(Above: Board Chair Darryl Gray with Tracy Munusami and Vice Chair Kelly Broome at the meeting on 15 April 2026. Also shown Cllr Victor Woodhouse and Cllr Trevor Morrison.)

Tomorrow (Wednesday 17 June 2026) Newmarket Public Library Board will have another chance to talk about the staff deputation on 15 April 2026 on safety and security at the library. For me it was quite dramatic, hearing staff speak out powerfully and cogently on issues and concerns that had been swept under the carpet by the Library CEO, Tracy Munusami.

There is a short report on the agenda from Ms Munusami which tells us there’s really nothing to worry about. Sure, some people with mental health and behavioural issues can cause problems requiring a staff response but, take it from her, everything is under control. We are told that libraries across the country are facing the same sort of challenges.

Whoa… Not so fast!

The staff made very specific and detailed observations – documented by Newmarket Today and available here (Click “Read More” below). 

We learn staff are left in the library while management regularly go AWOL and are nowhere to be seen. Curiously, this happens most often on Thursdays and Saturdays. 

Personally, on a salary of $182,000, I think the CEO should spend more time in the building and less at home with her feet up.

Sulphurous

The atmosphere in the Library can be sulphurous. Library staff are not happy – as evidenced by the “engagement survey” quoted by the staff deputation to the Board. Staff have concerns about trust and senior leadership. They believe they are not listened to.

Plainly, they feel intimidated by the Chief Executive with her trademark death stare. Indeed, the staff made a point of asking to meet with the Board without management present. Staff felt “censored”, ignored and kept in the dark by the CEO.

As it happens, the Library Chair did meet staff to talk about their concerns. But my spies tell me Tracy Munusami was there, perched on Darryl’s shoulder, listening, watching and remembering everything. 

At the 15 April meeting, Board member Beth Stevenson raised the issue of security in the library, asking if a security firm was involved in any way. 

The Chief Executive said security had been addressed in a 2022 report (which was after her appointment as CEO in August 2021)

“and so we have that reference”

Beth Stevenson thought the 2022 report could be relevant but it doesn’t even rate a mention in the CEO’s Safety, Security and Risk Mitigation report which is tabled “for information” tomorrow.

“Incidences of concern”

In her report Ms Munusami says they were 14 “incidences of concern” reported in the two years 2024 and 2025. Lower down on the same page the number is given as 12. How is it possible to make such a sloppy mistake?

I know that Ms Munusami is cavalier when it comes to library statistics but still… I am left wondering where these numbers come from and how and why they differ from the numbers reported by staff.

The salary of the Library’s Chief Executive is determined with reference to nine other libraries, deemed comparable. In at least two of these comparable library systems – Barrie and Vaughan – security personnel have a part to play. 

There are no security people at Newmarket Library.

In her report, the Chief Executive says she has taken 

“several proactive steps to strengthen the approach to safety and risk management”

including

“increased management presence”.

This is directly contradicted by staff who jot down which managers are present in the building at any given point.

She says management remains:

“actively involved in supporting staff and ensuring consistent decision-making in most major incidents”.

What is a major incident? Where are the definitions? Why are management staff not there and involved in all of them?

Terrified

We are told management promotes

“kindness, empathy and professionalism in all interactions”

But I get the distinct impression that staff are terrified of the CEO who, despite all the hype, casts a very long shadow across the Library.

That said, I am surprised she terrifies people. Since my deputation to the Board on library statistics on 17 December 2025 I have been sitting in on subsequent Board meetings. I had to do this to find out what was going on as the Board meetings are not streamed (they should be). If you’re not there, and rely on the minutes for illumination, you won’t have a clue what’s happening. You are seriously in the dark. 

The CEO says next to nothing in Board meetings with monosyllabic responses being par for the course. I have rarely come across someone in such a senior position who says so little – in such a hesitant and whispery voice – and is so guarded. 

She has been notably silent on the work that is being done on Library metrics which is being led by Neila Poscente.

That topic is also on tomorrow’s agenda.

Inaccurate

Newmarket Public Library’s Reports to the Community – posted on the website - continue to this day to contain inaccurate statistics. I doubt they will ever be corrected.

The Province doesn’t check – or do any kind of audit – on the figures submitted by libraries as part of the Annual Survey of Public Libraries (ASPL). (But in January this year, following my own deputation to the Board on library statistics, the Province did change the official definition of “active library cardholder” to address the confusion in the library world that I highlighted.)

In March I filed a Freedom of Information request with the Province requesting records relating to the last six occasions when a public library in Ontario sought to change its submission to the ASPL after it had been sent in to the Ministry.

“Please include records where the Ministry has requested an explanation from the library where one was not provided initially and the library’s response.”

