Smaller increase than previously proposed will reduce staff hours

BY Jason Emerson

Editor

The Fayetteville Free Library Board of Directors has approved the 2017 operating budget it will present to voters this May – and, after concerns were raised by a group of local residents that the library taxes and spends more money than necessary, the budget increase was less than the 6 percent originally proposed.

The $1.8 million budget to be presented for public referendum is an increase of $86,489 over 2016, or 4 percent, which is the “lowest level of increase in the last 19 years,” board President Jim Brule said during the board’s Jan. 25 meeting. Brule said the board’s decision to reduce the budget increase was a way to strike a balance between continued library growth and concerns about excessive spending. “We recognize the value of each” point of view, he said.

While the reduced increase in the budget will be affected by changing the library’s planned marketing and fundraising techniques, the main savings will come from decreasing payroll more than 6 percent by reducing the amount of staff hours in the library, Brule said. “Because obviously that’s the biggest part of the budget. It won’t restrict the number of hours we’ll be open, but it will restrict the number of people available during those hours,” he said.

Executive Director Sue Considine said the budget changes from the original proposal in December showed that the board listened to both residents’ concerns and support at its Dec. 13 meeting. “We feel very confident about our budget,” she said. “There will be less staff hours, but we’ll work very hard for it to be seamless to our patrons.”

Four members of the group attacking the library last year for overspending, overtaxing and mismanagement were present for the Jan. 25 meeting and vote, and they did not relent in their criticism.

“The board could have stayed at last year’s increase,” said Robert Duncanson, a former FFL trustee. He said the 4 percent increase was “not needed.”

Patti Giancola Knutsen said that while the board should be “commended for its effort … they could have done better. They still did not address the nucleus of the issues we pointed out.”

Those issues center on library governance, which the group of concerned citizens says includes the library violating its charter by not including public officials on its board and a lack of transparency in its processes, especially regarding the budget. The board has said, and continues to maintain, that it is transparent. Recently, the board hired an independent accounting firm to undertake an audit of the library’s finances, and posted the summary report of that audit on its website.

The group of concerned citizens previously attacked the library board for a lack of representation, saying the board had too few members (currently there are five) and lacked the two ex-officio municipal trustees as required in its founding charter. The 1909 charter states that the board must have seven members, including the two ex-officio members of the “president of the village of Fayetteville” and the “president of the Fayetteville Board of Education.” Those two municipal positions no longer exist, Brule has said.

This “discrepancy” is one of multiple issues created by the founding charter being so outdated that the library attorney is currently investigating with the state, Brule said in December and reiterated on Jan. 25. Once the attorney completes a list of issues needing to be updated in the charter, he will bring it before the board, and the board will move forward on making changes.

Some changes have already been made, with Fayetteville Mayor Mark Olson sitting at the board table on Jan. 25 as a guest. Brule said the board’s “expectation” was to restore the two ex-officio members to the board – which today would be the village mayor and the school district superintendent. Such a move would not be made until the board’s attorney finishes his review of the library charter, a process which must go through state officials in Albany.

After the meeting, Brule told the Eagle Bulletin that the board will also be increasing in number. He said there are currently three candidates being reviewed for inclusion to the library board of directors, which would bring the board population to eight members.

For more information on the Fayetteville Free Library 2017 budget, and to read the auditor’s report on library finances, visit the library website at fflib.org about/boardoftrustees.