OPINION: JONES LIBRARY BUDGET MEETING – DOLLARS AND DEMEANOR DECREASE
Photo: flckr.com. Creative Commons
Every trustee of an institution has the legal obligation to ask questions and provide suggestions for the organization they serve. Trustees also have the expectation of receiving answers in a timely, clear and respectful manner.
This past week I observed the Jones Library Budget Zoom meeting on Tuesday, July 21st and was alarmed. The meeting revealed a Library Director who was unwilling to answer questions forthrightly about the state of the library’s finances and did not appear to be cooperating with the Trustees’ treasurer.
This meeting included Trustees Bob Pam (Treasurer), Chris Hoffman (VIce President), Director Sharon Sharry, and John Shannon from the library’s business office. The two main agenda items were the FY 2020 final budget report (ending 6/30/20) and concerns about the FY 2021 budget. Pam asked the majority of questions. Hoffman did not engage in the meeting unless he was asked by Pam to do so. The agenda packet can be found here.
Pam began by stating that he had only been given a partial FY 2020 budget statement before the meeting. He asked many clarifying questions about differences between budgeted 2020 items and actual expenditures. For example, Pam queried why almost $100,000 in excess of the original budget was spent for additional hours for part-time benefited and part-time temporary staff.
Sharry stated that this was because there has been no receptionist since “last October or November.” Pam wondered if there were any savings for the library by using staff in this manner. Sharry responded that $120,000 was saved. She did not explain further.
Pam then wondered how and when the library might be reimbursed for any expenses due to COVID. Shannon said he is keeping track of masks and cleaning supplies and that there may be more expenses for items like plexiglass before the library opens but no orders for plexiglass have been prepared. The Town has not yet set up specific mechanisms for reimbursement through the CARES Act.
Pam said Sharry should respond to this question, adding that there are only six weeks until Labor Day.
Here is a rough transcript of the next section of the meeting based upon this reporter’s notes:
Sharry: Didn’t we talk about this last week [at the Trustees meeting]? Labor Day is the earliest the library could open. We just don’t know yet.
Pam: It’s hard to be a useful trustee when information comes in dribs and drabs.
Sharry: I have nothing more to say.
SILENCE
Pam: I see that $41,000 came from the Friends in January. When can we expect to receive the funds from the Friends [for the remaining annual funds raised in FY 2020]?
Sharry: I still need a meeting with the Friends. We need to discuss the Annual Fund and the Woodbury Fund. [Then Sharry discussed how the return of Umass students might influence the budget.]
Pam: I assume the Woodbury funds will go to remote learning. The library could be a hotspot for access to the internet. Are we setting up tables and chairs outside for those who want to use the hotspot?
SILENCE
Sharry: The library will use all resources including land.
Pam: I am giving helpful suggestions.
SILENCE
Pam: Oh, the library is prepared. ‘Thank you, Mr. Pam?’
Sharry: The staff is working 24/7 and they are ready. You are not the first one to think of tables and chairs.
SILENCE
Pam: Do you know how much money we will receive from the Friends? Will there be no funds until January of next year?
Sharry: We need to ask them to make a plan.
Pam: Some money is not needed to be requested as the Friends are now running our annual fund and we have an arrangement.
Sharry: We need a meeting, which hasn’t happened yet.
Pam: Is what I’m asking not important?
Sharry: No, I keep answering the same questions over and over again. The Friends have to meet and make reports. I’ve said this so many times. You are wasting your breath.
SILENCE
Pam: When do you think this meeting will occur?
Sharry: If you want it, tomorrow. Oh, I can’t do it tomorrow. We can meet.
SILENCE
Sharry: I have the building project and the staff to deal with. I triage every day. We’re rolling in funds. Otherwise, I would tell you.
***
The meeting ended soon after this exchange, which was similar to an exchange between Pam and Sharry at the May 22, 2020 budget meeting. Then, there were also several questions that Sharry could not answer and, at one point, she told Pam, “There is something called a disease. I have to calm down. I need a break. Talk five minutes on your own,” and the Director took herself offline and returned to the meeting in a few minutes.
Since the Trustees are asking the town to undertake a multi-million dollar investment in a library demolition/expansion project, the public deserves to have more transparent reporting on the current state of the library’s finances and on their projected figures for covering their share of the project. The first step involves the Director answering the Treasurer’s questions in a complete and polite manner.
Then there is the issue of COVID. Why hasn’t the library made plans for ordering plexiglass and its installation?
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
1) Staffing
The library did not replace two full-time retiring Library Techs in FY2020 and is not replacing two retirees in FY 2021 (one being the North Amherst Library Supervisor). The Director may or may not replace the receptionist, who stopped working last fall. The Director has asserted at two previous meetings that the only way the library can function with this staffing level is because all libraries are closed to the public. How can the library possibly afford to staff a larger building if they are having so many difficulties now?
2) Fundraising
The Jones now has two Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with the Friends of the Jones Library (Friends). One is for the annual fundraising with an 80/20 split for the Jones and the Friends after expenses. However, the MOU did not stipulate either fundraising or payment schedules.
