Central Arkansas library board OK’s $20M budget for ’21

The board of directors of the Central Arkansas Library System has approved a 2021 budget that calls for nearly $20.4 million in general fund expenses as the library system prepares to emerge from what the executive director called a “tumultuous year.”

In a Dec. 12 memo to board members, system Executive Director Nate Coulter wrote, “In a year filled with so much uncertainty, CALS finances have been remarkably stable.”

He noted a $1.6 million operating surplus for 2020 largely resulting from furloughs and work-sharing made possible without economic hardship for employees because of the federal covid-19 aid package passed this spring. Also contributing to the surplus was better-than-anticipated property tax revenue that exceeded by $460,000 what library officials had budgeted for during 2020, Coulter wrote.

In the memo, Coulter said overall general fund expenses will increase by “a very modest” 1% in 2021, and explained that the library system’s expenses can be expected to rise before revenue follows suit amid the

ongoing covid-19 pandemic.

Certain revenue from fines, fees and parking “will remain down as we wait for the distribution of the vaccine to instill confidence among enough people to restore preCOVID behaviors,” Coulter wrote, adding that overall revenue is projected to decrease by 1.1% in 2021.

The largest share of the library system’s general fund expenses — nearly two-thirds — went to salaries and benefits of workers in 2020, though that figure is projected to decrease to 64.5% of general fund expenses in 2021.

The budgeted expenses for payroll and benefits in 2021 represent approximately a 9% increase over the actual 2020 payroll expenses for the library system. Coulter sought to put the increase in the context of the covid-19 outbreak.

In the budget memo to board members, Coulter said of the 9% increase, “That comparison, however, can be misleading since it contrasts a library in a greatly curtailed mode to one that we hope will be adding back more and more library activities after the first quarter of 2021.”

In addition to the library system’s 275 full-time and part-time employees, Coulter told board members that 15 open positions will need to be filled by January 2021. Nineteen other positions are vacant, but most of those roles are unlikely to be filled in 2021, depending on the level of traffic in buildings as the threat of the coronavirus recedes, he wrote in the memo.

The library system took advantage of provisions in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act that provided supplemental $600 payments per week for displaced workers until July, allowing the library system to furlough and institute work-share plans for approximately 135 employees in May and June without forcing those employees to take an economic hit.

The move saved the library system approximately $750,000 in salary expenses, Coulter told the board in his memo.

On April 30, the system’s board of directors approved furloughs of 63 employees and a reduction of hours for 72 others.

At $11.9 million, overall expenses for salaries and benefits in 2020 were $1 million below the amount the library system had budgeted for, Coulter told board members.

Current employees system-wide will see an average pay increase of 3.5%, with employees who earn less receiving larger pay increases of up to 5%. Employees earning the library’s lowest hourly wage of $11.05 will see their pay increase to $11.20 per hour, Coulter said, in order to keep pace with the estimated living wage for the area.

In a separate director’s report for the board’s Dec. 17 meeting, Coulter said the library system will give $500 bonuses to full-time employees earning less than $90,000 as well as $250 bonuses to part-time employees by the end of the year to recognize the work of staff members in keeping libraries partially open during the pandemic.

Parking revenue was down significantly in 2020, Coulter told board members in his memo. The library system had budgeted for $250,000 in revenue from parking this year but is projected to collect only $85,000.

“We are optimistic that this revenue stream will eventually return for us, but we are being conservative in 2021 with our projection of $112.5K (45% of the 2020 budget level) from parking,” Coulter wrote. “Until the United States arrests the spread of the COVID[-]19 virus, our traffic in the parking lot at Main [Library] will not be what it was prior to March.”

A new $54 annual charge for nonresidents who wish to obtain a library card, which became effective in September, is reflected in a projected $12,000 in revenue from the fee in 2021.

The 2021 budget also calls for merging the library system’s used bookstore in the Cox Building with the art galleries in the Bobby L. Roberts Library. The merged facilities will be called The Galleries at Library Square, according to Coulter’s memo.

Coulter described the merger as consistent with the library system’s 2019 strategic plan, which called for stemming $250,000 in annual losses associated with the library’s retail points of service. He wrote that the 2021 budget will enable the library system to hire “an experienced retail manager whose job will focus on making the three retail outlets operate more efficiently and perhaps even profitably.”

“Obviously the pandemic makes this goal more elusive in 2021 but we will keep striving to be better stewards of the money CALS invests in our retail services,” Coulter wrote.