The answer tells me Newmarket can file whatever figures it wants and the Province is never going to check for accuracy. It’s all about self-reporting and trust. A bit like filing your taxes. Only the CRA is lurking, ready to pounce.

Change agent

Seems to me Newmarket Council bends over backwards to be kind to Ms Munusami. I think they like to see her as a powerful change agent. Someone who can ruffle a few feathers and shake up the old ways of doing things. 

But she has been in the job for almost five years now and has, in reality, very little to show for it – except a fresh coat of paint for the library, loyal employees forced out and an unhappy and alienated staff. 

But what about the (endlessly hyped) outreach initiative? 

Nah! This is all about bulking up the membership numbers, whether the new recruits use the library or not.

That says it all.

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Staff Deputation on safety and security at Newmarket Public Library 15 April 2026 

(NOTE: transcribed from an audio recording. Check for accuracy with any official recording held with the NPL).

Staff Representative Amanda Pearson (CUPE Steward): Hi, everybody, thanks for having us. I know about the 5 minutes but I'll just, can I go ahead and start… Okay, perfect. So a year ago, I met with all of you to share some challenges that the unionized Staff have been experiencing. 

After we had our deputation some of the board members had asked us to provide further information regarding how often these matters occur, and I'm here to provide an update on where things sit currently. 

So, our first topic is staffing, specifically, tech 2s being in charge when a manager/ supervisor is not available. When this occurs, a tech 2 is asked to close. This means there's no supervisor manager in the building. An email goes out letting staff know, which tech 2 is the person in charge. 

As of April 15th, 2026, there have been 39 times over the last 2 years that tech 2s have been the person in charge. There have been 10 times where tech 2s have had to partially be the person in charge when a manager or a supervisor steps out for part of the day. These totals don't include the times where tech 2s are mentioned in a team's chat, that tech 2s are in the building when a manager supervisor goes for a meal break. Most of these occurrences are on Thursdays and Saturdays. 

As a person in charge, the tech 2 is only compensated for 15 minutes for closing if assigned. However, it's not always just closing as there are incidents that occur and must be dealt with during those shifts. 

Second topic, health and safety. Staff don't feel supported when you can't find a manager or supervisor to support a situation. For example, on Thursday, April 9th, we had an incident where an individual wanted to speak to a manager, to support the library assistant, who's with the customer on the desk, and went to find a manager. No one was available or in the building. Only the administrative coordinator was in the building to support. 

Recently, we abruptly lost our manager of collections and customer service. This position had been vacant since June 25, 2025. And the new manager was not even in the role for 2 months. This is very disruptive to staff as before June 2025 we had a manager who was always in the building to support the staff. Given the incidents that occur in the library, this management rule and presence is crucial to staff for feeling supported and safe. 

To provide some further stats to the board, I wanted to highlight how many incidents we have had in our CRM (Customer Relationship Management) over the last two years. 

Washroom issues, 47. 

Security issues, drug use on library, property, washrooms, vaping, 21. 

Security issues, drinking, three. 

Security issues, inappropriate customer behaviour, 20. 

Security issues, safety of staff, customers, 42. 

Community fridge, safety, 6.

Snow removal 5. 

This list does not include all the indirect comments staff hear from customers and the actual number of incidents is higher on many of these issues. I'd like to take a moment to highlight three incidences that have affected staff and customer safety. February 2024.

(A person) broke the Lendery cabinet and took a drill. The police were called and he was given a three month ban. He had previously been charged with assault. How can a previous one year ban go to three months? This individual caused many customers and staff to feel unsafe.

We then received a letter in our drop box from a concerned customer to make sure staff stayed safe. 

In March 2026 one of our library assistants was harassed and verbally threatened with harm by a customer for not providing him with a laptop that was not available to them yet. They have been issued a six month ban. 

Sunday March 1st 2026 A male customer exposed themselves on the children's main floor. There has been an indefinite ban on the customer but there are no photos in the CRM. Staff cannot look up the incident to find their photo if the person returns to library. The only photo is in Newmarket Today and that is unacceptable to the staff. Frontline staff should know what our banned customers look like. 

Third topic, morale. The union continues to try and work with management to find ways to strengthen and improve the relationship. However, there seems to be little progress since we met over a year ago. 

I want to make it very clear that I'm speaking on behalf of 30 members who feel the exact same way. We're bringing these concerns to you because we use the proper channels to communicate these matters to management. We would like to see the board take a more active role in our morale as our employer and you should be aware of what is going on in the library. 

Our engagement survey. In October 2025 we received an engagement survey from our employer. 96% of the staff completed the survey. According to the company, the average engagement result is 77% and the Newmarket Public Library’s result was 44%. Does the Board believe that is an acceptable rate? 

