$160,000 needed to attract library director, board says

Saying the state's cap on public officials' pay could handicap the search for a new Hennepin County library director, the county board voted Tuesday to seek an exemption that would allow compensation for a new director to reach up to $160,000 a year.

Commissioner Peter McLaughlin said before the vote that the county's library system ranks in the top 15 in the nation and that competition is stiff for good leaders in the field.

"The salary limitations could be problematic in attracting the kind of leader we want for our library system," McLaughlin said.

Former Director Amy Ryan, who left this month to run the Boston public libraries, made about $140,000 a year, said county Administrator Richard Johnson. In a recent survey of similar library systems, the average compensation for library directors was $156,562, according to the county. That's nearly $12,000 more than the county could now offer.

Under a 2005 state law that limits public employee compensation to 110 percent of the governor's salary but allows inflationary increases without needing a state waiver, the Hennepin library director's pay would be capped at $144,711.

Hennepin County's waiver request is expected to be the first the state has considered since the 2005 law change, said Chad Thuet, compensation manager in the state Department of Finance and Employee Relations. The previous limit was 95 percent of the governor's salary.

The county has had "spotty" success in seeking pay limit waivers, Johnson said. Requests to increase pay for three job classes tied to Hennepin County Medical Center were approved by the state in 1996. In 2000, one waiver was granted and two others were granted at lower pay levels than the county had sought. A 2004 waiver request for the library director was denied.

The county will submit a form making the case for a waiver and the department will look at issues such as how much special expertise a new director needs and what pay rates for similar jobs are around the state and nation, Thuet said. The final decision rests with the department commissioner.

Johnson said he hopes to have a library director hired early next year.

While the consolidation of the county and Minneapolis libraries is going well in its ninth month, the job is bigger than organizational challenges, McLaughlin said.

"The core of the job is creating a vision for what the 21st century library looks like in a sprawling county of over 1 million people, from corn fields in the west to [urban neighborhoods] in Minneapolis," McLaughlin said.

Mary Jane Smetanka • 612-673-7380