Baldwin, city still talking about service charges

Baldwin Public Library officials and officials from the City of Birmingham are continuing discussions started this past spring about the library possibly turning to third party providers of services that are now supplied by the city and charged to the independent library organization.

The issue of city provided services first arose in late February, prompted by a debate over service charges from the city that were increased substantially. The city provides and bills the library for human resource services, payroll services and financial services, along with levying a charge for collection of the library millage and a portion of property assessment costs.

The charges from the city, which have not been updated in over 15 years, according to city officials, were at $105,000 annually and in the new proposal have been raised to $219,000.

Officials from the library and the city, along with legal counsel for both, have met in recent weeks to discuss a number of issues that include the services charges and agreements between the two parties.

In May of this year city officials agreed that the Baldwin Public Library is a wholly independent organization, an issue that has lingered for decades and has in the past been an issue when it came to the library board setting its annual millage rate.

Faced with a possible substantial increase in service charges from the city, Baldwin Library Director Rebekah Craft was charged with the task of investigating what the costs would be if some or all of the services were performed by a third party rather than the city. Craft surveyed third party service costs and what other library organizations were paying for similar services.

In late September city and library officials continued to meet. The meeting was attended by Baldwin Library Board President Danielle Rumple, library director Craft and library attorneys Mike Bloom and Anne Seurynck of the Foster Swift law firm. Attending on behalf of the city were Birmingham Mayor Therese, City Manager Jana Ecker and city attorneys Mary Kucharek and Tracy Gaudenzi.

At a special library board meeting on Friday, October 3, both Rumple and Craft described as “productive” the late September meeting with city officials at which they were able to raise a number of questions, the answers to which will allow the library board to decide on service provider issues in the coming weeks.

Information provided at the October 3 meeting of library officials showed a considerable savings by moving some services now provided by the city to third party providers. For example, the city proposes a cost of $22,358 annually for payroll services while the library has a third party quote of $8,544. For human resource services, the city would charge $70,653 and an outsourced rate from a private company would be $13,008.

No action was taken by the library board at the special session on Friday but it was agreed that as soon as the city supplied answers on some questions raised at the late September meeting, then the library board would call either a late October or early November special meeting to make final decisions on the service agreements with the city and outside firms.