The city of Dallas is expected to interview library director candidates the first week of December, a little FrontBurnervian birdie told me, hopefully bringing the interim-director game to a close.
Don’t get too excited. The last round of interviews for candidates to replace Laurie Evans – who left more than two years ago – didn’t go too well. The position’s been handled recently by Kris Sweckard, who, by all accounts, is doing a stand-up job despite the fact that his most recent position within the city government prior to the library was in the Office of Environmental Quality.
Reading, clean air, same difference.
I chatted with city manager Mary Suhm at a D-related event in September. She was bullish, but cautious about saying too much about a new hire, and why it took the city so long to find a permanent director. (Hint: it’s because the city doesn’t fund its libraries close to the level of other major cities.)
Around the same time as my chat with Suhm, Unfair Park caught up with city spokesman Frank Librio:
“Mary’s thinking was the economy’s still tenuous, … maybe we should wait until the economy turns around, put more money into the materials budget, and get the library system up to more competitive level so Dallas is more attractive” to a candidate, Librio says.
Guess we’ll find out if that worked in December.
