HomeMy WebLinkAbout1996-09-18 MinutesBoard of Trustees Special Meeting Fayetteville Public Library September 18, 1996 Present: Board members: Mark Burdette, Steve Singleton, Maury Roberts, Michael Thomas Library Staff: Linda Harrison, June Jefferson, David Johnson, Grace Kerr, Lynnaire Hartsell, and Lolly Maxey, and City Financial Analyst Kevin Springer. 1. Call to Order: Thomas called the meeting to order at 4:05 pm. 2. Other Business: Johnson said we have received the bids on the electric and cabling part of the automation project. We have elected to go with ETI and Pat Rhodes is scheduled to start September 30. In the bid specifications, we asked for a performance bond and a payment bond, and he is waiting for the paperwork to come through, otherwise he could start immediately. Johnson asked if we could proceed and begin in lieu of receiving the bonding paperwork. Johnson said he had asked Jeff Koenig about this and Koenig said he was sure FPL would be perfectly pleased with Pat Rhodes' work. Thomas said he had complete confidence in Rhodes. Burdette asked if that would be a problem with the city. Harrison said no, this is a FPL contract. Harrison said we could stipulate in the contract that payment was pending receipt of this bonding paperwork. All agreed that it was OK for Rhodes to start, with these stipulations put in the contract. 3. Purpose of this Special Meeting: Review some developments of the Washington County Library Board Fund Budget. The next meeting of the County Library Board is September 25 at 4:30. Burdette presented the proposed budget of the Washington County Library Board budget for 1997. Burdette explained page 2 of #5 of the handout. In 1995, Washington County Library Board received from the people of Fayetteville school district $464,785 which was 46.3% of the total received. The 1996 allotment to the Fayetteville Public Library was $202,439 which was 43.89% of the total $1,002,967 received. What this means is the people of Fayetteville paid in more than the FPL received. Two years ago this was addressed and there was much discussion about how this was to be handled. In that year, the Washington County Board decided to make an adjustment for our receipts of 1994 to bring our percentages of allotments back in line with the percentage of assessments. Burdette said he thought at the time that this adjustment would be automatic in the future. He found at this latest meeting that this was not the case. The disbursement of money is at the discretion of the Washington County Library Board, and they have no legal requirements to pay FPL anything. They do try to disburse the money on a fair basis. Burdette explained that the allotment in 1996 was a shortfall of 2.45% over the assessments received of $464,785 which is approximately $11,300. The assessment in 1996 is 45.95% and the proposed allotment is 43.88% which is a shortfall of 2.07% which is approximately $10,000. Harrison and Burdette met with Karen Duree and told her they felt our taxpayers were essentially supporting other libraries. The libraries in the ORL system can be broken into 2 groups: (1) the larger libraries of Fayetteville and Springdale, and (2) the smaller libraries. These two groups have different needs and different ways of doing things, and so their operations are not comparable. In 1995, Springdale's assessment 40.97% and the allotment was 42.19%, essentially paying in less and receiving more. Harrison and Burdette questioned Duree as to why we weren't being treated the sane way. The explanation of this discrepancy was based on % of books circulated. In 1995 Fayetteville had a circulation of 266,373 which was 40.71% of books circulated, and Springdale had a circulation of 292,262 which was 44.66% of books circulated. The county board felt Springdale should be allotted more money because they have a larger circulation. Harrison, Burdette, and Duree then met with Peg Anderson, President of the Washington County Library Board. Burdette asked for an allotment % equal to the assessment % for both 1995 and 1996. Anderson said that the 1996 receipts were based on the 1995 budget that had been presented. There were no objections when this was presented, and they were not going to go back and rework the numbers from previous years, so 1995-1996 is off the table for negotiation. Harrison and Burdette expressed their displeasure with the discrepancy between Fayetteville and Springdale allotments, but nothing was resolved. They then asked about the $10,000 shortfall for 1996-1997. Burdette said he thought Anderson and Duree said they would try to get an adjustment to the proposed allotments for 1997 from $212,560 to $225,000 which is an additional $12,440 which is a 45.28% allotment compared to a 45.95% assessment. Thomas asked if this $12.440 was money that would be taken from other libraries. Harrison said no, it was from a fund balance. Thomas said there has been much discussion about the fate of the