LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) The Lafayette Civil Service Board voted Wednesday to overturn a librarian’s seven-day suspension.

The board modified the suspension to just a letter of reprimand.

The decision all came down to a couple of emails from the librarian and a couple of meetings she had with supervisors.

Lafayette Parish Library Director Danny Gillane ordered Librarian and Manager of the North Regional Branch Cara Chance to be suspended for seven days without pay in January.

Gillane alleged Chance was rude and disrespectful in two emails sent to her staff in November. Gillane also alleged Chance was disrespectful when management tried engaging in two coaching sessions with Chance regarding the tone of her emails. As he says Chance was unwilling to participate in the meeting, he says this added up to insubordination by Chance.

“Her behavior was described as rude. She was unprofessional and disrespectful. She displayed conduct unbecoming on an LCG employee,” the employee relations supervisor said in the civil service meeting.

While the library’s attorney argued the suspension was just, Chance and her attorney argued Chance never acted with blatant disrespect, and any perceived tone in her emails was due to several of her subordinates allegedly failing to perform a given task.

“I used the term, ‘Please.’ I used the terms, ‘I would like.’ I did not demean anyone. I did not tell anyone they were incapable of the task. I just asked them for the fourth or fifth time to please perform this task,” Chance told the board.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the civil service board agreed it’s impossible to determine the intended tone through only an email and agreed while Chance may have had a negative tone during meetings with supervisors, she did not exhibit insubordination.