The staff scored highest in areas that include working with their peers and getting to use their skills at work every day to bring ideas to life in our community. The areas for improvement are: concerns around trust and senior leadership, culture, communication and investment in people. Employees are not recognized at work. Employees do not feel the reasons behind the change in reorganization were clearly explained. These changes have created more separation and we are further siloed than we were before with the reorganisation. There also departments who have yet to see the results for their department, which further erodes trust and transparency. 

We would like to know what our library board is going to do to make improvements. The staff at NPL are the backbone of the community and all the milestones the library reaches are because of the frontline staff.

Every day we come to work engaging with our customers and delivering services to our community. The staff want to have the opportunity to engage more with the library board, improve the relations with our employer and are hoping they want to do the same. Thank you for your time. 

NPL Vice Chair Cllr Kelly Broome: Thank you very much. I am going to pass the chair back to the Chair. Any questions?

Board Member Neila Poscente. I appreciate (you speaking to us) but it was very fast!

Staff representative (waves her speaking notes) I understand!

Board Member Rex Taylor: No. No. You did a great job.

Staff representative.(waving speech notes): We can get it sent to the Board. Who would I send it to? Lianne. That’s fine.

Rex Taylor: I am starting losing track of the statistics.

Staff representative: I’ll provide those stats so you can see.

Board Chair Darryl Gray: Any other questions? Apologies for being late.

Staff representative: No, That’s OK.

Darryl Gray: The one part of the agenda I did not want to miss..

Staff representative: No, that's OK. These things happen. I’ll share it with Lianne and you can get a copy of it.

Darryl Gray: Any other questions from the Board?

Board Member Cllr Trevor Morrison: Yeah, sorry, I just got this one question. Thank you for sharing this. That was great information. I think near the end there you talked about wanting an opportunity to engage more with Library board. Do you have any suggestions or thoughts? Obviously, this is one of the ways.

Staff representative: We would like the opportunity to meet with the board without management present. We want to feel like we can speak freely and we feel like we can't do that. So we’d like the opportunity - whether that's once a year or something - where we can talk. And it doesn't have to be the board chair. It could be any board member and we can set up a time to meet. 

We want to have the opportunity, whether that's through me or one of the other unionized chairs to bring you things. We can set up a time, however long, whether that's half an hour. And just provide an update about where things sit and where we're wanting to go to because we're wanting to collaborate and wanting to bridge things and make improvements.

We just want to feel like we have the opportunity to share because it feels like sometimes that we are censored and that I don't know if all the information sometimes is coming in the way. Just given the number of things that occur. We just want to make sure that, like our perspective is being heard. And sometimes it feels like it's not.

Cllr Morrison. Absolutely. Thanks for the suggestion. 

Board Member Beth Stevenson: I have a question with regards to all of the incidents which I think you outlined well. Do we have like security consultation? Do you work with a security firm that (inaudible) so some of this stuff can be improved?  

Chief Executive Tracy Munusami: Some actions would be to check in with YRP (York Regional Police). We also did a security audit in 2022. (turning to senior staff) Was it 2022?  Yes. And so we have that reference. 

Staff representative: The YRP said this area is a very busy area. When we called before they said that there is a way (for us to) record (incidents) through their reporting system. We could try to be more on their rotation but they said this area is highly busy with calls, not just the library but the surrounding area – wherever the division is. So that they are aware of it, but they're not always able to get here because of the staffing that they have. But it is possible…

Beth Stevenson: How many incidents actually happened within the library?

Staff Representative: Yes… within the library or on the property, yeah, yeah, all of these (incidents happened within the library).

Beth Stevenson: We should see from that report in 2022 what we can do to strengthen… (inaudible)

Darryl Gray: Any other questions?

Cllr Kelly Broome: When a patron is suspended. How does that work? 

Staff representative: When we were still working on the document (with) Tracy … the progressive discipline… the steps for how long someone would be banned for… it was my understanding that a staff member can issue a day ban for inappropriate behavior that doesn't fall in line with our code of conduct. Anything more than that has to be manager, supervisor or CEO to make the decision for a longer term. 

And for the one example that I gave that person has a past of a ban and then they came in after their ban and then had that behavior and it went to three months. And we're just wondering why that was so low given the persons past (behaviour). 

Cllr Kelly Broome: You're working on figuring out (what management decision allowed this to happen)…

Staff representative:  It’s a management decision on where that sits. There is no staff member that's on that committee. But I do know other libraries and municipalities that do allow staff from every department including HR and IT. 

For example, in Hamilton and in Niagara, they will allow a library person, a board member, many people to sit on the committee and they look at… when they deal with bans and things… how they do that (and what the range is) to provide more transparency. 

Cllr Kelly Broome: Is that something that your group is currently working on?

