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.