Interim library director appointed by Anoka County Board

The Anoka County Board unanimously appointed Patti Hetrick as interim library director Feb. 25. She has served as the county’s budget director since 2008.

According to the resolution approved by the board, Hetrick “has distinguished herself for her professionalism, knowledge and leadership.”

Hetrick’s position as budget director in the finance and central services division will not be filled during her tenure as interim library director, said Dee Guthman, deputy county administrator.

“Patti volunteered for the library position to step in and keep it running,” she said.

According to Guthman, the county is not planning to move ahead with hiring a regular library director until provisions of a 2014 memorandum of understanding between the county and the library board that spelled out the duties and responsibilities of each have been fully implemented.

Specifically, this involves aligning the library system with the county in the areas of financial policies, purchasing policies, information technology and personnel rules and regulations, Guthman said at the County Board’s management committee meeting.

This could take several months, she said. Six months was mentioned at the committee and board meetings.

Under the memorandum, the library system was to be structured as if the library were a division of the county by “streamlining the relationship ... and to more effectively use the resources of each party.”

The County Board appoints members of the library board — one for each of the seven commissioner districts — and provides funding through the tax levy, while library workers are employed by the county and the county provides financial, accounting and personnel assistance to the library, the memorandum states.

County Commissioner Mike Gamache was excited Hetrick was interested in the position, he said. “Patti will bring different ideas and aspects to the job,” Gamache told the management committee.

Commissioner Mandy Meisner said she was surprised this had happened, but she admired Hetrick’s work and said she would do a good job as interim director.

According to County Board Chair Scott Schulte, Hetrick’s operational knowledge make her a good fit.

But resident Wes Volkenant told the management committee in the public comment portion of the meeting that the board should immediately move forward with the search to hire a permanent library director, not appoint an interim director from within.

A permanent library director will have both the administrative and library science skills to do the job of implementing the memorandum, he said.

Born and raised in Caledonia in southeastern Minnesota, Hetrick graduated from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, with a major in accounting and international business and has also obtained her certified internal audit designation.

She began her career at Cargill Inc. in the international audit division before moving to G&K Services, where she developed and directed the internal audit department, project management function and business manager training as well as being part of the acquisition team and overseeing the streamlining of 70 individual plants to four major warehouses in the U.S. and Canada.

According to Hetrick, she then became a consultant as her family grew, working with companies to streamline and improve purchasing before moving to county government in 2005 as budget director for Sherburne County.

Snow has had a 20-plus year career in the library field working in library systems in both Missouri and Minnesota. She came to the Anoka County system in 2012 and was named assistant director in 2014.

When Marlene Moulton Janssen retired as library director in late 2015, Snow was appointed interim director by the County Board, then permanent director in June 2016.