Author’s Note: This article includes an update from an interview with Scarsdale Public Library Director Elizabeth Bermel. The update was revised on July 14th, 2022 to accommodate suggestions by Bermel.

In 2017, the Scarsdale Public Library announced it would be closing for a $21,000,000 renovation. Yet while millions of dollars were lavishly spent on the library’s expansion, long-term employees received harrowing news. Shortly after the renovation announcement, the Scarsdale Library Director revealed that all part-time workers would be fired and that there would be no guarantee of a job once the library reopened. If an employee were lucky enough to be rehired, they would be forced to start back at an entry-level salary. Robin Stettnisch, an employee of 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. Last October, Stettnisch began to picket in front of the library. 

Stettnisch started working at the Scarsdale Library when she was just 23 years old and continued to work full-time for 11 years as a librarian before she made the hard decision to go part-time so that she could take care of her first child. By the time of the renovation, her eldest son was preparing to go to college, and her salary was more important than ever. A salary reset would be devastating for the family’s finances. “Each year, your salary slowly goes up because there are union raises,” explains Stettnisch. “So, every year counts. It financially devastates my family in the present as well as in the future because retirement earnings are partly based on final average salary.” When a visibly upset Stettnisch met privately with Scarsdale Library Director, Elizabeth Bermel, on December 15, 2017, Bermel told her how highly she thought of Stettnisch and promised she would get her job and salary back. “She 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.

Working at the Scarsdale Library provided Stettnisch with not only a stable income but also a community that she could rely on. Even after switching to part-time, Stettnisch remained close with the other library staffers, which made the situation all the more painful. “The library was like my second family,” remarked Stettnisch. “My wedding shower was given by my friends there. My baby showers too.” Bermel and other library staff were familiar with Stettnisch’s family, who had suffered multiple traumas in the past years on top of the loss of job and salary. Four years ago, Stettnisch’s nephew, Gage Belitto, 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. If passed, the law will be called Gage’s Law in honor of their nephew. The Stettnisch family hopes that with this law, lives will be saved. 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 Mrs. Stettnisch never got her job back as promised. This past August, Mrs. Stettnisch contacted the Village Mayor, the entire Village Board, the Library Board, and the Friends of the Library Board, but received no response. Seeing no progress, Stettnisch felt she needed to evoke a response and believed the only way of doing so was a public protest. She started to picket two months after reaching out about her plight and being completely ignored.

Picketing required a lot of courage, especially in a community like Scarsdale, the second wealthiest town in America. “I was nervous and I didn’t know what to expect as I’ve never done anything like this before,” recalled Stettnisch. But the support it garnered has made her time protesting much easier. On her first day of picketing, two high school girls approached and told Stettnisch they respected what she was doing and admired her courage. That small encounter gave her the strength to continue her protest long-term and reaffirmed the impact of her actions. 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 in 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 even stopped to talk to me and take the time to read the flier and offer to help. Even people driving by honk, give me thumbs up, or a little wave. These sound like small things but they really aren’t. They all make a difference–they give me the courage to not give up. Having the backing of the public has been huge,” explained Stettnisch.  

A month after picketing there was still no response from the library. On top of the part-time librarian job she is working at, Stettnisch still has two sons at home and a bedridden mother to care for. Despite her tight schedule, she can picket for up to 7 hours at a time. In November, 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 mayor, Library Board, Friends of the Library Board, and library director, offering that if her job and salary were given back to her, she would end picketing. Stettnisch mentioned her personal tragedies and how she did not want to continue the conflict. She received a terse response from the mayor saying she cannot comment on personnel in response to her lengthy email. Then, the library went on to hire someone new at an entry-level salary. “It’s heartless to continually be ignored,” commented Stettnisch. 

