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AFSCME 962 Indiana-Kentucky Union Rep. Cassandra Stigger has questions for the board and its library director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to know why they put the salary increases in the budget if they were worried about funding. They didn\u2019t have to do that,\u201d Stigger said. \u201cHopefully we can get that resolved at our meeting next week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to know why they\u2019re holding on to the employees money. Their rent, light and gas are going up. They\u2019re spending twice as much trying to get here,\u201d Stigger said. \u201cAnd meanwhile, the library is collecting more interest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the fact sheet, the library staff only numbers 33-34 employees. \u201cMany staff members are performing multiple roles while receiving minimal pay. Employees continue to show up, do their jobs, and support the library, yet struggle financially. The concern is not about leadership salaries, but rather about ensuring all staff earns a living wage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local 2760 President Leora Carr wants the increase retroactive to November when the board adopted the budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gary Public Library employees have been waiting since November for budgeted 5% salary increases The 5% cost-of-living-adjustment budgeted for Gary Public Library workers seems more of a mirage now, says staff members represented by AFSCME Local 2760. Library staff have been waiting since November\u2019s budget adoption to see a bump in their pay checks. When […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1778,"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1776\/revisions\/1778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.justintimejackie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}