Staff representative: That's what the management is working on. How long the bans are issued for and who issues them. But what we know – as of right now – is that we're allowed to issue a one-day ban when they're not following our code of conduct. But anything further than that (inaudible). But we don't have the up-to-date (information) how long someone is banned for based on behavior that's exhibited. That information is not present to us at this time. 

Cllr Kelly Broome: And this is a follow-up for you Tracy. Is there a reason… Are we allowed to retain a photo if one is available? 

CEO Tracy Munusami: I think we can retain a photo. Um…

Beth Stevenson: Especially if there have been incidents where someone has been charged. I think it is sometimes in terms of where the photo is coming from and how it has been procured but if they are known … especially if the YRP feels… 

Darryl Gray: (Inaudible) I may suggest as we go through this process… there may be conditions around retaining that photo and the records and who has access to it. We want to make sure we’ve got that one right. I maybe have one question if there are no other questions from the Board.

I apologise for missing… I think I missed some important stuff in the beginning. I'll read it, yeah, 

Staff Representative: Of course.

Darryl Gray: I think you laid out some recommendations on how to help address some of these challenges that we're facing. 

Staff representative: Not in this one, no. But when we have brought up to labour/management or we had meetings, as a group, we want to be able to have more active roles at the table when decisions are being made with management to have staff present (but) there is no seat at that table. So, they're asking for our feedback. But most the time our feedback is not being used or we're getting to a point where they're trying to let us know why we can't. We said: if you can't use our feedback, then let us know. Like we considered it, but maybe we don't have the budget or we just couldn't do it right now. Just that transparency and the communication is not there. 

But if there's an opportunity… we do have a new committee that's doing walk arounds, like listen and learns, where there's concerns and things like that. And that's very appreciative. But there's been little movement on some of those things. 

In a lot of these things we talked about, for example, the incident where the person was verbally harmed and harassed. There has been no safety debrief with our team and that person about how they're doing – other than, here is a screen shield. But that's not acceptable. So we would like to have an opportunity to be at the table to give the staff perspective as the person that's dealing with it on the front lines to share… here some suggestions - whether that's only one person and somebody takes it forward to the group and shares it. 

I feel that would help to give that transparency. (They could say) we can't do that right now, but we're going to look into (it) three months from now. Let's follow that up and see where that's at. 

Darryl Gray: So, given all that, as we circulate your deputation, if there are things that we as a Board or we as an organisation can improve on I’d love to hear. We all would.

So my final comment. You’ve heard us say this before. We are committed to you as a team. This is one organization, one board. There is senior administration here. There is staff here. All of us together are committed to the library. We know (what) our community expects from us. So the fact you've come to us identifies gaps in what you see in terms of your safety or your ability to deliver on your work is crucially important to us. The other piece of that is (this). I believe none of us have the market cornered on good ideas and that's why I asked that question.

What we should be thinking about as a board? So yeah, as you are bringing these concerns forward to the Board and to Tracy and the Team. 

You know, solutions-based outcomes is always really helpful for us to be able to understand how we, together, become the organization be could and should be. 

So, I really appreciate the time you’ve all taken to come here post your work-day. And being part of this process. Because it is moving fast.

Beth Stevenson: So, while you're putting together your forward thinking, if you could also, for some of us, understand what's existing and what's not working: like do you have incident reports? Do you have this? What in the system is not working and what your recommendation is because some of us don't have the liberty of knowing what you do every day. 

Staff representative: Absolutely. So, while I can forward this first (the speech notes) and then we can come up with solutions and ideas and suggestions.

Beth Stevenson: The incidents that are happening… What you have now? And what do you suggest?

Staff representative: …We can give you that once I’ve talked to everybody, Yeah. And then Lianne can get that out to you. 

Darryl Gray: What I may ask is that I will make a motion to receive the presentation for the deputation, but I would also like to include a resolution requesting that you include those recommendations related to that.

Just so we document that as a decision.  We are committed to receiving from you… As with everything, we can do what we can do. There are no guarantees we will do all of it. But our guarantee to you is that we will work together.

Staff representative: Just so long as the conversation is open and there's openness on both ends. We want to hold the hand out, you want to engage and we want to have that opportunity and we want the support from the board and from our employer. So that's what we're looking. 

Neila Poscente: Can I add to your resolution? It goes without saying that we are very committed to safety. An environment in which people are not safe is not OK. 

Darryl Gray: Sure.

Rex Taylor: Could I also just suggest. There are two parts to this. The deputation already written and then there are the ideas. It may be helpful for me if I could get that first…

Staff representative: Yeah, I'll send that tomorrow morning. As long as we have some time for this, I want to get feedback from all the staff to send the second part with resolutions, ideas and would also send samples of the current practices and procedures. (Inaudible) So, I can get this to you tomorrow and then the other thing I can gather in a few weeks and send it to Lianne. 

Darryl Gray: Thank you everyone for your time.