UPDATE: City Says Library Director Submitted Resignation After He Was Fired

UPDATED at 6:15 p.m.

City officials have clarified the timeline of former Waukee Library director Erik Surber's departure from the city.

The library board voted on Monday to terminate the contract of Erik Surber, who had been on the job since September 2011. In an interview with the Des Moines Register, Surber disputed that account, and said he offered to resign before the meeting.

After being contacted by Patch, Councilman Shane Blanchard, who serves as liaision to the library board, consulted with city officials on the matter. Blanchard says that the board voted unanimously to terminate Surber; the following day Surber submitted a letter of resignation.

Blanchard said that the letter was put in Surber's file, but was a moot issue because he had already been fired.

Surber said it amounts to a difference in vision and he had not violated the employee handbook, according to the Des Moines Register report.

During a phone interview Thursday, Surber, 42, told the Register he offered a resignation letter to city officials prior to the meeting.

“The board and I had different visions,” Surber said. “It’s a difference of where they want to see the library and where I want to see it,” Surber said.

Surber's departure "was likely a difference of personalities for the vision and future plans for our library," Blanchard said.

The library board will turn its attention to finding a new leader for the library. In question is whether city council will support a search firm to aid the search.

Children's librarian Keri Weston-Stoll was appointed on Wednesday as the interim director. She had previously worked as director of the Carlisle library.