CLN accepts URD money, decreases base by same amount

POST FALLS — Community Library Network trustees unanimously approved accepting $42,256 in urban renewal district funds during a special meeting Friday at the Post Falls Library.

The funds are available to the library district due to the recent closure of two Post Falls urban renewal districts.

At the same meeting, the board majority — Chair Rachelle Ottosen, Vice Chair Tom Hanley and Trustee Tim Plass — diminished maintenance and operations funding for the network by $42,256, despite objections from Trustees Katie Blank and Vanessa Robinson and several words of caution from Library Director Alexa Eccles.

This lowers the library's base budget amount and its property tax levy rate.

Robinson said she was in favor of taking the urban renewal funds since the network has recently turned down so much money it could have accepted. She said she appreciated that another trustee said these actions won’t inflate the base levy for next year, but said she does take issue with it lowering the base for next year by taking money out of the budget.

"I can’t imagine it’s more than $1 to $10 per household that (taxpayers) would save" per year, Robinson said. "It is impactful to the library system and, regardless, people are still going to be paying for the library system. And if the library, the buildings, the material selection all start going downhill, the taxpayers are still paying for the library but not getting a valued library."

She said she believes taxpayers would want to spend $10 per year if they knew it could help the library system from declining.

"In fact, that's what we heard from most of the public," she said.

From July 12 through Aug. 18, the board received 209 emails from the community — 153 residents communicated support for a tax increase or maintaining current services; 41 people expressed they did not support a tax increase; and 15 emails were neutral or not discussing the budget. At the Aug. 10 budget hearing, 100% of public testimony was in favor of library services.

Hanley and Plass did not budge from their stances to accept the urban renewal funds and simultaneously reduce the network's base.

"I didn't believe that it was really a check, money that had been collected, because the county treasurer told me it hadn't been collected," Plass said.

The board received a letter from the office of Kootenai County Clerk Jennifer Locke, clarifying previous confusion from some board members regarding the URD closure funds.

"Districts are allowed to increase their budget authority by the following accumulation of variables: 1) 3% of the highest non-exempt property tax budget of the prior three years; 2) 90% of new construction; 3) 90% of annexation; 4) 80% of expiring urban renewal increases; 5) Recovered forgone (stipulations apply)," said the letter signed by Kootenai County tax accountant Alicia Lynch.

"The URD is dissolving and will not exist in the future. In order to close, they need to disburse these monies to the appropriate districts. This money has to go somewhere," Lynch wrote. "The library has committed itself to easing the tax burden to the citizens of Kootenai County. The library does not have the authority to refuse the value, but does have the authority to decline the budget increase. The rebate is a check that will be sent to the district. If the library elects to continue their mission to lower taxes, then there is the option of reducing the budget by the anticipated revenue from the rebate. This amount has been estimated at $42,256. This will lower the overall budget of the library and therefore decrease the taxes of the citizens."

Plass said this is an opportunity to reduce the tax burden.

"We've already taken too much money from them," he said. "We can't give a refund to the taxpayers, but we can do this."

Eccles said the board has tasked her with overseeing its financial operations.

"This board is facing a significant risk for expending carryforward for items that are perceived as on the horizon," she said.

She said she does not believe the district has excess funds to give back to the public.

"Our staffing has a yearly turnover of 31%, which is at an almost all-time high," she said. "This board did not put sufficient funds in this year's budget already to bring staff to market value, which would have been $125,000 needed."

Hanley said a significant increase was approved for salaries. Robinson said if the base keeps being cut, the board won't be able to keep up with salaries, insurance and other needs without cutting elsewhere.

"There are certain trustees that think — or maybe don't think — about this hard enough, and they think money is just going to appear, which it kind of did with this URD, it did kind of appear, and people didn't even want to take that," she said.

Blank said what the board has done is show that it is not in support of library staff and not willing to provide expected services to the community.

Also during the meeting, Ottosen moved to limit trustee comments to two minutes per person per turn so everyone had a chance to be heard during a short discussion about library closures. The motion passed with Hanley and Plass agreeing with Ottosen and voting in favor of it.

“The short discussion is because of what’s been added to the agenda,” Blank said. “I would really like us not to limit free speech in our meetings because of these kinds of manipulations.”

Ottosen said the motion was not debatable.

Eccles recommended the board not make any further comments about Sunday closures until the board had legal counsel’s response. The board’s counsel, Colton Boyles of Boyles Law Firm, was absent from the meeting.

She said the topic needed to come back as an action item on the agenda. At that time, Hanley asked to make a motion to terminate pursuance of eliminating Sunday hours or closing Harrison, but Ottosen said it was not an action item.

Robinson asked if Boyles will still present a memo regarding the closures, to which Ottosen said yes. Blank asked if anyone had received anything from Boyles, who was asked several weeks ago to craft the memo. Eccles and Ottosen said no.

The next meeting of the Community Library Network board will be from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday at the Pinehurst Library, 107 Main St., Pinehurst.

See the full Friday meeting: youtube.com/watch?v=cxG3UTqyrZA