County Librarian Melinda Cervantes had a tough job to do
Thursday when she delivered up a load of bad news to the
library
’s governing board.
County Librarian Melinda Cervantes had a tough job to do Thursday when she delivered up a load of bad news to the library’s governing board.
The Joint Powers Authority, made up of a council member from each city in the library system and County Supervisor Don Gage, met at Campbell’s downtown library to plan for the future of the Santa Clara County Library System, though no decisions were made. The system includes Morgan Hill and Gilroy libraries.
The JPA must find ways to staff and operate the nine libraries and keep the shelves filled with new materials in the face of revenue reductions coming at them from several directions.
Staff layoffs, libraries open only 30 hours a week and fewer books and materials are unavoidable, Cervantes has said in the past. The JPA will decide on a final budget at its June 3 meeting with cuts phasing in at different times.
“When we know how much we have to work with,” Cervantes said, “we will draft maybe three schedules and ask the communities.”
Some libraries – Cupertino for example – are busiest on Sundays. Others, like Morgan Hill, see heavy morning use by young children and retirees, plus the large number of St. Catherine and P.A. Walsh students who spend their afternoons at the library, librarians report.
Cervantes said it is possible that all libraries will close one common day – Monday is most likely – and that would benefit headquarters’ budget too because they could also close for the day.
Cervantes had the figures.
“The present budget will include a 12 percent reduction for the year,” Cervantes said. “There will also be a revenue change from the governor’s property tax shift that would take $2.6 million more from our operating budget.”
That tax shift is based on a statewide loss of $90 million, Cervantes said.
“But we are hearing now that the shift statewide might be as much as $350 million instead of $90 million,” she said. In that case, the hit to county libraries would be almost four times as much.
Cervantes said operating costs have increased, too, from small incremental raises given to library clerks but mostly from PERS, the public employee’s retirement (and health benefit) system.
“It was the PERS impact to the tune of almost a million,” she said, that will cause a significant drain to the budget.
During California’s ongoing economic crisis, the fiscal plight of cities and counties has been made more dire because the state has taken millions in revenues destined originally for cities and counties.
City Manager Ed Tewes said the property tax shift idea is a moving goal.
“There are rumors that the governor is seeking to negotiate a deal with local agencies (cities, counties and special districts) that, if they will agree to the tax shift for two more years, he will support the petition (to subdue the shift).”
The City of Morgan Hill’s budget is based on the governor getting his share, Tewes said.
The defeat of Measure B in the March 2 election will also begin to make itself felt. A two-thirds majority vote was needed to extend the parcel tax that property owners pay to help operate the library system. Measure B would have boosted the tax by $8.34 to $42 a year, but the measure got only 61.7 percent of the vote. As a result, the tax will disappear entirely in June 2005. The parcel tax paid for 20 percent of the operating budget.
“The first effect we will see July 1 is the deletion of vacant positions and the spreading out of the 12 percent,” Cervantes said. “We will also see a reduction in the books and materials budget. A proposed reduction of service hours will take effect Nov. 1.”
Each community will be asked how it wants to handle libraries open only 30 hours a week, she said, by asking Library Commissions to get community opinion on what works for each.
Morgan Hill City Librarian Nancy Howe was away Monday and could not be reached for comment on how she thought Morgan Hill’s library would weather the storm though she has said in the past that she was prepared to make difficult decisions the best way for library patrons and her staff.
Cervantes said the JPA may not have enough information by June 3 to make a proper decision because two bits of information will be missing.
“First, the county offered an early retirement incentive to all county employees – which library employees are – and they must retire between April 7 and July 5,” Cervantes said.
Not knowing how many workers will voluntarily retire will unsettle the exact number of workers who must be involuntarily laid off.
The second missing bit is what will happen with the property tax shift. Santa Clara County officials met Wednesday afternoon with state officials and asked for a more fair and equitable shift, Cervantes said.
“Our lobbyists are actively trying to get the library system, as a special district, exempted from the property tax shift,” Cervantes said. “The JPA may need a special meeting in August or September if we get significant information out of Sacramento.”
Councilman Steve Tate, Morgan Hill’s chief library cheerleader and representative to the JPA said he hasn’t yet given up hope.
“I’m optimistic that we can get through this,” Tate said. “But I’m not that optimistic that we can get our act together before the parcel tax expires.”
The JPA is also trying to decide when to put the parcel tax back on the ballot. It must wait at least a year from March 2004.
“June 2005 is a possibility,” Cervantes said, “because it will be a different time economically.”
While the JPA has not paid for a systematic analysis of why Measure B failed and which demographic groups voted against it, Tate has said in the past that he thought having so many important bonds and taxes on the same ballot distracted attention and made people reluctant to incur still more debt.
Tate was happy that, even though the Measure failed, Morgan Hill collected more “yes” votes than any other city in the system except for Los Altos and Los Altos Hills.
The county library system also includes Alum Rock, Campbell, Cupertino, Gilroy, Milpitas, Los Altos and Saratoga, most if which are supported by strong Friends of the Library groups. The Morgan Hill Friends is talking about providing money to replace that lost for books and materials. Private citizens are also sending in checks to help out.
“We will put the checks toward books and materials,” Cervantes said, “but, if the contributions are too significant we will have to build back staff to handle them.” New books must be processed, shelved and delivered.
“We will probably use some extra money (from donations) for summer reading programs,” she said.
The JPA will decide on the budget at its June 3 meeting, 1:30 p.m. at the Campbell Library.
“We’ll look forward rather than back,” Cervantes said.
Details: www.santaclaracountylib.org
