By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer
CHAPEL HILL – Accepting a last-minute offer from Orange County officials, the Chapel Hill Town Council voted 7-2 on Monday not to charge non-Chapel Hill residents of Orange County to use the Chapel Hill Public Library.
The Orange County Board of Commissioners voted earlier this month to increase its annual allocation to the library from $250,000 to about $343,000. The council had asked the board to increase its allocation to the library budget as operating expenses increase with an impending expansion, then recently approved the town’s fiscal year 2011-12 operating budget and with it a fee schedule that specified a $60-per-household annual fee for those who live outside Chapel Hill to use the town’s library.
The move followed the county’s previous refusal to increase its contribution, which had remained static for 10 years.
“We’ve had issues with the county. This year has been a challenging one on our relationship,†Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt said. “I thought it was a pretty big deal that they went forward and proposed a budget item [increasing library funding].â€
If the council had chosen to implement library usage fees for non-Chapel Hill residents of Orange County, the county would have rescinded its annual contribution to the library’s operating budget. According to town staff estimates, a fee-based library card system for non-Chapel Hill county residents could have generated up to $100,000. To offset any shortfall in library revenue during 2011-12, the Chapel Hill Public Library Foundation committed as much as $200,000 from the Cornelia Spencer Love Trust.
As part of the increased allocation, commissioners have said they would like to develop an interoperability agreement that would create ease of use between the Chapel Hill Public Library and the Orange County Public Library systems, and set a target date of November 2012 for such an agreement to be in place. In a suggested agreement, the commissioners proposed that the county increase its contribution to the library each fiscal year through June 2015 until the county’s contribution represents 30 percent of what it spends on annual operation costs for the county library system. The county’s funding of the Chapel Hill Public Library this year represented about 18 percent of what it spent on its own library system.
Several council members expressed apprehension at an interoperability agreement, but said they were willing to try to come to an agreement with the county.
“I don’t see the risk of leaving things alone for a year … and seeing if we can come to an agreement that makes sense,†council member Gene Pease said. “For me, it buys time and saves this town a lot of money this fiscal year.â€
“If we are going to get to this point where we are getting what we consider to be a fair share from them … they’re also going to want to have their fair share of say,†council member Donna Bell said. “We’re also going to have to decide what the cost of freedom and lack of entanglement is for us.â€
Council members Laurin Easthom and Matt Czajkowski voted in favor of charging a $60 fee-per-family for non-Chapel Hill residents of Orange County to use the library.
“We are … looking at years and years of subsidizing people who live out of town,†Easthom said. “I just think it’s the most reasonable and fiscally equitable way of assuming the increase in our operational costs due to this huge expansion and capital cost.â€
Czajkowski agreed.
“So what changed in terms of a different apparent attitude on the part of the commissioners from two weeks ago to today?†Czajkowski said. “For the first time, they actually believed that we were going to say no to their money and start charging the nonresidents.
“A year from now, we’re going to be on the threshold of a brand new library – substantially higher costs that we’re going to have to find a way to fund, and it will be that much harder to walk away from what the county is offering,†he continued. “The only time we have gotten any response out of the commissioners was when they actually believed that we would … tell non-Chapel Hill residents that they had to pay, and it will become much more difficult.
“When it comes to interoperability, how much control of our library are we going to be willing to cede?â€