Former librarian files whistleblower lawsuit

Former librarian Susan Harshfield, 30, poses for a photograph on Monday, October 14, 2013 in downtown Flint. She filed a whistleblower lawsuit claiming she was fired for cooperating with police investigations. "I just want to create a better work environment for the people who work there." Michelle Tessier | MLive.com

MONTROSE, MI -- A former Montrose librarian is suing the Genesee District Library over claims she was fired for talking too loudly.

Susan Harshfield, 30, of Swartz Creek, said she was fired for talking loudly to police after she called for help with a patron who refused to leave the library.

Library spokesman Trenton Smiley declined to comment on the lawsuit. Library attorney Patrick Parker also declined comment. No response to the allegations has been filed with the court.

Harshfield's attorney, Tom Pabst, said his client was serving as a whistleblower when she was fired by the library.

"The taxpayers and library lost a good worker in Susan," Pabst said.

The lawsuit claims that a loud dispute arose Sept. 5 between Harshfield and the library patron over DVDs. Harshfield claims that she asked the patron to leave but the patron refused, so Harshfield called the police.

"This woman was not willing to leave my branch and basically I had to call 911," Harshfield said.

Police arrived to handle the situation and Harshfield, who started working at the Montrose branch two years ago and hired in with the GDL in 2006, was fired less than three weeks later.

Harshfield said she was fired because library management was upset that she provided a detailed statement of the incident to police and that those statements could cause liability issues for the library in potential future civil or criminal cases.

Pabst said it is illegal for the library to fire Harshfield for cooperating with the police investigation because of protections provided in the state's whistleblower laws.

However, library officials claimed that Harshfield exhibited "gross misconduct" by speaking loudly to police and continuously interjecting when the library executive director tried speaking with the patron, according to Harshfield's termination notice.

"You spoke rudely and loudly to the police officer demanding that he make the patron leave the premises," the termination letter reads. "You angrily questioned the police officer about his disregard of following the GDL policy on removing patrons from the building. The police officer had to physically direct you to leave the area so that he could assess the situation."

Montrose police Chief Darrell Ellis said officers were sent to the library, but he declined to comment on the incident due to the pending litigation.

Harshfield says that library policy gave her the authority to have patrons leave the branch at her request.

Library management claims in the termination letter that Harshfield was previously placed on a Performance Improvement Plan in August to address the importance of solving problems with professionalism, control and poise.

Harshfield admitted she was placed on the improvement plan but she said it was because she included community members' complaints about the branch in the regular reports she had to file with the library board.

"They said there's no room for negativity in our board reports," Harshfield said. "I thought those things were supposed to be honest."

Now, Harshfield said she is trying to find a new job but she hopes that her lawsuit against the GDL can help foster a better environment for those who still work in the district's libraries.

"I don't want to become famous or make my name in a lawsuit against a library," Harshfield said.