COVID cuts threaten SH Library staff

Kelly Kenoyer

On Nov. 17, three part-time staffers at the Sweet Home Library received an unexpected letter: a layoff notice.

The letter gave them 28 days of notice for a “potential” layoff, which would make their last day of work Dec. 15. While the staff were surprised, the writer of the letter, City Manager Ray Towry, said last week the move was “not unexpected,” considering the budget process in the spring and the dire situation of COVID-19.

Other city departments have kept vacancies open to save money, Towry said, but the library has remained fully staffed until now.

The only full-time staffer at the library is Library Director Rose Peda; the other three employees, all library assistants, work part-time.

Still, members of the Library Advisory Board, library patrons, and library staff have expressed sharp concerns about the move and say the department has been unjustly targeted.

A few weeks ago the order came from City Hall to cut part-time staff hours at the library from 80 hours a week to 60. It was quickly followed by the furlough notice for all three part-time staffers, with the nearly month-long waiting period because of union requirements.

Those concerned about the move note the department’s relatively good budgetary standing: It has 12 months of operating budget in reserves, though five-year projections set by the city put the library at four months of reserves in 2026. Since the city mandates a six-month reserve at the five-year mark, that four-month reserve is a reason why the layoffs have materialized.

Towry has said the cuts and furlough notice put the library in line with departments that have held vacancies open. If the furloughs were to go through, he said the city could rely on volunteers to keep the library open.

But Peda said comparisons between her department and others don’t always match up cleanly.

“I don’t think it’s a comparison we can make, that the other departments may be making sacrifices in a budget line item,” she said of the layoff notice and current cuts to hours. “What I see is that you’re comparing budget line items and placeholders to actual employees with families who are part-time to begin with. Then you cut their hours and everything is going to cost them more.”

Initially, staff at the library were working fewer hours but continuing to collect their usual salaries through unemployment and COVID leave, said city Finance Director Brandon Neish. Their pay was recently reduced to coincide with the building’s open hours, which were cut by 10 hours a week at the start of the pandemic, partially to accomodate part-timers who needed to take care of their children after the schools closed.

“I think they feel particularly targeted here, but it’s just getting us to the point where their hours meet both supplies and demand,” Neish added.

Word quickly spread about the cuts and the layoff notices, and City Hall began fielding calls related to the layoffs. Library Advisory Board Member Kevin Hill was one of those who were dismayed.

“There’s a lot of people unhappy with the idea of closing it down,” said Hill, who is also the pastor of Holley Christian Church. “What should happen if they’re going to close it down is they should return everyone’s tax money.”

Hill said he was perplexed by the sudden change, especially given the library’s recent successful bid to renew its four-year levy, which passed with 73% of the vote.

“Rose is very well-liked, and the library is definitely supported and needed in this community,” Hill said.

Grim Financial Picture

Towry hinted about the situation at the Nov. 24 City Council meeting while discussing the city’s overall financial picture, which is indeed dire.

Neish provided an update on the city’s financial situation for the first quarter of this financial year, and said property tax revenue went down nearly 20 percent.

“Our funds do have reserves to keep our departments going for a while,” he said, adding he doesn’t want to “bleed those funds dry.”

Library and utility fees were down 60% from previous years, he said, though the library only budgets for around $5,000 in fees per year.

The city projects it will generate $4,116,994 in property tax revenue for the 2021 fiscal year, which is 1.14% below its budgeted amount of $4,164,469. Service charges were down, gas taxes were down, with only utility revenues increasing, and grants filling some of the gap.

After the first quarter financial report, through the end of September, painted a dark picture, Towry gave councilors more information about the current prospects.

“Around 60% of revenues from property taxes come in November,” Towry told the council, displaying a spreadsheet comparing revenues in November of this year and last. In the second week of November, the difference between the two numbers was 65%. The library looked to have lost $28,000 in revenue in a single week.

When he saw those numbers, Towry said, he began pacing City Hall in a bit of a panic. That’s when the furlough notices were sent out.

The next two weeks painted a rosier picture, as incoming revenues surpassed the previous year’s numbers during that period. Overall, November finished down 2.26%, or $6,655.12 for the library.

“Not knowing what’s in the future, we assume a worst-case scenario,” Towry later told The New Era.

Because the city relies on property taxes for its revenue, it needs high property values as well as low delinquency rates to stay well-funded.

The Police Department, for instance, is on track to be deep in the red in the next five years, if spending continues as it is now and the financial picture does not change. Neish said the reason the police aren’t on the chopping block goes back to a decision by the Budget Committee earlier this year.

