Niles-Maine Library Staff Complains Of Fatigue From Hiring Freeze Now In 12th Month – Journal & Topics Newspapers Online

Niles-Maine District Library trustees held their first budget meeting Friday in which board members took 10 minutes each to question department supervisors, along with questions for library administrators.

The library did not publicly post budget documents before the meeting. Requesting those documents after the budget meeting, the Journal was asked to file an order for documents under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the draft budget documents.

At Fridays meeting, department supervisors sat at a long line of tables, facing a line of desks on the stage of the librarys meeting room occupied by trustees.

Each trustee was given 10 minutes with department heads for questions and answers. Many of those staffers were asked pointed questions about the impacts of the librarys hiring freeze, now entering its 12th month.

The Journal did obtain some fiscal year 2023 budget documents proposed by the library administration. Numbers in those documents could be adjusted before a final budget is adopted.

Those draft documents show $6,920,029 in total budgeted spending and a total library appropriation of $13,080,058. A budget is the amount of money the library plans to spend. The appropriation, typically about twice as much as the budget, is how much the library is allowed to spend.

Budgeted revenues are expected to come in at $5.5 million, including $5.1 million in property tax revenues, according to budget documents obtained by the Journal. Revenues for the 2021-2022 budget year were projected to come in at $7.8 million. Year-to-date revenues have come in at $7.7 million so far this year.

When trustees asked Library Executive Director Cyndi Rademacher why this years revenues were so much lower, she reminded trustees that when the librarys property tax levy was adopted in November, it included an 18% drop from the prior years levy. Property tax levies set in November affect two fiscal years.

Three of the boards six trustees, Patti Rozanski, Becky Keane, and Diane Olson, complained there was not enough time to digest and understand all the information in the budget they received.

On the legal fee budget line item, which in the 2021-2022 budget saw a $40,000 line item but a $500,000 appropriation, $200,000 was proposed in the first draft budget proposal. Rademacher said that is because of ongoing union negotiations.

Rademacher said her proposed budget would fully staff all positions, including those currently vacant because of the hiring freeze, included in the fiscal year 2021-2022 budget that began July 1, 2021. The hiring freeze was implemented in May 2021. She said included in that was a 10% hike in base salaries, because salaries have not been adjusted and because the current employment market is, quite competitive.

Although the fiscal year 2021-2022 budget proposed deep staffing cuts, a last-minute compromise offered by then-Trustee Olivia Hanusiak avoided any layoffs or further budgeted reductions in staff. Hanusiak resigned from the board later that summer and has not been replaced on the board.

Under questioning, library department supervisors reported on their staffing levels. Arianne Carey, youth and teen services supervisor, said her department is down 157.5 hours per week since the start of the 2021-2022 fiscal year. Digital services is down 97 hours a week, other departments reported being down similarly.

Victoria Luz, materials services supervisor, said the impact on staff has been general fatigue. The environment causes people to look elsewhere (for employment), which spreads us even thinner. She concluded, We keep pulling together to get it done, but its painful.

Accountants from the librarys new accounting firm Sikich, who prepared budget documents from materials gathered from department heads and submitted by Rademacher, were not present at Fridays meeting. Several trustees requested they be present at upcoming budget meetings.

Budget meetings were initially scheduled for one last Friday followed by a second meeting, Monday, May 16 before the regular library board meeting Wednesday, so the budget could be placed on public display for the required 30 days and adopted before July 1. That schedule was extended.

The Monday, May 16 meeting was postponed. The Wednesday, May 18 meeting is a regular library board meeting, however, the budget review meeting scheduled for May 16 is now scheduled for Tuesday, May 31, with the tentative budget expected to see a public hearing and vote take place at a special meeting Monday, July 25 after the tentative budget is placed on public display for the required 30 days.

Library Board President Carolyn Drbilk has, for several years, advocated adopting a final budget before the start of the fiscal year, which begins Friday, July 1.

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Niles-Maine Library Staff Complains Of Fatigue From Hiring Freeze Now In 12th Month - Journal & Topics Newspapers Online