Praise, criticism directed at board for expected tax increase in 2017, amid other concerns
By Jason Emerson
editor
The Fayetteville Free Library Board of Directors did not vote on its annual budget this week as expected, but it did both enjoy and endure a nearly two-hour meeting during which village residents both lauded and attacked the board over its financial and institutional management decisions.
The standing-room-only crowd — that included three television news crews and one print reporter — attended the meeting to hear the library board respond to allegations made recently in the press by Manlius town residents that the board was preparing an “unwarranted and unjustified” tax levy increase for 2017, that it has had unnecessary tax increases every year for at least a decade, it has not been transparent in its actions and record keeping and it has violated its organizing charter in its board makeup.
Among the legitimate concerns voiced by local residents, those leading the attack on the library board also laced the meeting with yelling, insults and accusations of falsifying library records in order to win the library at least one award — some of which garnered scoffs and exasperated murmurs from other audience members.
And yet, amid the tumult, everyone in the library meeting room on Dec. 13 stated and agreed that the Fayetteville Free Library is an exceptional institution that helps make the village a great place to live. Multiple attendees there to support the library — including many local teens — said the FFL is a world-class library that educates and brings the community together, and if that costs a little extra in local taxes, they are happy to pay it.
“I don’t think there’s a price you can put on that,” said Fayetteville resident Sarah Pralle. “There is support out there for what you are doing. A lot of us think this is a treasure — you get what your money pays for.”
Resident Steve Pierson agreed. “Excellence requires investment; excellence requires a price, and for those reasons I support reasonable increases in the tax cap.”
Allegations and concerns
“We have one agenda tonight, and that is to listen to you,” said board President Jim Brule at the start of the meeting. As such, the board voted to table its entire agenda, including a vote on its proposed 2017 budget, and instead listen to public comments about the issues raised in a recent letter to the editor in multiple local newspapers.
That letter, which was printed in the Dec. 7 issue of the Eagle Bulletin, decried the library’s expected 6 percent tax increase in 2017 as “unwarranted and unjustified,” and alleged, “The FFL Board has not been transparent in its budget process and actions to override the New York State Tax Cap, has violated its state charter by not including public officials on its board and has ignored the state Open Meetings Law by refusing to make board meeting minutes publicly available.”
More specifically, the letter writers alleged that the library board:
- Has “substantially exceeded” the state-mandated tax cap with increases ranging from 5 to 8 percent every year since 2011, while simultaneously increasing its cash holdings and fund balance.
- Has a reserve fund of over $2 million and has the means to easily live within the tax cap without any increase in the tax levy.
- Has “significantly diminished” its governance of the library, despite increasing budgets and expenditures, to the point where the library is no longer in compliance with its state charter.
- Is violating its state charter requiring seven trustees and two ex-officio municipal trustees.
The letter was signed by village residents Robert J. Duncanson (a former FFL trustee), Patti Giancola Knutsen, Mary L. Karpinski, Anne Messenger and David M. Marnell, Sr. (a former FFL board president and trustee), who have been addressing these issues with the library board since May 2016.
All of the five letter writers attended the Dec. 13 meeting, and those who spoke either repeated the allegations or requested specific answers from the board on detailed financial issues.
Many of these questions and concerns were raised by this same group of five people prior to and during the library board’s September meeting. At that meeting, the board gave a Powerpoint presentation answering the questions; that presentation is posted on the library’s website under the Board of Trustees tab.
During the Dec. 13 meeting, attendee Tom Parker said he read through the board’s online presentation from September and he felt many of the questions were not answered clearly, or at all. He asked for clarification on why the board annually overrides the state tax cap and how they can call themselves “responsible stewards” of the library’s financial resources when their revenues and expenses have each increased more than $1 million in the past 17 years.
Resident David Wheeler said he was not concerned about the library’s funding, but wanted to know how a library tax increase in 2017 could affect the Fayetteville-Manlius School District budget and major renovation project.
Other residents recalled the small, quaint reading space on State Street the library previously occupied as compared to the large, 21st century community space the library is today, and said they were concerned that the library was growing too fast, it was losing its connection and responsibility to the residents and a five-member board cannot truly represent the entire community.
Board response
On Dec. 8, shortly after the letter to the editor was published, the FFL released a statement to its email subscribers to address what it called “recent concerns and inaccuracies” raised in the letter by “a small group of five individuals have been working systematically to discredit the FFL and to interrupt our highly effective budget, finance, governance, practice and structures.”
The library’s statement said it has always been transparent with its budget process, which is a public process; that it does not have a $2 million fund balance as alleged; and that it is “very cognizant of adding additional costs to the taxpayer” but the library also needs to “provide innovative and highly effective services to our growing community.”
Amplifying that response about tax increases after the meeting, library Executive Director Sue Considine told the Eagle Bulletin that she reminds everyone that the FFL is a business and, like any business, the cost of doing business increases every year, especially with fixed costs such as utilities and building maintenance.
“Because we are 97 percent publicly funded, that holds us to higher level of responsibility in helping the community understand that if this excellence that the Fayetteville Free Library provides on your behalf is what you would like to continue to see, as an almost completely tax-supported organization, in order to respond to that requirement for continued excellence, growth and innovation, we need to have the funds in place to do that,” Considine said. “If you want excellence, you have to invest.”
In its statement, the FFL also said that the accusations of non-compliance with its charter — which was written in 1909 (available to read at the bottom of this story) — are currently being reviewed by the library attorney and the state education department. “These issues include 1909 language referring to public positions and agencies that no longer exist, and a bylaw that preceded our current executive director and was active during the six years in which one of the letter writers was president of the FFL,” according to the statement.
During the meeting, Brule offered similar responses to those in the FFL statement. He said the board has been transparent in its actions and decisions and has taken steps to increase its transparency beyond what is required as a Free Library Association; that there is “no such thing” as a fund balance for the library, and any accusation of such is a misunderstanding of the library and its budgeting process; and that the library is allowed to exempt itself from the state tax cap and it has done so.
Brule said the charge that the library board is violating its founding charter by not having two ex-officio municipal trustees is specious. 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 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. Once the attorney completes a list of issues needing to be updated in the charter, he will bring it before the board, probably in January, and the board will move forward on fixing those “very diligently,” he said.
Summarizing the various comments from the meeting, Brule said there was “certainly a call” to make sure the FFL board spends taxpayer money wisely, on a solid foundation, and that it communicates its intentions and practices to the public effectively. “We need to do a better job,” he said.
Fayetteville Mayor Mark Olson, who attended the Dec. 13 and has been discussing FFL policy issues with its board, said the meeting was “an important dialogue” that the community needed to have in order to address the issues raised by local residents.
“That’s what makes Fayetteville so special,” he said. “We can come together as a community and work through them.”
Olson called the library “a jewel we want to keep vibrant,” but said there is always a need for organizational transparency and accuracy. He said the tax cap and charter issues raised by local residents did cause him concern, but he was pleased and satisfied to see the board was actively addressing those issues. “I think they’re trying to do the right thing,” he said. “I want to give them time.”
For more information about the Fayetteville Free Library, visit fflib.org. To address questions or concerns to FFL Executive Director Sue Considine, contact her at [email protected] or call 637-6374.
_________________________
