Newark Library Workers Ask Mayor Baraka to Investigate the Library Board Over Its Director Search
In a letter dated Monday, the union for most Newark Public Library staff says the board shut employees out of choosing the library's fourth director in under ten years — and voted to negotiate with a finalist the union says the board itself found dishonest during hiring.
The union representing most Newark Public Library staff has formally asked Mayor Ras J. Baraka to order an immediate investigation of the library's Board of Trustees, with an eye toward recomposing the board, in a letter dated Monday, Nov. 2.
AFSCME Local 2298, led by president Beth Zak-Cohen, says the search for a new library director — the system's fourth in less than ten years — excluded union and non-administrative staff from the search committee and gave staff almost no time to weigh in: candidates were introduced on Sept. 22 and 23, the union says, and staff feedback was due Sept. 23 on 40 minutes' notice. The union also says a recording of the board's closed Sept. 23 personnel session was posted on the library's own website, capturing board members making what the union describes as hostile comments about the union, the staff and local media.
The churn at the top is a matter of record in the union's account: Jeffrey Trzeciak served from 2017 to 2019, Joslyn Bowling-Dixon from 2020 to 2022 and Christian Zabriskie from 2023 to 2025 — each two years or fewer — and the library currently has neither a director nor an interim, after the interim hire left abruptly in September. The board voted 4-2-2 on Oct. 1 to enter negotiations with one candidate, a step the union says the board took despite acknowledging that candidate's dishonesty during the hiring process.
The letter asks the mayor to investigate and to consider recomposing the board. The claims in the letter are the union's; the board and the mayor's office had offered no public response in the material the desk reviewed Monday, and Newark Brick City News reports the request as the opening move in a dispute over who runs one of the city's anchor institutions.
