Libraries facing reality of city's belt tightening

Photo/Alex von Kleydorff. Steve Mersereau looks through the Non Fiction area in the newly remodeled Ferguson Library

Photo/Alex von Kleydorff. Steve Mersereau looks through the Non Fiction area in the newly remodeled Ferguson Library

By TOM EVANS

Times Staff Writer

STAMFORD -- Proposed budget cuts to the Ferguson Library and its satellite branches have library officials frustrated -- and the long-term outlook doesn't seem to be any brighter.

With zeroes taking the place of about $2 million in capital improvement requests from the library on Mayor Michael Pavia's proposed budget, and more than $1.2 million lopped off what the library has asked for in expenses from the mayor's requested operating budget, officials are at a loss on how to close those gaps.

Ernest DiMattia Jr., Ferguson Library president, and Dudley Williams, secretary of the library's board of trustees, are having to face some harsh realities of the city's financial belt-tightening.

And they don't like what they see.

"You're looking at three Stamford taxpayers, and we're not oblivious to the tax burden on the city and how it impacts the citizens and construction of the city," said Williams as he sat at a table with DiMattia and Linda Avellar, the library's communications director. "The library is not a luxury, not a frill. We don't look at the library as an option. We look at it as an essential service, a necessity."

As it stands now in the city's operating budget -- which provides 91 percent of the library's expenses -- the library system will receive $7 million, a decrease of $1.229 million from its budget request.

Ferguson and its branches also stand to lose a requested $1.85 million for a variety of upgrades and improvements, as well as another $245,000 in computers and related technology infrastructure from the city's capital budget.

DiMattia said the library system was ready to live with a $400,000 increase on its current $7.8-million operating budget. He said that increase was to help defray employee health-insurance costs, pension payouts, and salary bumps of about 3.25 percent.

Going out another year in budget projections, in Fiscal Year 2011-12 the library would again take in $7 million from the city, and a year later that would increase slightly to $7.105 million.

"We wanted a meeting with the mayor," DiMattia said. "But he reduced our operating budget request ... and took out everything in the capital budget. He took it out completely, and it all happened without communications or conversations."

Mayor Michael Pavia did not immediately return calls for this story.

Williams said the current budgets will mean fewer available programs and services.

"The degree of cuts means a substantial reduction in the services we can provide," Williams said. "There's not another building in the city we want to see packed, and we're positive that we'll have to turn a lot more people away. That is just a crime. Every agency approached this budget season with the idea of belt-tightening, but the magnitude of our cuts is significant. This will severely cut the library's benefits to the city."

There are no plans to close any library branches, and no layoffs of staff have been suggested, Williams said. For the time being, the cuts -- if enacted -- will result in fewer hours at all branches.

"The services here are ones that people need to avail themselves to because this is a building for self-improvement," Williams said. "To constrict that ability is not a good thing. We've looked at various scenarios we can utilize if the proposed budget is accepted. Among those are fewer hours, fewer days the library is open, and fewer resources that people expect us to bring in. It's sad."

Under these cutbacks, Williams said the construction will barely be completed on the third floor, the final phase of the two-year process.

"The construction will get completed to where the library is serviceable," Williams said. "There are a whole host of things we wanted with the project that we'll not be able to do, like renovating inadequate lighting, renovating the floors and replacing part of the cooling system. We'll have to put the old furniture back in, and the exterior won't be replaced. Will the building be open? Yes. But it will not be the finished product we envisioned, and it will not be the finished project the city deserves."

Williams talked about the wicked Catch-22 surrounding this issue. In a difficult economy, more people need the library's resources more than ever.

"We believe that people can pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and that happens here," Williams said. "(The people in) front of (the libraries' computers are) not on the Lands' End Web site buying swim trunks. People are looking for jobs, and ways to improve their employability."

DiMattia took that point a step further.

"There's nothing else like the library for people to improve themselves, where they can add value to themselves," DiMattia said. "People that come here voluntarily -- where else do you go for Internet access? ... The irony is that in a recession people need the library more as they try to create more savings."

Williams gets annoyed when he talks about how this whole matter was handled.

"It's the approach," Williams said. "People make accusations about waste and savings, but where's the waste? Our doors are open, we welcome all input. We don't see employees not working. We'd rather see people of all ages here than in any other building."

Williams expanded on that topic, and addressed concerns that the library is too well-funded by taxpayers.

"A lot of people criticize the library, and say we shouldn't receive so much funding from the city," Williams said. "We do fundraising. Starbuck's -- which is open when the library is open -- is a revenue generator, and Ferguson is the only library in the country with a retail outlet. Ernie is looking for outside revenue generators. Selling used books is a real revenue generator, and that's something else we created. We are trying to do what we can to raise money and provide value."

The Ferguson Library's annual report cites 961,580 on-site visitors in the 2008-09 fiscal year, with another 220,657 using online library services remotely. In that year, 1,031,905 inventory items were circulated to the public.

DiMattia put the cuts into further perspective.

"The funding reductions are so deep, that if we close all the other branches and close Ferguson on Sundays -- the busiest day, per hour, per year -- we're still short $180,000," DiMattia said. "The circulation in 2009 was over 1 million people, and we expect that to be higher this year. Among our options are to keep Ferguson open and open the doors at noon instead of 10 a.m. But for what reason? To save homeowners $150 per year in taxes? Why?"
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