By AFSCME Local 2298
Newark, NJ, November 2, 2026,
The Newark Public Library workers’ union is formally requesting that Mayor Ras J. Baraka order an immediate investigation of the library’s Board of Trustees, with an eye toward recomposing the Board.
In a letter to the mayor dated Nov 2, 2026, American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 2298, which represents most staff in Newark’s libraries, cites as its reason for making this request the most recent search for a new director, which reflects a long history of negligence, absenteeism and “a lot of dysfunction” as acknowledged by the Board itself. The union calls special attention to the fact that a recording of a closed personnel session from its September 23 meeting was made available to the public on the library’s website, which it describes as part of a “broader pattern of dereliction of duty.”
Local 2298 says that the Board of Trustees excluded union members and non-administrative staff from the director search committee, and gave scant time for feedback from staff after the three finalists were made known to them.
“The staff at Newark Public Library, and our union as a whole, wants a world-class library for the people of Newark,” said Local 2298 president Beth Zak-Cohen. “Staff run the library on a daily basis and the Board continues to demonstrate they don’t care about being accountable for its operations. The latest director search is a culmination of bungled searches that are a disservice to our staff and a disgrace to our community.”
At the closed session, several board members made comments that deeply concern the union, including suggesting that during a candidate forum earlier the same day, union leadership strong-armed members into supporting one of the director candidates over another. Board members said that,“unions typically defend some of the worst people,” and suggested that what’s needed is for a director to come to “turn this place upside down.” Another board member is heard saying that local media is paid off.
The library’s current search for a new director is its fourth in less than ten years. In expressing its lack of confidence in the board, the union points out that each of the three previous directors had been dismissed in a previous position or from a subsequent job. All three, Jeffrey Trzeciak, who served 2017-2019, Joslyn Bowling-Dixon, who served 2020-2022, and Christian Zabriskie, who served 2023-2025, were in the position for two years or fewer. Currently, the library lacks even an interim director after the person hired in that capacity abruptly left the position in September.
Union president Zak-Cohen says it’s not only about who the Board wants to hire but how it goes about its work. “The union is deeply concerned about the prospect of the library hiring a director who clashed with staff and the union at her previous library. When we see how the Board is coming to its decision, what we’re also left with is a sense that many of the board members themselves cannot be trusted to do what’s best for the library, its staff and the community as a whole.”
The recording of the Library Board of Trustees September 23 meeting was removed from the library’s website after we made this post but can be found here. The letter from the library workers’ union to Mayor Baraka follows.
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Nov 2, 2026
Mayor Ras J. Baraka,
AFSCME Local 2298, the union of the Newark Public Library, writes this letter to request an immediate investigation of the Newark Public Library Board of Trustees in light of their recently completed director search and consequential concerns regarding the board’s effectiveness and ability to align with the community’s needs.
The library’s current director search was conducted by a Search Committee with no union representation. It resulted in a selected candidate about whom the Union has severe concerns and who, the Board acknowledges, was dishonest during the hiring process. Staff were given little opportunity to meet the candidates and provide feedback: candidates were introduced on September 22nd and 23rd, and only staff able to leave work could participate. The feedback deadline was on September 23rd, but staff were not notified of the deadline until just 40 minutes beforehand, leaving little time for staff to compose their thoughts and put them in writing.
Additionally, a September 23rd closed personnel meeting was made available on the Board’s public website (removed after 4pm 11.2.26), where they made concerning comments about the union, press and staff. (In what follows, we provide timestamps for these comments.) During this closed session, a board member falsely claimed the Search Committee had union representation, but she only named non-union members of administration (0:19:59). The same board member accused the Union of influencing staff opinions (“working the halls”) citing a large amount of last minute feedback (2:47:00).
The Board’s dialogue during the closed session can only be seen as hostile towards staff and the union. One board member states, “I’m not afraid of the union … Sometimes unions are bullies themselves” (2:39:00) and “unions typically defend some of the worst people.” (2:40:00). That board member also implies the library should fire staff, stating the new director should “turn this place upside down . . . and sometimes that means changing people, personnel, all those things” (2:44:48). Of the local media, another board member said, “The local media does not phase me in any way…Every single local media in Newark is paid…I can tell you exactly who pays who, to say what, on what day…they tell us when they are going to write something about us.” (3:03:48).
In a split 4-2-2 vote on October 1, the board decided to enter negotiations with one candidate, despite that candidate’s concerning history, a letter and public comment in opposition from AFSCME Local 2298, and staff feedback which favored other candidates (2:47:00). The Board voted for this candidate despite acknowledging the candidate’s dishonesty during the hiring process (0:59:33-1:00:21) and despite having, in their own words, another “extremely strong” candidate (1:28:07).
In the closed meeting, the Board shines a harsh light on a broader pattern of dereliction of duty. As one member stated, “This board sometimes begins without a quorum…there’s a lot of dysfunction on this side of the organization” (2:59:59). Another member states in the meeting that she does not check her library email and asks to leave the discussion until it’s time to vote (0:34:01, 1:29:00). There is no publicized way to contact the Board and, despite meeting only every other month, the Board has still failed to maintain a quorum. There have been multiple violations of the Open Public Meetings Act, with agendas never being provided to the public in advance per 10-4.9-1. When the Board discusses documents during public meeting sessions, they are seldom provided to either in-person or virtual attendees.
The library’s most recent search, which took more than a year from the firing of the last director in August 2025 and cost tens of thousands of dollars, is a new and alarming chapter in its history of ill-chosen short-lived directors.
- Director Jeffrey Trzeciak was hired in 2017 after he faced an age discrimination lawsuit in his previous position. He served NPL from 2017 to 2019 before leaving for Jersey City Public Library. After leaving JCPL,Trzeciak was later fired from Dayton Public Library.
- Joslyn Bowling-Dixon served from 2020 to 2022, was asked to resign by the NPL board, and subsequently was fired from an Illinois library.
- Christian Zabriskie was hired after a forced resignation in his previous position, then served from 2023 to 2025, before being fired in August 2025.
None of the previous three directors served more than two years.
The latest injury inflicted by the Board has left the library without even an interim director, as the person who was hired in that capacity abruptly resigned in September after not being considered for the permanent director position.
Some members of the Board express regret about how the interim director was treated, with one calling it “inhumane…and discourteous” (36:17). This is emblematic of a larger trend of some Board members’ history of hostile communication towards directors and administration, which can be witnessed in recordings of previous board meetings. Such behavior has a damaging trickle-down effect, placing undue pressure on administrators and modeling ineffective communication throughout the organization. An effective board is one that supports and invests in its director, who manages the day-to-day operations and staff. Ultimately, ineffective leadership at the top has deflated morale among the staff, impacting the community that it is meant to support.
“Dysfunction” is to be found in every organization. But the behavior of the current Board of Trustees leaves us deeply worried for the future of the library, and for the well-being of the city and people we serve. The Board has done incalculable harm to the reputation of the library, whose mission it was appointed to uphold and advance. We take deep pride in performing our duties faithfully and responsibly. In exchange, we want a library governed by people who share these values.
We feel this is not too much to ask, Mayor Baraka, and we urge you to do your part to make this vision a reality, by ordering an immediate, swift and effective review of the library Board of Trustees, and acting in a timely fashion on the results of that investigation.
AFSCME Local 2298:
Beth Zak-Cohen, President
Karl Schwartz, Vice President
Shileen Shaw, Secretary
Kevin Chung, Treasurer
Vanessa Castaldo, Maxine Blackwell, Kalina Birbalsingh, Executive Board Members
Steve Lorenz, Greg Guderian, Evelyn Fabian, Shop Stewards
