Library director selection in final phase

Staff members of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District are filled with cautious optimism as the search for a new executive director enters its final phase this week.

Today interim director Carl Rowe begins negotiating with Daniel L. Walters, director of the public library system in Buffalo, N.Y., for the position left vacant when former director Darrell Batson resigned under fire more than eight months ago.

Walters was the top choice of three candidates who were described as among the best in their field.

The Washington state native, vying for a job that will pay between $95,000 and $129,000 a year, received seven of eight votes cast by district board members Saturday.

Two board members, Lawrence Weekly and Barbara Robinson, were absent when the decision was made to offer the job to Walters. Linda Penton Dougan was the sole dissenter in the vote for the director.

Walters said it is the role of library districts to help in the process of change, not only to provide information.

"The public library needs to be more of a change agent," he said, "rather than a passive collector."

Walters became director of the Buffalo library in 1995. Prior to that he was director of the Spokane (Wash.) Public Library from 1989 to 1995. He began his career in 1976 as a librarian in the North Central Regional Library in Wenatchee, Wash.

Walters has a bachelor's degree in English and a master's degree in library science.

Should negotiations with Walters fall through, the job would be offered to the Ramiro S. Salazar, director of the public library in Dallas.

Board members felt all three men were exceptional and could excel in the job, but among the deciding factors that tipped the scale to Walters' side was his experience in union negotiations, a strong background in dealing with state legislatures on funding issues and the fact that the district he now works for is structured like the one in Clark County -- the director works for no other government agency.

"I am exceptionally honored and thrilled to have the opportunity to come here," said Walters, who was reached at his hotel room prior to returning to Buffalo Sunday. "The only thing giving me hesitation is that things have moved very quickly in the last couple of days."

Walters said he will discuss the situation with his wife, Mary Petty, a librarian who was offered a teaching position last week, before giving the district a decision.

"There is tremendous potential here," Walters said. "The district controls its own fate."

If he takes the position, he said he looks forward to being able to work with the "tremendous resources available here."

Monteria (Monte) Hightower, a popular administrator in the district who early on had the backing of the staff for the executive director's job, says she is looking forward to working with Walters and feels he was a good choice, as were the other two candidates.

But whoever was selected, they were going to come under the scrutiny of a staff whose morale was described as about as low as it could go after four years of increasingly strident conflict between the board of trustees and employees.

One of the new director's main jobs will be to help the healing process.

"It was a very grueling experience," Hightower said of the conflict that resulted in employees joining the Teamsters Union.

Hightower gave Rowe, a business consultant for the Las Vegas firm of Fair, Anderson and Langerman, high marks for what he accomplished during his six months heading the troubled district.

The former head of the Las Vegas Housing Authority did not have the support of the staff when he first was selected by the Board of Trustees to step in as temporary director, but he soon gained their trust.

"None of us wanted (the consulting firm) in the beginning," Hightower said. "We felt we could have handled the situation, but the long and the short of it was that we needed the outside force to make the board and the staff take a long hard look at the situation."

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