Even her attempts to spread her story through news outlets were met with barriers. The Scarsdale Inquirer eventually published a story in which the library director would neither confirm nor deny meeting privately with Stettnisch and promising her job and salary back. Other Scarsdale sites are reluctant to tell her story. Scarsdale 10583, Scarsdale Hamlethub, and the Scarsdale Daily Voice never responded to Stettnisch’s multiple requests for news coverage, and even her post on Facebook’s Scarsdale Social and Scarsdale Issues were met with significant controversy. “Very soon after my story got posted, the Scarsdale Social administrator sent me a message saying that both current and former Library Board members had contacted her and were opposing my post. The administrator ultimately decided the debate that allowing my post would create was not appropriate for that site and so took it down. The Scarsdale Issues administrator also alerted me that she received ‘pushback’ soon after allowing my post,” said Stettnisch.

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. When the library director first told the part-timers they all would be fired and revert back to entry-level salaries if rehired, the staff was understandably distraught. We went to the CSEA Union for help and were told, and I quote, ‘What the library is doing to all of you is  sh***y but legal.'” 

And so ultimately the big question is, as Stettnisch puts it: “It may be legal—but is it moral, ethical, or kind?”

**UPDATE**

Elizabeth Bermel has been a librarian for 28 years, and has served as the Director of the Scarsdale Public Library for the past 12. Bermel has had plenty of experience as a supervisor and administrator, including being a manager at grocery stores since she was just 16 years old. “I’ve been supervising people for almost my entire life,” commented Bermel. 

According to Bermel, part-time employees were technically never fired, rather, the positions were eliminated in 2018. Back when the library was first planning the renovation, it was unclear how big the project would be. However, all talks on renovation were made public. “We posted all this information on our website, with the village and in the press,” explained Bermel. Public discussions began in 2014, internal discussions and research began as early as 2010. Additionally, staff were kept apprised of progress through all stages of project planning and implementation.

If the library did not find a temporary location during construction, or enter into a contract at significant cost with another local library, the Scarsdale Library would be in violation of their agreement with the Westchester Library System, and New York State mandates. Working with Village staff and Board, the library board decided that it would be best to have a temporary location at the Supply Field building. Assemblywoman Amy Paulin was able to secure a state grant to offset the needed improvements for the space. While people could continue to borrow books and DVDs, the Loft was small and shared parking space with a nearby ball field. “The agreement was that our hours would not conflict with the use of the ball fields for parking … So most of the year, we were only open eight to three, because kids would come after school to use the fields,” recalls Bermel. As a result, there was neither space nor need for all the part-timers. The library is subjected to the rules of Westchester County’s human resources department. Bermel discussed the issue at hand with the village’s human resources Director and the union president. “Civil Service says you cannot just hold positions open for the period of time that you would be closed, and we knew that the renovation was going to take two years,” Bermel says. However, renovations ended up being close to three years due to COVID. “We eliminated the [part-time] positions because of the space and the services that we just weren’t offered … That was our only option given to us by the county,” Bermel explains. 

Though the library was under no obligation to do so, Director Bermel linked personnel to a host of employment resources and provided letters of recommendation. Knowing this situation was on the horizon, the library also left many full-time and part-time positions open, due to attrition, to reduce the number of lost jobs. Though the library cannot comment on specific personnel matters, the library does note in a memo that “An appropriate pathway exists for current or former employees to have any concern or grievance heard and considered.” According to Bermel, now four years later and in the renovated building, the Library’s staffing levels and compensation plan reflect current operating needs and the Library’s commitment to fiscal stewardship.

Regarding Stettnisch’s case, Stettnisch worked for Bermel from 2009 to 2020. The conversations between the two remain confidential; however, the official letter from the library to employees whose jobs were eliminated is public and does not include any promise of future employment. The library board is aware of Stettnisch’s picketing and acknowledges that it is her first amendment right. “We are a library and we support freedom of speech,” Bermel says. “The library board has the same philosophy that this is her right to [picket], and as long as she is not impeding people walking in, just like any other protest or demonstration, we would let her do it,” added Bermel.

Since the start of Stettnisch’s picketing, only two other Scarsdale residents have come to Bermel to speak on the situation. In response to the complaints, Bermel sent them both the official statement prepared by the Library (link here) that offers explanations about Civil Service employment.

The library has not received any other complaints from former employees.