Five months after Teddie Riehl resigned from the Espanola Public Library as the library director, the city of Española has yet to start the process to hire a replacement.
The position of library director is not an appointed position, so the city must advertise the job opening to fill the vacancy. Due to the personnel analyst’s absence for a family emergency and the city’s need to fill other vacancies first, interim city manager Joe Duran said he expects the city to begin advertising the job opening in the next two to three weeks.
To start the hiring process, Recreation Director Duran said Len Cata will form a hiring committee, comprised of city officials and area library professionals. Cata will next submit a recruitment request to Duran and city clerk Tessa Jo Mascareñas, who will then update the job description and details before advertising the opening.
Once the committee has submitted the recruitment request, the city can advertise the job opening through the local media and other resources. According to the city employees’ labor union regulations, the city must consider both internal and external candidates for the position. Duran said they will either set a deadline for the job applicants to apply or close the job opening when enough qualified candidates have applied.
When a qualified pool of applicants has been collected, Cata will assemble an interviewing panel made up of library board directors and possibly state library workers to choose three candidates for him and Duran to ultimately select as Espanola’s next library director, Duran said.
Cata did not return repeated phone and email messages to offer a detailed description of the hiring process, a time line as to how long the process will take or any names of possible new hires that may have surfaced.
While the city continues to drag its feet on the hiring process, many are left wondering who is actually running the Espanola Public Library?
Sherri Aragon, formerly a library clerk at the Espanola Public Library, was appointed as the interim library director by Mayor Alice Lucero approximately two months ago, according to Duran. Aragon is making approximately 10 percent less than Riehl’s $42,000 library director’s salary. Aragon earns $37,440 a year but is listed as library director, not “interim” library director.
Aragon would not answer questions asked of her in person.
Duran spoke highly of Aragon’s ability to do the job and her continued achievements at the library, even stating that she was up for an employee of the month award at the last Council meeting. Aragon was not able to attend the meeting, but she is expected to receive the award at the next Council meeting on Nov. 26.
Duran said Aragon is more than welcome to apply to become the permanent library director, although, if she does the city will be forced to fill her library clerk vacancy. Duran said the library clerk search would follow a similar pattern to the library director’s search.
When asked what the qualifications are for the library clerk position, Aragon refused to comment, and instead deferred to Cata and Duran. Aragon also refused to comment on whether or not the interim library director maintains the same hiring and firing capabilities and fund raising responsibilities as the permanent library director holds.