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Results from August 28 Special Board Meeting
Posted on: Friday, August 28, 2009
“The Board recognizes that the library is clearly facing a long term financial crisis that is going to result in a dramatic reshaping of library services. With the reduction in state funding, library resources will permanently be limited and we will need to look at reinventing ourselves in a way that will meet newly defined service expectations of our community,” he said. “This is not just short term financial crisis, it is long term change brought on by continuing state cuts.”
In declaring a financial exigency, the Board invoked Article 20 of the library’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, which states that positions may be eliminated because of a significant decline in the library’s financial resources.
“We spent nearly two months attempting to negotiate meaningful concessions from the Dayton Metro Library Staff Association. Wages for our managers and other employees are being frozen for one year but we were unable to get the bargaining unit to accept the same freeze,” said Kambitsch.
“It was my hope that a creative mix of pay freezes, furloughs, attrition and retirement incentives would allow us to keep services intact into next year and minimize the number of layoffs. I am extremely disappointed that an agreement could not be reached,” said Kambitsch.
“We are developing a plan to address this financial shortfall. Certainly cuts in hours and layoffs are being considered but the plan will not include closing any branch libraries,” he said.
“It’s tough looking at cuts now when we have been so busy and are on pace to exceed last year’s record usage despite making substantial cuts in all other areas of the budget,” he said. “With state funding having been cut so dramatically, service cuts are inevitable. We have seen our friends, neighbors, and family members all being hurt by this recession. We recognize that everyone else is cutting back and the library must as well.”
The library has a levy on the ballot on Nov. 3 to replace the levy which expires at the end of 2009. The levy does ask for an increase but the increase is not enough to cover the costs of continuing state cuts. The requested increase would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $1.55 per month. The state has already announced a cut in library funding for next year that would result in an additional $1.2 million reduction for the Dayton Metro Library and additional cuts from the state are still possible.
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