By Dan Murphy
Visitors to the Scarsdale Public Library may have noticed someone picketing outside with a sign that reads “Heartless Treatment of Library Staff.” That person is Robin Stettnisch, pictured left,who worked as a librarian since 1989.
In 2017, the library was preparing to close for a $21,000,000 expansion. Yet while millions were lavishly spent on the expansion, long-term employees received harrowing news. Scarsdale Library Director, Elizabeth Bermel, announced all the part-timers would lose their jobs and there would be no guarantee of a job when the library reopened. If an employee were lucky enough to be rehired, they would be forced to start back at an entry level salary – as if they were a completely new employee.
Robin Stettnisch, an employee for more than 25 years, chose to stand up for herself and what she believes is right – and her pleas for reconsideration fell on deaf ears.
Fifteen months ago, Stettnisch began to picket in front of the library.
Stettnisch started working there in 1988 at 22 years old, as a clerk and then as a librarian trainee, as she obtained her Masters in Library Science degree. She was a full-time librarian for 11 years before making the hard decision to go part-time to take care of her first child.
By the time of the library expansion her eldest son was preparing to go to college and her salary was more important than ever. A salary reset would be devastating to the family’s finances not only in the present but the future as well, since retirement earnings are partly based on your final average salary. Stettnisch explained, “Each year of service your salary slowly goes up because there are Union raises, so every year counts. For Scarsdale to choose to fund a lavish $21.7 million dollar “Taj Mahal” library expansion partially on the backs of their dedicated employees is truly unconscionable. And all of this happening in the 2nd wealthiest town in America!
While the powers that be have convinced themselves that purposely destroying employees was “fiscally responsible,” I believe most people will instead find it “morally reprehensible.”
Stettnisch met privately with the Library Director on 12-15-2017, and Bermel told her how highly she thought of Stettnisch (proven because she was one of only two librarians rehired to work at the temporary library Loft location) and promised she would get her job and salary back when the library reopened. “The Director gave me her word, so I trusted her. When the renovation was complete, she never followed through on that promise or gave me the professional courtesy of even discussing it with me. She completely ghosted me,” said Stettnisch.
Bermel and other library staff were familiar with Stettnisch’s family, who had suffered multiple traumas in past years on top of the loss of job and salary. Five years ago, her nephew, Gage Bellitto, tragically overdosed in his dorm at Columbia University while his uncle was mere feet away, desperately begging security and the dorm manager to check on him, to no avail. The Stettnisch family is currently trying to get a law passed so that if there is ever a concern for a student’s life, an immediate check must be done.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Stettnisch’s brother and Gage’s Dad, Eastchester Town Councilman Glenn D. Bellitto, suddenly passed from COVID-19. The family was reeling from a second tragic loss. “The director knew the heartache my family has been through,” said Stettnisch.
When the library reopened, new people were hired at an entry-level salary and Stettnisch never got her job back as promised. In August 2021 Stettnisch contacted the Mayor and Village Board, Library Board, and Friends of the Library Board, but received no response. 2 months after being completely ignored, Stettnisch started to picket in October 2021, which required a lot of courage, especially in a wealthy community like Scarsdale. “I was nervous and I didn’t know what to expect,” recalled Stettnisch. But the support it garnered has made her time protesting much easier. On her first day of picketing, two Scarsdale High School students approached and told Stettnisch they respected what she was doing and admired her courage.
Another encounter Stettnisch had was with a father, who stopped to tell her about his young daughter. He hopes his daughter learns from what Stettnisch is doing and will follow in her footsteps by sticking up for herself and for what’s right by demanding justice in a peaceful, powerful way. “The positive ripple effect I seem to be having has been so inspiring. I’m so grateful people stop to talk to me and offer to help. Even people driving by honk, give me thumbs up, or a little wave. They all make a difference – they give me the courage to never give up, ” explained Stettnisch.
In November 2021, after only 1 month of picketing, Stettnisch saw the chance to make things right. A new hire had quit and the library was once again advertising for a librarian, so Stettnisch sent an email to the Library Board, Mayor and Village Board, Friends of the Library Board, and library director, offering that if her job and salary were given back to her as promised, she would end picketing. She received a terse response from the mayor saying she cannot comment on personnel.
Then, the library went on to hire someone new at an entry-level salary. Stettnisch said, “It’s heartless to continually be ignored. And the hypocrisy is absolutely unreal as the powers that be in Scarsdale tout the importance of acting with integrity, and being loving and kind – while at the same time purposefully emotionally and financially devastating dedicated employees and their families.
And, showing their absolute lack of integrity yet again – the Library Board recently issued a deceitful statement about me which I have completely rebutted. Also, the local press has squashed stories as well as had proof that the Library Director promised me my job and salary back, yet they publicly proclaimed there was no proof. A true circling of the wagons. No matter – truth and justice will prevail,” says Stettnisch.
After 15 months of picketing there has yet to be any progress with Stettnisch’s case and she says that “the endgame is for me to get my job and salary back as promised as well as payment for all the months I should have been working. In 2017, distraught library employees went to the CSEA Union for help and were told they couldn’t help us because, and I quote- “What the library is doing to all of you is “Sh*tty but Legal.”
And so ultimately the big question is, as Stettnisch puts it: “It may be legal—but is it moral, ethical, or kind?”
The Scarsdale Library issued a statement that says in part, “An appropriate pathway exists for current or former employees to have any concern or grievance heard and considered. However, members of the public should note that the Scarsdale Public Library was extremely transparent throughout the library renovation and addition project, having also exceeded our regulatory responsibilities in implementing necessary workforce reductions. Because the Library expected 54 Olmsted to be closed for construction for at least two years, we were unable to make forward-looking commitments of continuing employment to any personnel released through our necessary workforce reduction. Rather, we exerted exceptional effort to assist such personnel in making the transition to retirement or other employment, as best met the needs of each of our former staff. Our current staffing levels and compensation plan reflect current operating needs and our commitment to fiscal stewardship.”
Editor’s Note: The decision by the Scarsdale Library to fire their part-time employees during their renovation was the wrong one to make, in our view. Part-time employees making less than $30,000 per year could have been kept on the payroll, or put to work at other locations in the Village. To punish those making the least amount of money makes no sense, and is not the decent thing to do.
