INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Public Library is taking on a new strategy in its CEO search in the wake of major fallout over its board selecting an outside candidate for CEO instead of its interim leader Nichelle Hayes, prompting protests and the candidate to turn down the job.
The library's board of trustees announced two major steps toward filing the CEO vacancy: hiring a community-based interim CEO and later hiring another candidate for the permanent position.
Why is the library starting a new, refreshed CEO search? The board says there are many reasons, but one involves what they called a "significant breach of confidentiality late in the recently concluded search process."
Breach of confidentiality prompts new CEO search
According to the library's board of trustees, the breach may have resulted in an unnamed candidate withdrawing their name from consideration.
The board said a confidential investigation into the breach led them to believe the breach was initiated by a party involved in the search process with the goal of influencing the outcome.
Because the breach involves "sensitive HR-related processes and information," the board said there's little it can publicly disclose about the investigation.
The board initially decided to move ahead with the compromised search process, it now believes the breach was "serious enough" to warrant a fresh CEO search.
“It’s incredibly frustrating to find ourselves in this situation,” said Judge Joe Salinas, the library's current board chair. “But based on what we’ve learned, we cannot knowingly move forward under these conditions.”
Step 1: Hiring a community-based Interim CEO
The board says the interim CEO will be "a respected local leader drawn from outside the library's ranks." The board added that the interim CEO will not be a candidate for the permanent CEO position.
Salinas hopes that having a community-based interim library head with no designs on the permanent CEO job “will help us craft the fairest search for a new library CEO and a stable, productive environment for all library employees without regard to whether they’ve been vocal about the recent search or remained silent.”
He's referring to people being vocal in the form of protests.
The decision to not give Hayes — who had been serving as the library's interim CEO in recent months — the job sparked outrage from many people, including dozens who protested on the library's front steps.
Many voiced concerns that Hayes, a Black woman, may have missed the top job for reasons other than her qualifications.
The library plans to announce the appointment of the interim leader early next year.
"This interim leader’s top priority will be to listen to the voices of all our dedicated library staff and our patrons and ensure all are heard," Salinas said.
Step 2: Hiring a permanent CEO
When an interim CEO is appointed, the library's board of trustees will begin a new search process to find someone to fill the position permanently.
All previous candidates will be eligible for consideration in the new search process, which Salinas said will begin sometime in 2023.
“In the meantime, we’ll have an interim leader with a depth of experience bringing large organizations through periods of uncertainty who will work closely with current leadership," Salinas said.
"Significant public interest"
There was a tense board meeting Monday night, with a number of people there to voice their opposition to the board and its decision to not hire Hayes permanently.
During the more than two-hour meeting, the crowd broke into several chants of "We want Nichelle."
Many people spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting and accused the board of racism and willingly overlooking a qualified Black woman for the position.
The board voted 4-2 to hire Gabriel Morley, from Louisiana, earlier this month. He turned down the job 24 hours later.
There was a small group of people who were there in support of the library board and its decisions, but the majority were there to voice their frustrations.
When the meeting concluded, a motion to place the hiring of Hayes on the agenda failed.
Incoming board president Hope Tribble said that given the "significant public interest" in who will be the library's new CEO, the board is going to work to minimize the risk of any "irregularities" in a future search process.
“Clearly, our community cares deeply about its library, and the board respects and values that,” Tribble said. “We’re listening to the voices and perspectives of all library staff and patrons, not just the loudest. We examined every aspect of the CEO search to be certain our process met patrons’ expectations as well as our own. Ultimately, what we discovered met neither group’s expectations. The only fair thing to do is learn everything we can from this experience and start over.”
Salinas also said the library’s board of trustees understands that the current situation is deeply frustrating for library staff and members of the community.
At the same time, he said, “based on what the board is hearing from multiple constituencies, we believe the only way to bring about the healing our community needs is to identify and install a new CEO through a fair and untainted process.”