Commentary: If layoffs are inevitable at TRL, start at the top  

Published 3:58 pm Sunday, March 8, 2026

Librarians are my favorite people. They are underpaid, underappreciated and under attack by book-banners and other mouth-breathing enemies of the First Amendment. We desperately need librarians on the front lines in the war for a civil society.

The 17 years I spent at the State Library in Tumwater, while also working with the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library in Seattle, were among the happiest and most productive of my career. It was heartbreaking when the Trump Administration’s withdrawal of federal funds for cultural institutions led to the layoff of so many talented library workers nationwide.

Librarians are simultaneously orderly and inventive. They’re curious, open-minded, accepting and, above all, helpful. If you’re trying to repair the transmission of an F-150 pickup truck, research a homework assignment, or find a great mystery novel, just ask a librarian. They often have miscellaneous other talents, too, such as knowing how to mend a raven’s injured wing or where to find the best chanterelles.

For my 6th birthday, I received the children’s edition of a book called “Kon-Tiki,” the saga of an epic raft journey across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands. It was a fantastic story of migratory anthropology. In fourth grade, when I graduated to chapter books, I read the grown-up version so many times that my feat merited a mention in The Aberdeen Daily World’s story about the top readers in the Public Library’s Summer Reading Club for kids.

The big children’s room on the first floor of Aberdeen’s original Carnegie Library had its own entrance. I was there for hours practically every Saturday. Thirty years later, more than once, I saw a rootless young Kurt Cobain curled up in a beanbag chair at the Aberdeen Library, reading books about the Beatles. The library was a safe place — warm, dry, illuminating. Perhaps more than ever today.

Rosalie Spellman, Aberdeen’s longtime librarian, personified her calling. A motherly woman with a radiant smile, she was welcoming, whip-smart and kind. She was also my Sunday School teacher, pasting little lamb attendance stickers in my zippered Bible. When I started junior high, she drafted me as one of her pages. We learned the Dewey Decimal system for cataloging books, kept the newspapers and magazines tidy, and as we advanced in her circle of trust, helped find answers for patrons’ questions.

In 1966, when I joined the newsroom at The Daily World, Mrs. Spellman was busy promoting the Timberland Regional Library Demonstration Project, a five-county consortium to enhance library collections and patron access to services, particularly for under-served rural areas of Southwest Washington. She was one of Timberland’s true visionaries, addressing city councils and service clubs on the merits of joining forces to better serve the taxpayers. Fears that cities would lose all oversight of library management were parochial, she emphasized. More books, more librarians, better facilities and more efficient centralized management would greatly out-weigh concerns over local control. Mrs. Spellman noted that the plan called for a proactive board of locally appointed trustees, with each county duly represented by someone passionate about libraries.

I wrote several stories about the project. And Timberland, in due course, became a reality. If Rosalie were still alive, she would be appalled at the administrative incompetence that has transformed the “T” in TRL to Toxic.

‘Half-baked, ham-handed’

TRL’s administration seems to have learned nothing from the outcry over the half-baked, ham-handed Capital Facilities Plan it rolled out in 2018 without full board involvement. Among other things, the plan proposed closing the Hoquiam Library, TRL’s National Historic Site jewel. The Montesano Library, another cultural landmark, was also tentatively on the chopping block, together with Amanda Park and Oakville.

To make amends, the administration organized “listening” forums around the five-county TRL network, promising to promote transparency.

Now comes the abrupt revelation that TRL is facing a substantial budget shortfall — at least $3.8 million, maybe more — never mind that the executive director, a key deputy and the HR director have received substantial recent raises. TRL is projected to spend around $445,000 on top management in 2026, plus an “employee experiences adviser.” Not sure what that person does or will do. But judging from the blizzard of frowning emojis that descended on the TLR trustees at a recent three-hour Zoom meeting, the library’s employees are experiencing betrayal.

Their indignation was championed by retired TRL employees, union representatives and city council members, as well as patrons from every corner of the collaborative. Stories way too detailed to be merely hearsay addressed spending on dubious remodeling projects; low employee morale; Friends groups treated like enemies; local history collections divested; deaf ears to suggestions on ways to raise revenues; unkept promises, and hollow platitudes that “public trust is our most valued resource.”

Though indignation was often palpable, no one shouted. And, to their credit, the trustees also modeled civility. I am not suggesting they are insincere — just bamboozled. That two seats are presently vacant does not help. We are under-represented at the worst possible time.

At 9 p.m., the unhappy session ended with a unanimous vote to proceed with collective bargaining to implement layoffs.

Time for regime change

Any objective observer of all this — not to mention the 2018 fiasco — would conclude it’s time for regime change to ensure our vital regional library system survives with its branches still in place, with real human beings instead of keycards and surveillance cameras. If cut we must, let’s start at the top. And roll back the administration’s raises by at least 10% in a show of solidarity with the staff.

“You serve the public — not the administration!” one attendee admonished the trustees.

I know that Dustin Loup, the Grays Harbor County trustee, shared my chagrin over what happened eight years ago. I’m hoping he will now emerge as a voice of reason for meaningful change.

But if, after all they’ve heard and read about the administration’s tone-deaf “management,” the board still believes the executive director merits what amounts to a vote of confidence, we may need new trustees as well.

John C. Hughes was chief historian for the Office of the Secretary of State for 17 years after retiring as editor and publisher of The Daily World in 2008.