“(The Budget Committee) told us that wasn’t a major concern for them,” he said of the Police Department spending more than its levy earns. Other departments, which earn more revenues from water bills and other revenue sources, aren’t struggling as much.

Additionally, Towry said, the size of the Police Department budget means the shortfalls aren’t as impactful.

“There are places that we can go there and find cost savings that add up, there’s just more options to do that there. And we’ll have to start having some of those conversations,” he said.

While the city anticipated and planned for a shortfall in tax revenue when COVID hit back in March, its estimate of an 8% fall in revenues fell short; the actual reduction has been 12%.

That makes the library’s 12-month operating budget cushion, nearly $900,000, seem easy to burn through, which would leave the library short of its required six-month cushion at the end of 2025, if the city’s forecasts are accurate.

The city’s library staff hours cut would save $33,000 in six months, Neish said, but he added that neither the cut nor the furlough is “a foregone conclusion.”

“The city doesn’t want to do this. This is a last resort, and I think the notices issued are within the requirements related to a contract, but I don’t see us getting there,” he said.

At the meeting, councilors reacted to the news grimly, and Dave Trask offered to forgo his $75 monthly stipend for being a council member.

However, Peda said afterwards that she was disappointed that “not a single councilor spoke up to advocate for the library and to say what a good job we’re doing in the community, and what an essential service we are.”

Library’s Value Scrutinized

In order to keep the library running with its current staffing, Towry said, citizens in Sweet Home will need to pay their property taxes, and the circulation numbers at the library will need to go up.

“The check-out numbers are drastically low,” he said.

Peda later told The New Era that this year’s statistics should not be compared to last year’s, especially given the pandemic. While check-outs of books and other materials from the library are down 40 percent compared to 2019, she said the 27% decrease in operating hours is a big part of the cause, along with the library being closed for 2½ months during the spring at the start of the pandemic.

The numbers have been on a steady increase since August, from 2,189 items checked out that month to 2,966 checked out in October.The library’s October 2019 numbers were higher, at 3,574, according to monthly reports Peda has presented at recent council meetings.

Hill said the library’s 27% reduction in hours accounts for much of the drop-off in check-outs.

“You’re looking at 10 less hours,” he said, explaining the difference. “Limiting hours is gonna limit circulation. If somebody can’t make it to the library that would normally go, let’s say, on a Saturday at a certain time, and they can’t get into the library, and they don’t like to use the computer, then wouldn’t that limit it?”

He predicted that the current two-week freeze would limit circulation as well, for similar reasons, as some patrons don’t go online to pick books, either for lack of know-how or lack of internet access.

Said Peda: “Most of our patrons love to browse and look for items we have in the library, and being closed to the public definitely impacted their ability to do this.”

Patrons rely on the library for information, printing, internet access and computer access – things unmeasured by the circulation numbers, she said.

“There are no other [public] computers in town to use, so this is a real hardship on people,” Peda said.

Library staff are fighting to continue serving the public safely, despite the pandemic, she said. On top of securing grants to provide educational childcare in Sweet Home, Peda developed mail-ordered children’s programming for the summer.

Library Reaching Out

With the library doors closed because of COVID for the two-week freeze, staff are working harder than ever to prove their worth, Peda said.

“Staff are contacting patrons by phone or email to let them know that we are here to help them. Patrons can place items on hold using the library’s catalog and they can call or email us a list of titles.”

Peda also said the library has implemented cost-saving measures, from freezing purchases to forgoing her own cost of living increase – a move all department heads at the city participated in earlier this year in response to the COVID difficulties.

She also said the library is implementing resource sharing with others in the county, which saves money because the borrowing library “doesn’t have to purchase, process or shelve the item.”

It is still unclear what will happen to the part-time staffers come Dec. 15.

Towry said he needs to keep “all options on the table,” and that he’s waiting for more financial information from the county before he reaches a verdict on the library’s future.

“I still don’t feel like I have enough information to retract (the furlough notice),” he said last week. “When we get the information from the county where we can do some better forecasting, then we can retract it.”

The cut to hours is still set to go through.

Meanwhile, several people have told The New Era they’ve lost sleep over this situation in the past weeks, and uncertainty lingers in the air amid a COVID freeze which makes in-person communication, and the clarity that comes with it, impossible.

“I’m a pastor,” Hill said. “I feel I need to stand up for these people who are being unjustly treated.”

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