A plan to privatize libraries

in Seminole County has been shelved after scores of calls and emails from citizens protesting the idea.

Seminole County leaders have shut the book on a proposal to privatize the library system to an outside company after receiving scores of emails and phone calls from angry residents opposed to the idea.

“Our county loves its libraries,” County Commission Chairman John Horan said at a recent county meeting. “I think all of us realized that we were probably not going to save enough money just by identifying libraries [to reduce costs]. However, we identified the fact that there is overwhelming support for our libraries and overwhelming support of the people to pay for them.”

Winter Springs resident Madelda Thompson said she was pleased when she heard Seminole will not farm out its libraries.

“I’m afraid it would depersonalize the library and cut services,” she said of privatization. “Are they going to start charging us for things? Are they going to start charging for us to use the meeting rooms?”

The issue arose in May when county officials tossed out the idea of having a private organization manage its libraries as a way to cut costs.

County officials anticipate that Florida voters will approve a ballot measure in November that would grant some homeowners an additional property tax break, which could mean a loss of up to $11 million in tax revenue for Seminole.

The county then put out a public offer asking companies to submit proposals to operate its library system — which has five branches — with the same or improved levels of service but at a lower cost.

The total operating budget for Seminole’s library system is just over $6.6 million for this fiscal year. The system employs about 70 fulltime workers.

The county anticipates budgeting a total of nearly $34.9 million over the next five years.

Library Systems and Services LLC, a for-profit firm based in Rockville, Md., submitted a bid last month detailing running the library system for $6.1 million for the first year and a total of $32.1 million over the next five years, mainly by reducing staff, salaries and benefits.

A week later, The Friends of the Library of Seminole County, a nonprofit organization made up of volunteers, said it could run the library system for nearly $2.9 million for the first year and a total of nearly $15.2 million over five years.

In its proposal, the group said it would likely reduce staff and could “not guarantee” that current employee benefits — such as health insurance and retirement — would be available.

County Manager Nicole Guillet told commissioners July 24 that her staff evaluated the proposals and decided neither provided “a compelling case” to meet or exceed the current level of service.

“It does appear that there might be some savings,” she said. “But the savings in comparison to some of the other service concerns, it didn’t outweigh that.”

Ross Pagano, president of the Friends of the Library board of directors, said he was pleased county officials decided to keep the libraries under government auspices. His group decided to submit a bid to prevent a sole bid from Library Systems and Services.

“We just believed that libraries should be maintained and controlled by the government,” said Pagano, of Winter Springs. “If a private organization took it over, the services would be greatly reduced. … We’re very pleased with the outcome.”

Commissioners were flooded with scores of emails and phone calls from residents protesting the idea.

“I think this is a bad idea,” resident Richard Miller said in an email to commissioners. “If the county can’t figure out how to spend my tax dollars wisely, surely you could all use pay cuts. … Leave the libraries alone please.”

Commissioner Lee Constantine said his office received more than 80 emails on the subject.

“It is nice to know that the citizens of Seminole County care so much about their libraries,” he said.