Winslow Library. They have not come up with the money for the automation project and the mayor has not responded to numerous letters and phone calls. Also the librarian has quit. (She is 86 years old.) The County Library Board has since sent letters to the individual Winslow City Counsel members to try to get some communication going about continued library funding. Harrison said if the Winslow library is shut down, that will leave another $4189 to be disbursed. Singleton said he felt there were other points that should be considered when deciding the allotments, such as city support. Springdale has a city millage which gives money to the library. Burdette said Harrison had brought this up in the meeting with Duree and Anderson. Burdette said Duree and Anderson said they would discuss with the Washington County Board a review of the system of allotments as it is now, and the determination of an equitable system that would be the same from year to year so the member libraries would know what they are getting. Burdette said he felt we should thank the County Board for their realignment of the allotments and the extra disbursement, and to keep us in mind if there is other money available. Johnson said he felt the taxpayers of Fayetteville would not be happy to know that their tax money was going to support the Springdale library. He also felt the circulation explanation was a cyclical argument because they get more money from the city for books, therefore they have higher circulation. Harrison said she felt Anderson understood this now, because she had asked Duree for a copy of Springdale's budget and found that Springdale library gets $50,000 more from the city than FPL. Harrison said Rogers library gets $525,000 from their city general fund, Springdale gets $394,881 from their city, while FPL gets $344,000. Therefore, Springdale not only gets more from their city, they get more from the Washington County Board. Jefferson said another factor that shoudl be considered besides circulation is our in-house use because of the University and the Genealogy collection. Singleton said he felt that taxpayers of any city want their tax money to go toward making the best library for their community. Harrison said if the allotment is evened up this year, we can negiotiate the future. Burdette said the bottom line of this meeting with Anderson and Duree was FPL ended up with $12,400 more for 1997 and an agreement to take all of these arguments before the County Board to try to convince them that FPL should have a larger allotment. He felt that sometime between now and the spring we should get all of these arguments together into a good presentation. All agreed that we don't want to take money from other libraries. Harrison said Duree had said she would have to adjust all the other percentages, if she had to adjust ours. Harrison said she told Duree that she didn't because if she added up the assessment percentages of Fayetteville and Springdale the number is 86% and if she added up the allotment percentages the number is 86%, so she doesn't have to bother with adjusting the smaller libraries. Thomas said he felt we should accept the revision for this year graciously, and take it as a base point to go forward from here. Jefferson thanked the board for their advocacy of FPL and pushing for accountability of the County Board. Burdette said he wanted the FPL board to know what was going on and get input from them. He also feels that the FPL board should always to the County Board budget meetings to get a better understanding of how it all works, so if questions come up in the future they will have a reference point to work from. Jefferson pointed out that the Washington County Library Board is appointed by the County Judge, so they are not accountable to tax payers, and are not elected officials, so our tax payer rgument will not be that effective. The most important thingis the Sunshine Law which was created so there will be an open door to meetings about the disbursement of public monies. So she feels that attendance by board members, the public, and the press is important at the budget meetings. Burdette said he felt the County Board was doing what they thought was fair, and there was no thought on their part to cheat FPL, and he didn't want to give that impression. He said they are all good people and were doing their best. The board thanked Burdette and Harrison for their attending to this matter. 3. Adjournment: Burdette moved to adjourn at 5:00, seconded by Roberts. All said AYE. Respectfully submitted by Carolyn Diemente Board of Trustees Meeting Fayetteville Public Library September 18, 1996 Addenda to Septemer 18, 1996 meeting. Two numbers in this minutes were in error and should be as follows: In paragraph 3 the 1996 assessment number in the minutes was stated $1,002,967,241 which was the 1995 number and should be $1,049,292,931. The number $464,785 was also in error and should have been $484,374.