Library committee calls for breaking away

A committee tasked with looking at the city's relationship with the county library system told the Whitefish City Council on May 3 it was time to break away and go it alone.

Speaking for the White-fish Ad Hoc Library Com-mittee, Michael Collins told the council their recommendation is to form an independent Whitefish city library separate from the Flathead County Library System, preferably by June 30, when the current fiscal year ends.

The committee cited a litany of issues for its position, including quality of service, dictating rather than listening, micromanagement, differences in philosophy, inequities in resources, excessive discarding of irreplaceable materials by "weeding," heavy-handed administration, lack of transparency and unacceptable treatment of Whitefish employees.

The committee also provided five alternative solutions — do nothing, re-negotiate with the county, revert to a city library, form a library district or combine a city library with the school district.

Collins said the committee favored creating a city library that would be under the city's parks and recreation department rather than a library district that would include the city and its surroundings and be under the county commissioners. But he pointed out that people living around Whitefish would be welcome to use the city library and could get a library card to check out materials even if their tax money goes to the county library system.

According to the interlocal agreement between the city and county, the city could terminate the agreement right away by citing cause or in one year without citing cause after notifying the county.

Collins said the initial perception was that Whitefish couldn't afford to do it alone, but the committee discovered there were efficiencies in stand-alone libraries, which are the norm across the state. He also noted that the Whitefish Library Association had pledged $15,000 per year for the next five years to support a city library.

According to the committee's draft budget for fiscal year 2011, the library could count on $33,241 in general fund revenue and $134,536 in library mill revenue that now goes to the county system. The $167,777 in total revenue would pay for $114,863 in total personal services and $49,750 in materials and services, leaving a $3,164 balance. Utilities, janitorial and maintenance costs, except for telephone and Internet, would continue to be borne by the city, which owns the building.

Start-up costs for an independent city library would depend on what the county system took with them at separation. The city library would be looking at fees and costs for joining the Montana Shared Catalog system as well as library cards and barcoding, 10 public-use computers, a router and other equipment or services.

Dividing up the 44,603 items currently in the Whitefish library collection could depend on a number of claims, including Whitefish's 9.3 percent stake in the county system based on tax revenue, the 15,000 items in the Whitefish library collection when it joined the county system in 1976, the unknown number of items donated by Whitefish residents, and a "pro rata" provision in the 1982 amended interlocal agreement. Based on an estimated cost of $20 per item, it could cost more than $800,000 if the county took everything in the collection.

Noting that it expected "wrangling over the ownership of the collection currently housed in the Whitefish library," the committee said it was "confident that any start-up costs that may not be covered through the proposed operating budget will be met by the Whitefish community."

A crucial legal question is whether property taxes currently going from Whitefish property owners to the county library system can be transferred instead to a Whitefish city library.

City attorney John Phelps requested an opinion on the tax question from Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock on April 1. Phelps told the council that a state attorney general's opinion can take six to nine months, but he received one recently in about five weeks.

Phelps noted in his letter to Bullock that the ad hoc committee had already learned from deputy state attorney Stuart Segrest that, in his opinion, state law would allow the city to withdraw from the interlocal agreement and eliminate future county tax levies within the city for the county library system.

The committee asked the city to take action by June 30, but considering budget problems facing the city, the council didn't see that deadline as realistic.

Councilor Phil Mitchell said he wanted the state attorney general's opinion in hand and city tax receipts directed from the county library system to the city before he would vote for the committee's proposal. He also red-flagged the $74,800 budgeted for four employees as unrealistic and questioned if some of the committee's issues were in fact the result of personality conflicts.

Councilor Ryan Friel agreed with the financial concerns but said he would support separating from the county library system if the choice was a city library and not a library district.

Mayor Mike Jenson told the committee members that the councilors needed time to read the committee's 175-page report, and the council agreed to put the matter on their next meeting's agenda.

Members of the Flathead County Library System board and its director also attended the council meeting, and board chairwoman Jane Lopp reminded the council that formal comments on the matter should be between the council and the board.