Monte Would Be Proud: The Library Shuffle

In an online article about the Town of Greenburgh Library’s Funding, the writer reported on the financial struggles of the Town’s official library and whether or not there should be a long-term solution for their financial needs. This issue arises almost every time there is a new budget and their funding affected.

At a recent community councils meeting at the Virginia Road Elementary School, which slid under most community council’s radar very nicely, Councilman Kevin “The Henchman” Morgan and The Paul campaigned under the guise of fielding questions about the library. ABG believes they were softball issues. We attended many a meeting by The Paul and his Stepford board where the discussed topics never address serious issues in the Town, such as layoffs (and subsequent suicides), double-digit tax increases, infrastructure failures, illegal appointments, unethical actions, The Paul’s winks-’n-nods to developers and friends, campaign contributions and so on.

Regardless, the deceptive duo responded to questions about cuts to the library budget by maintaining the popular library may be better off in the future directly presenting its annual spending plan to voters. Excuse us? Isn’t there a Town budget process in place? Don’t they present their budget to the Town Supervisor? Shouldn’t pseudo-Mr. Open Government be releasing that information to the public, say a month before the proposed budget gets it two-day pre-release before it is voted on? The information is there but The Paul chooses to do nothing with it. Why deal when he can ignore?

One issue, as with all municipalities beyond it’s major cost of personnel, is it’s other fixed expenses. But the main goal of a library, should be to supply reading material. It’s not there to provide after-school day care, tutoring, entertainment, etc. With all the programs our limited-hours library offers, perhaps its time to do some real trimming. Funding discussions, a yearly topic that the Library Board will superfluously discuss but not act upon, can take one of two forms. They can continue to be under the auspices of the Town and funded by them, dealing with the whims of our fickle and increasing bereft and even vindictive supervisor. Or, they can become a library district that becomes another taxing entity over which we will have little, if any, control. How does that work for them and for us? It’s simple really. The library would  no longer have it’s purse strings pulled by the Town. However, as a taxing entity, they would be more directly answerable to the residents. The Town currently buffers them from the public they profess allegiance to. ABG is sure the residents would enjoy yet another taxing district.

When the topic was broached about being better off in the future, Morgan responded, “At some point that may become a reality. The library is important but if they become an independent library perhaps they could raise more funds.” Ahh, politics and non-answer answers. Morgan knows the answer to that one but still chose to follow his master and straddle The Paul’s political fence. The Paul explained that with the state imposed 2% tax cap, all town departments were forced to cut expenses. The library was anticipating a $320,000 decrease but the town board slashed an additional $250,000 in mid-December. This move has been reported in a previous post by ABG. And, even though he touts adhering to the 2% cap, he raised taxes by about 3.5%, utilizing the unpublicized exemptions that are available under the tax cap “mandate”. To quote a well-heard Congressional member, “You lie!”

“We’re not anti-library. We’re trying to live within the tax cap. Everyone on the board appreciates what the library does. It’s a terrific library. We’re trying our best to work cooperatively. Maybe this will turn out to be a win-win. Maybe changing the way the library gets its funding will make it a stronger library.” Doubtful. The library board also knows not to really bite the hand that feeds them. While Morgan stated they (the Board) hated cutting the library funding, he insisted they were being fiscally responsible. Ha! When did that policy start? (“Psst, Kevin. Stick to my script! Eventually the papers will pick it up and you’ll be a shoe-in for supervisor – of course, after I’ve said so.”) The Paul felt the library should use their reserve funds for the monies slashed in his budget and that’s why the Board cut more from the library’s budget than every other department!

The Paul claims the library serves approximately 44,000 individuals annually, about half of which Feiner said don’t live in Greenburgh. How does he know that? With the lack of resource availability in our library, coupled with being closed on Sundays, when most families and students are available for it’s use, we see a number of trends evolving. One will be a decline in overall usage when the library is open as residents adjourn to other more accessible ones. Another is that once users attend other libraries, they will be amazed at how much more they can avail themselves to as these other communities aren’t playing the games The Paul and the Stepford Board does with our library.

Library Director Eugenie Contrata said the library had to lay off three part-time employees and eliminate the budgets for books, DVDs, music, CDs, audio books and an online, live tutoring service for high school students. Tutoring service? Online? While an online, live tutoring service is more evidence that the library is spending money where it shouldn’t be, it is after all, always “for the children”. Really? How about serving the larger majority of children who can read and don’t need the library for tutoring? Rather, they attend because they want access to the books, reference material and other multi-media resources? Perhaps cutting tutoring for high school students, clearly a Central 7 School District system failure and function, and focusing on delivering their core competencies would make more sense. How can Director Contrata, director since 2006, justify any expense prior to that of purchasing core essential materials. Ironically, ABG felt the part-time employees did the lions share of work, but were the expendable fodder for the library.

When asked about becoming a library district, which would require legislation approved by the New York State Legislature, Contrata said it is an option that a long-term planning committee established by the library board just started studying. She said she couldn’t imagine anyone would opposing it if the library board asked for it. ABG believes Ms. Contrata needs to pay closer attention. The people are finally realizing what transpires in Greenburgh and are no longer offering carte blanche just because you ask for it. One of the greater faux pas for the library elite was the design of the library addition, which is a constant source of contention with most residents.

The Paul recently sent a (campaign) letter to residents on the Town’s “dime” asking for funds and specific books for our downtrodden library from residents, whom already pay taxes for our library. In it, he points out in recent years the Villages of Irvington and Dobbs Ferry were successful reaching out to the public for financial assistance for their libraries. Comparing the Town to two of the smaller Villages in the Town is not a fair comparison. Perhaps if The Paul stopped sending his weekly and sometimes twice-weekly (campaign) letters to residents, he could probably reinstate the library’s money back into the budget. He insists a community fundraising letter is planned to be sent out in April. ABG believes it is simply more waste. The Paul should see if the library offers a Management 101 course. He should take the course and learn how to better run the Town without the theatrics. We can only hope.