Library Board of Trustees Minutes 2008 10 16

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Library Board of Trustees Minutes OCTOBER 16, 2008 Page 2 of 3 the time of the meeting, a formal proposal had not yet been received but was anticipated on Friday, October 17, 2008. Based on summaries from the local newspapers, the Trustees centered their discussion on the results from the Town of Superior's October 14, 2008 Town Hall Meeting. The Town of Superior while rejecting the City of Louisville's financial proposal countered with the following two proposals: PROPOSAL #1 The Town of Superior will in 2009 pay the City of Louisville half of the City's proposed $125,000 payment for 2009 services, and directs the City of Louisville to collect approximately $30 in user fees from residents who choose to patronize the Louisville Public Library. The Town of Superior estimates that 2,000 residents will participate. Presumably this arrangement would continue for the following two years as both municipalities worked toward a longer term agreement for library services. PROPOSAL #2 The Town of Superior will pay the City of Louisville $115,000 in 2009, $125,000 in 2010 and $135,000 in 2011, and promise to move forward aggressively with the City of Louisville in exploring the concept of a library district for the two municipalities. The Library Board of Trustees discussion of these two proposals is summarized below: PROPOSAL #1 Pro: The City of Louisville is to receive payment of 50% of a discounted rate proposed to the Town of Superior in the City's latest offer letter. If Superior agreed to a three-year contract with the City of Louisville for library services, the City could anticipate an incremental increase of that amount (again, 50% of an already discounted rate) for the following two years. Con: The City of Louisville has already offered the Town of Superior a discounted fee for library services, far below the true cost of providing service to Superior patrons. At some level of payment-a level that the Board of Trustees felt has been met-a proposed payment is so small that the offer does not constitute an offer of operating in good faith and is unrelated to the true cost of providing service. Additionally, the Town of Superior's conclusion that 2,000 residents would pay the City of Louisville a user fee for access to library services disregards the close to 95% decline in patron activity in a local library issuing fees for library service as experienced by the City of Lafayette three years ago. Also, the onus for collecting these fees falls to the City of Louisville as proposed by the Town of Superior-a responsibility that raises troubling questions of legality for our municipality, as well as additional internal costs related to the collection and accounting for these funds. The risks for our City-both financially and ethically-in accepting such a proposal are great, particularly since there