LIBRARY FY 2006/07 BUDGET: City Council Deliberations

  

City of Carmel-by-the-Sea
City Council
Special Meeting
Thursday, June 22, 2006


At the Special City Council meeting on 22 June 2006, City Administrator Rich Guillen presented a revised “Proposed Revenue Adjustments FY 2006/07,” including an increase of $50,000 from Sales Tax, $30,000 from Building Permits and $20,000 from Parking Lots Fees, a total of $100,000. And Guillen presented a “Proposed Expenditures Adjustment FY 2006/07,” including $70,000 for Forest, Parks & Beach, $35,000 for Library (4 hours on Saturdays at the Park Branch and 4 hours on Sundays at Harrison Memorial Library) and $30,000 for Capital Improvements-Del Mar Restroom.

During the City Council’s deliberations on the Library, the following quotes are insightful:

City Administrator Rich Guillen: “...I’m not really sure that you really got the statistics that you needed to make an informed decision...and...this has been a bone of contention for me for about 2 years, I went to the Library Board about 2 years ago, expressed to them a way to save $16,000 in accounting fees by the City doing the services for them and they basically told me to take a hike. That was $16,000 I could have saved them which could maybe added to opening the hours at the library...”

COMMENT: Does City Administrator Guillen believe a professional city administrator would deny Carmelites and library patrons restored 2004 library operating hours because the Library Board refused to allow the City, under his auspices, to provide accounting services?

Mayor McCloud: “I’m very struck by the fact that Martha referred to all these statistics. The Council gets no library statistics. Zero...”

Library Director Margaret Pelikan: “...A full Library Board packet including all of our statistics, which is 6 pages of statistics, is given to the Administration every month, so that’s forwarded to Administration every month.”

Mayor McCloud: “O.K.”

COMMENT: As mayor, it is the responsibility of Mayor McCloud to acquire all the information and statistics she believes she needs to make an informed decision prior to the actual City Council meeting. That the Library provides the Administration with library statistics every month is no reason or basis for Mayor McCloud to use a lack of statistics and data for her refusal to endorse additional library hours towards 2004 restoration levels.


City Administrator Rich Guillen: “...and quite honestly...and if you want to go to the library, this might sound awful, but if you want to go to the library on Sunday, Monterey is open Sunday afternoon, it’s a 5 mile drive over the hill, if you really, really that badly want to go to the library on Sunday...”

COMMENT: Is Rich Guillen the City Administrator/Manager of the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea OR the City of Monterey?


After City Administrator Guillen, City Councilwoman Paula Hazdovac and Mayor Sue McCloud adamantly stated that they would not recommend or support including $35,000 in the FY 2006/07 budget for the library because they needed a study and more data, the following ensued:

City Councilman Erik Bethel: “Back to the library issue, I remember when we cut the hours and it was a very difficult thing for us to do, but I don’t remember studying and researching surveys and waiting 30 days or 90 days to survey what, and after studying those surveys determining where we should allocate our library hours. So it seems a little bit unreasonable for us to be able to make a decision to close library hours without the study yet we need an intense study to be able to reinstate library hours when we could just exercise a little bit of common sense.”

City Administrator Rich Guillen: “Let me talk to that. You know, 2 years ago, it was very painful, you all were here and we had to eliminate 20 positions and so forth. If you start increasing hours, adding staff back, and so forth, we are just making the same mistake that was made in 1993 when they eliminated a lot of positions and then staff grew up to 2004, then 2004 came along, we had more expenditures than revenues, mostly staff, and we had to cut. And I see this Council...you’re starting to make the same mistake…”

Yet, during the City Council’s deliberation on City Administrator Guillen’s proposed new Community Development “Super” Department, City Administrator Guillen is proposing an ADDITIONAL employee, the Community Development Director.

Interpretation: Adding a Community Development Director is O.K., but adding staff to the library in order to better serve library patrons and restore library hours to 2004 operating levels is decidedly not O.K.