Patrons fret cuts coming to Cedar Rapids libraries

CEDAR RAPIDS - The local public libraries - downtown and west side - are go-to spots on the weekends for Josie Meineke and her three children, Xander, 5, Joscelyn, 6, and Riley, 9.

On a Saturday earlier this month, Riley and Joscelyn thumbed through movie titles at the Ladd Library, while Xander wheeled a cart through the stacks to collect books.

Meineke works all week, so the library is the place for family time on the weekend, to socialize the kids and participate in activities offered there.

'It will be inconvenient and hard to schedule times as a family,” Meineke said, referring to the planned reductions that will cut Saturdays at Ladd and Sundays downtown.

In January, the library board approved recommendations to eliminate $460,000, or 7 percent, from its annual budget, down from $6.3 million in fiscal 2016 to $5.9 million proposed for fiscal 2017. This became necessary after last November's library tax levy vote failed and the city announced its intention to discontinue $700,000 in temporary funding - though it will increase permanent funding by $339,000 annually.

Other big changes include eliminating three management positions, shutting an hour early - at 8 p.m. - on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at both downtown and Ladd locations, and cutting budgets for building the collection and improving technology. The changes take effect March 28.

Costs have been a point of contention in Cedar Rapids since the $46 million downtown library opened, replacing an old location, which was destroyed in the 2008 flood.

City and library officials have heard from residents.

'It was never about the condition of the new library,” City Council member Justin Shields said during a recent budget discussion. 'Was it a Taj Mahal? That was crazy. It is a nice library. It is a very functional library.

'That is what we should have built. That is what we built. Did we have everything figured out, how much (operations) would cost us? No.”

Library Director Dara Schmidt said blaming funding woes on the new downtown library is a red herring.

It opened debt free in August 2013, six months after the full-service Ladd opened to replace a storefront location in the old Westdale Mall. They had no way of anticipating the surge in demand or the additional strain on staffing and the budget.

The library circulated 1.4 million items - books, DVDs, etc. - in 2014, the most recent certified count. That was the most in the state. The most popular meeting rooms, such as Whipple Auditorium, Beems and the Ladd community room, are in use 60 percent of open hours, and 122,000 people used meeting spaces last year - up from 19,000 before the flood.

Computer use was up 40,000 sessions to 145,988 in 2015, she added.

'The real reason the library costs more now than in the past is there is a full-service facility on the west side that is 16,000 square feet as opposed to 2,500 square feet, and it just costs more to run a real library instead of a storefront,” Schmidt said.

Between the downtown and Ladd location, the library expenses grew by $1.1. million from 2013 to 2016. Since 2013, the budget shortfall was backfilled with money from the library foundation, Federal Emergency Management Agency and temporary city funds, she explained.

'It's about $1.5 million more to have two full-service libraries,” City Council member Kris Gulick said comparing the budget now to when there was only one full-service facility. 'It wasn't the new library that added a lot of costs. It's the fact we have two full-time libraries, and that sometimes gets lost on people.”

Questions have lingered about whether the new library cuts are more painful than needed, done to prove a point.

Data-driven decisions

The local chapter of Amnesty International uses a downtown library meeting room monthly at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, but may need new arrangements due to the earlier hours. Reaching the library earlier than 7:30 p.m. is hard for working members, many of whom need to get home and make dinner first, organizer Alice Dahle of Cedar Rapids said.

'One of the big things, this was built with all these very nice meeting rooms we didn't have before,” she said. 'If we are going to make use of them, they need to be open at times when people will be able to use them.”

Others have been more pointed.

'It looks like it's more for the benefit and convenience of employees to close on the weekends,” said Ron Moore, who lives just outside the city limits. 'It's too bad the public, with their restricted times to go to the library if they have full-time jobs, weren't the first consideration.”

Schmidt disputes this. All the decisions were data driven, she said.

The eight o'clock hour on weekdays is the slowest of the week. When considering weekend closures, Schmidt said she was surprised to discover Saturdays were slower than Fridays. Since July, daily checkouts averaged 269 on Fridays and 246 on Saturdays, computer sessions averaged 94 on Fridays and 90 on Saturdays, and door counts averaged 469 on Fridays and 470 on Saturdays.

'We have made the decisions with months and months of data showing that those are the hours that will have the least impact to the public,” Schmidt said. 'But we are not just making the cuts to come up with the dollars we need. We are changing the entire structure of the library to respond to what will continue to be a challenging financial situation.”

The Cedar Rapids library had achieved the highest tier for accreditation with 68 service hours per week, but with 64 hours in the new plan the library falls to the lowest tier still accredited by the State Library of Iowa. Still, The library remains eligible for the same funding unlocked by accreditation, which was a priority in reduction decisions, Schmidt said.

A minimum of 61 hours of service per week are required for accreditation, and extra points are given for Sunday hours. Because Cedar Rapids has two libraries, one library can be closed on a day when the other is open and still meet the standard. The reduction amounts to 20 less library hours per week.

'Libraries, both in Iowa and around the nation, continually look for the best ways to ensure the funding they receive has the greatest impacts on the community,” State Librarian Michael Scott said in an email. 'When funding reductions occur, libraries have to look more critically at how they can ensure that the quality of the service is maintained. Difficult decisions have to be made and certainly Cedar Rapids Public Library is doing that now.”

The staffing will be reorganized but without layoffs. Ladd library will lose its branch manager position, but retain a supervisor position. The head count will decrease in the part-time rank from 55 to 52, while staying flat for full-time employees at 32.

The library budgets $3 million on regular salaries, and $1.45 million on benefits. Under the new plan, staff can work as few as 28 hours per week, down from 32, and still receive benefits, Schmidt said. Benefits will be provided to 46 of 84 employees in fiscal 2017.

Cutting Sunday hours will help reduce overtime costs. The union contract requires time and a half pay on Sundays.

The Communications Workers of America, the worker's union, did not return messages seeking comment.

The question now is what to do about the future. Schmidt said funding is down about $1 million annually from where library officials hoped they would to be.

'If the hours where we are right now are acceptable to the public, and the city council says next year this is not one-time funding, and this is as bad as the reduction are going to get, and people are OK with that, the library is going to have to be OK with it,” she said.

The library trustees could call for another levy vote, but not until November 2017.

Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett said the last library levy request may have been too rich at 27 cents per $1,000 in property tax value and put people off by not including a sunset clause.

Corbett noted that the public could help influence what happens with the library's future because three spots on the library board of trustees will be vacant.

'We may find a huge impact or we may find little or none,” Corbett said. 'We will have to assess in six to 12 months.”