The second MOU is for the Friends to oversee the capital campaign. The Jones Library is 2nd on the waiting list for a $13.8 million grant towards a $35.8 demolition/expansion project with the Town’s share at $22 million. The Jones has promised to raise $6.1 million toward this $22 million total. No debt service is included in these figures.
So far, the public only knows that a $273,000 unrestricted bequest from the Van Steenberg estate has been earmarked for the capital campaign. Have any additional funds been raised?
Terry S. Johnson is a retired Amherst teacher, blossoming poet, and a lifelong student of art, architecture, history, and languages.
I noted that the endowment balance for the fiscal year ending 06/30/2019 was published. What was the endowment balance for the year ending 06/30/2020?
What are the trustees hiding, if anything?
This rupture in civility is most distressing. I note the absence of Trustees Sarat, Edwards and Lefebvre, so it is hard to tell whether the rupture is between the director and the Trustees or among the Trustees as well. Civility is more than just politeness. It is an element of policy-making, especially when controversial matters are on the table. I appreciate Bob Pan’s persistence in asking relevant questions.
Info on the budgets, trustees fundraising for the regular budget and the library project could be a subject of a Public Records request. This information should be in documents and emails of library staff and the director. Really any request for information is a public records request but it’s helpful to title ones email Request For Public Records. Anyone can file one, even a trustee.
Responses to the above comments:
1) Concerning the Endowment – Treasurer Trustee Bob Pam always updates the Trustees as to the state of the endowment. By the end of FY2020, he reported that both of the endowment and the Woodbury Fund recouped the majority of their losses from the spring’s disastrous decline.
2) Civility – There are eight library committees that consist of only two Trustees, the Library Director, other committee members and invited guests. The Budget Committee I reported consisted of Trustees Bob Pam and Chris Hoffman.
About once a month more or less, the entire board of six Trustees meet. Various committees give reports and suggestions, and the entire board then votes on decisions. President Austin Sarat feels that this is most efficient way to run the board. Most libraries in our area have one longer Trustee meeting a month. However, it is interesting to consider that there is no Trustee who goes to ALL the committee meetings so no Trustee has the entire detailed picture.
As to the civility at the larger Board meetings, I feel that several Trustees no longer realize that their remarks are sometimes impolite, impatient and/or overbearing. The saddest situation is that unanimous votes are preferred, and differing opinions or new ideas are not always met with appreciation.
3) Financial Transparency – Financial reports from the Jones Library are always transparent. The Trustees just received a “clean” audit for FY2019 with no suggestions of auditing improvements as in the past.
The issue seems to be that the library is having difficulty paying benefits for the over-20 hour a week workers which include health insurance, sick days, personal days, longevity and bereavement leave. “Under 20’s,” as they are called, only receive sick leave. So for the past two years, the library has not rehired four over-20 retirees and appears to uses part of the town allocation to pay for benefits of current staff. I have never heard this fully explained so this is my educated hypothesis from listening to oh so many meetings.
As to fundraising, the Jones has two MOU’s with the Friends of the Jones Library who now run annual fundraising and the capital campaign for the demolition/expansion project. There is some detailed information provided for the annual fundraising but none for the latter.
The Friends is a separate 501(c)(3). Since the MOU’s, the Friends’ board meetings have been labelled “private.” No minutes are published on their part of the library’s website. Minutes used to be available in monthly Trustee packets if you went to a meeting, and there was a hard copy available.
Can one do a public records request for such a non-profit? I know that IRS filings by non-profits are visible to the public but specific financial records?
Several years ago, at one of the first Trustees’ meetings that then-new Trustee Lee Edwards attended, I heard her say that it would be preferable to handle the Trustees’ fundraising privately.
Of course, the Open Meeting Law (OML) prevents that. The Trustees are subject to the OML. The Friends, it may be, are not. So Memoranda of Understanding moving the Trustees’ fundraising, both annual and capital campaign, under the purview of the Friends, purport to have given the Trustees’ fundraising the privacy that they sought.
I think it a serious question, however, whether this comports with the OML. Have the Trustees asked the Massachusetts Attorney General?
The interchange reported above shows furthermore that the Trustees have succeeded in hiding their fundraising not only from the public, but from themselves. To overstate how serious this is, is impossible. The Trustees are fiduciaries. They have legal responsibility for ensuring that Library funds are spent for Library purposes only. They are responsible for the Library’s financial soundness.
Yet, when Trustee Treasurer Bob Pam pressed the Library Director for financial information to which he is legally entitled, and for which he is legally responsible, as reported above the Library Director responded: “We’re rolling in funds. Otherwise, I would tell you.” Astounding.
The Trustees currently want the Town to underwrite a proposed Library demolition/expansion project costing at least $49 million, including interest. The Trustees are currently also showing the Town how well they discharge their fiduciary responsibility for their current finances. What about it if some $49 million, most of it public money, were at stake?
I think you would request documents/correspondence regarding the Friends of the Jones Library that the library director and Trustees are in possession of. The library director is a government employee paid by the town, so all the documents, email, etc. that she has are public records. Trustees are elected officials so their docs are the same.