{"id":127456,"date":"2026-05-04T14:44:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T20:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-library-board-orders-workplace-review-amid-complaints\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T09:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T15:36:15","slug":"dolores-library-board-orders-workplace-review-amid-complaints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-library-board-orders-workplace-review-amid-complaints\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolores Library Board orders workplace review amid complaints"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Dolores Library Board will commission an independent workplace assessment to evaluate the workplace environment after receiving complaints in the past four months. (The Journal file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DOLORES \u2013 Conflict within the Dolores Library District Board resurfaced Friday as trustees discussed a series of anonymous complaints about Executive Director Sean Gantt\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n

A special meeting was called to discuss five recent complaints board president Sandy Jumper said she received in the past four months.<\/p>\n

The board planned an executive session to discuss personnel matters \u2013 a meeting Gantt asked to attend.<\/p>\n

When that request was denied, he said he had no other option but to ask that the conservation occur publicly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to make sure the director understands that he is forgoing confidentially went it comes to personnel records and information,\u201d said Emily Wisner, a board trustee, during the special meeting Friday.<\/p>\n

Gantt responded: \u201cI waive no rights. \u2026 I would caution you to be careful what you say in an open, public meeting. I am forced to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee Hallberg, a board trustee, then added: \u201cYou are not forced to. You could let us hold an executive session without being there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo I need to have legal counsel present?\u201d Gantt responded. \u201dI don\u2019t even understand what this meeting is about.\u201d<\/p>\n

The meeting began in a tense atmosphere and continued with moments of visible friction, reflecting monthslong strife between a divided board. Voices were raised at times.<\/p>\n

In the months leading up to the special meeting, conflict involved questions over governance and board behavior. The board formally censured a member in late November \u2013 Hassan Hourmanesh who has since resigned. The board hired legal counsel after several contentious meetings drawing the public eye toward a library otherwise operating strongly, one with steady patron use and programming for all ages.<\/p>\n

The board now has one vacancy.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Dolores Library District Board addresses complaints about the library\u2019s workplace on Friday. (Anna Watson\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Gantt, who has been at the helm for six years, said the complaints were largely new to him and questioned the lack of detail, saying he only received a summary and did not know what specific policies he may have violated.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn these more recent comments, there seems to be references toward inappropriate comments, inappropriate language,\u201d Gantt said. \u201cSo if these complaints are saying I did something that violated our policy, I would like to know what that is.\u201d<\/p>\n

He maintained that his day-to-day experience reflects a supportive workplace and strong community response to library programs. He acknowledged there may be areas to improve but said he believes the library is doing well overall and that some issues, like a payroll error, were mistakes he has corrected.<\/p>\n

A board member during the meeting referenced 17 complaints \u2013 which came from a public survey distributed mid-2025 \u2013 about the overall library environment. Those responses occurred during the development of the library\u2019s Strategic Plan.<\/p>\n

Belinda Platts, a newly appointed trustee who previously served on the board, urged the group to take a larger perspective on what the percentage of complaints means. The 17 complaints were from 128 responses to the earlier survey.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeventeen negative comments are a small portion of the hundreds of patrons we serve,\u201d Platts said. \u201cIt\u2019s like, OK, are people just dissatisfied, or is there something more problematic?\u201d<\/p>\n

However, other members expressed deeper concern. Jumper noted the complaints made recently were submitted through the \u201cContact the Board\u201d portal under the governance section on the library\u2019s website or handed in-person through a dropbox.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not all negative about the library, its in spite of,\u201d Jumper said.<\/p>\n

Hallberg said many of the complaints \u201chave an aura of fear to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe the community is speaking very loudly, and it is in our duty to address this,\u201d Hallberg said.<\/p>\n

The meeting\u2019s outcome was a decision to move forward with an independent workplace assessment before taking further action. The outside consultant will survey staff and board members anonymously to evaluate the work environment.<\/p>\n

Jumper said Luminary Consulting, a Durango firm, will take three weeks to distribute surveys and analyze data. She said she expects consultants to provide results in a presentation or graphic to the board while ensuring respondents are unidentifiable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason I am bringing this up is I have written, documented incidents that have upset people,\u201d Jumper said. \u201cWe need to start recognizing there are potentially issues we need to address.\u201d<\/p>\n

awatson@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the number of recent complaints and has since been updated Tuesday morning to clarify the purpose of Friday\u2019s special meeting.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

meeting highlights ongoing conflict within library leadership<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[44,28,29,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-127456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-dolores","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127456"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127578,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127456\/revisions\/127578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127456"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=127456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}