In September I attended a Board of Supervisors meeting where the library budget was discussed.

Christopher Veach, Lake County head librarian, was asked to present budget adjustments to reduce the expenditures of the library for the current budget year.

Although Mr. Veach suggested that budget shortfalls could be met by using library reserve funds this year, the Board of Supervisors felt this was unacceptable.

Suggested cuts included closing a library and reducing librarian hours. When it was announced that these were possible service reductions, the community response was strong. A petition was signed on Facebook and many community members contacted their local supervisors.

Others attended the Board of Supervisors meeting to make an impassioned plea for their library and the library system as a whole.

As a Lake County Library Advisory Board member I thanked the Board of Supervisors for its support of libraries, which are not always considered essential county services.

There was a strong statement at the meeting that libraries were essential services of the county, that the democratic process depended on libraries and that libraries frequently served as community hubs.

It has not been my experience over the past two years that the Board of Supervisors has backed that sentiment up with much real (or economic) support for their belief.

In many ways the Board of Supervisors has taken the “saving of the libraries” as a wonderful political moment, but ignored the fact that the budget for the library system has been reduced each year that I have served.

County libraries are funded by state library funds and dedicated Lake County property tax money, established by a 1984 ballot measure. 

Reductions in the state library funds have accounted for tremendous revenue loss for the library system.  But the Board of Supervisors has not moved to backfill those funds, in fact, they have asked for library budget reductions to make sure the library stays within the amount of the dedicated property tax base even as inflation raises library costs.

The Board of Supervisors could add money to the county library fund budget, as they did in 2012 to help cover sudden shortfalls from state budget cuts, but apparently they have other, more essential, priorities.

In the 2013-14 budget year, line item administrative fees in the library budget for county Buildings and Grounds Department costs were $6,844 (in accordance with OMBA-87).

In 2014-15 the Board of Supervisors allowed $131,092 in line item administrative fees for work by that department. This contributed greatly to this year’s library budget shortfall. It is unclear what those charges were for since they do not have to be itemized.

As we look at the expenditures of the library, they do not come from lack of oversight by the librarian.

I question the decision of the Board of Supervisors to backfill this budget shortfall by assigning the tasks of the Visitor Information Center to the library staff.

If the programs and services of the library are so essential, then how can you ask them to take on tasks that will only take them away from those services?

I have found the library staff in Lake County libraries to be very professional and very busy. They are engaged in the operations of the library. Now they will do the tasks of the Visitor Information Center, taking time away from creating programs and serving the community more completely as professional librarians.

Mr. Veach suggested that the budget shortfall could be covered with library reserve funds for this year with the assumption of better state funding for the following year and of normalization of county administration fees, which contributed directly to the shortfall.

The Board of Supervisors' decision to “save” the libraries by adding more tasks outside of the definition of library services to cover a budget shortfall that comes from additional county costs does not make me believe that the Board of Supervisors feels library services are essential.

These are just two of the concerns that have been on my mind since the Board of Supervisors' magnanimous decision last month.

Mr. Veach will be asked to come back to the board to report on the activities of the library for the upcoming budget year and to review the recommendations of the advisory board.

As interested citizens, do not to assume that the level of library service will be maintained in your community.

To support your community library, please join the Friends of the Library in your community, visit the Lake County Library on Facebook, and let your supervisor know that you continue to feel that libraries are essential services in Lake County.

Ellen Sommers is a member of the Lake County Library Advisory Board, serving Lake County, Calif.