Rephrasing her decisions, Flagler County Commissioner Kim Carney criticized the chair of the county’s Library Board of Trustees on Monday for criticizing the commission’s decisions regarding the library system and the commission members’ yearly absence from Library Board of Trustees meetings.
In an article published here on August 15, Jim Ulsamer, the chair of the board of trustees, expressed his disapproval of the commission’s decision to reduce Palm Coast library branch hours by 23% by the time the new Nexus Center library opens in Bunnell in December, citing the library’s high volume of patrons. See: The Truth About Flagler’s Public Libraries: Performing Far Less Than Is Necessary While Doing Far More Than You Think.
Ulsamer also criticized commissioners who, in a budget workshop last spring, had called for a halt to the construction of the Nexus Center and promised not to authorize hiring more people to staff the new library, but he did not name them. Carney had mentioned more workers, while Commissioner Richardson had mentioned construction.
The $16 million library project has drawn criticism from both parties. Additionally, they have been critical of the county administration, claiming that the commission was not informed of the costs associated with running the Nexus Center after it opens. These expenses include the staffing levels required by grants that covered a significant portion of the library’s expenses.
The contact between the commission and the library board is Commissioner Leann Pennington. The other liaison is Carney. Since their assignment in December of last year, neither has attended any of the five meetings of the Library Board of Trustees.
As a commissioner, I voluntarily serve on five boards. Since we are unable to serve on all of them, we divide our time, Carney explained. The time of their board meetings is currently problematic. Here we are. We make every effort, but we simply cannot be there and attend every subcommittee function.
The Palm Coast branch had meetings of the Board of Trustees on January 13, March 10, April 14, May 12, and June 9 at 4:30 p.m. The County Commission met at 5 p.m. and had a workshop at 1 p.m. on January 13. The library meeting could not have been attended by either of the commissioners assigned to the Board of Trustees. The commission had a three-and-a-half-hour session on June 9 that concluded at 4:30 p.m., right before the library board meeting began.
There were no commission meetings on the three other days that the library board met.
According to Carney, there were some innuendos in the report about Palm Coast pulling back. Innuendos were absent. The Palm Coast branch’s decision to cut hours and days of operation from six to five days was explicitly criticized by Ulsamer.Service levels for Palm Coast residents will suffer greatly as a result of staff reductions and a 23% reduction in operational hours, Ulsamer said. The doors may be closed to a working lady or man who is used to visiting the library after work, possibly with their kids in tow.
Carney reiterated Ulsamer’s remark about hours, saying, “I just, I think there was a lot of projections going on, and I’m really looking forward to getting our Nexus center up and advertised.” He wasn’t projecting. The specific operating schedule for both libraries that County Administrator Heidi Petito submitted to the commission during a budget workshop and that the commission authorized served as the foundation for his assertion. (Here is the plan that Petito presented on July 2.)
Carney correctly cited more recent conversations about trying to avoid personnel and hour reductions between the commissioners and members of the Palm Coast City Council. Earlier this month, the two boards met jointly to consider those matters. However, Council member Ty Miller, not the county commissioners, started the conversation.
In order to prevent service and program cuts, Miller first wanted Palm Coast funds to cover the $180,000 or so the county was reducing from the Palm Coast branch, at least for the upcoming year. A compromise reached with County Chair Andy Dance, who was acting on impulse, called for the two parties to observe library services and attendance once the Nexus Center opens in December, then review the data in March and, if needed, make staffing and program changes. Miller and Dance had the majority of the conversation, not Carney. Carney just added that there wasn’t much information provided on the staffing implications of the new Nexus Center. I don’t think it will have a significant effect. However, once it opens, we may have some extremely unfavorable pushback. The ribbon-cutting is scheduled for December, according to Petito.
Seven days a week, we will be there. At the combined conference, Carney stated, “Therefore, we are providing more.” Combining the hours of the two branches will result in a significant increase in the total number of hours that the library is open. However, because it is usually unimportant to a client in one neighborhood what hours a branch in a distant community could offer, a library system measures access and hours by branch hours rather than by combined hours. However, the Palm Coast branch will suffer as a result of the Nexus Center’s planned significant expansion of south side access and hours.
Change can be challenging at times, but our intention was not to reduce or deplete, Carney stated, again downplaying the reduction in Palm Coast’s workforce and hours, which she and her coworkers agreed of. Yes, that’s what we’re providing in Palm Coast, and I believe that time will tell if that’s how it turned out.
The Ulsamer essay was not addressed by Richardson and Pennington. This week, Ulsamer wasn’t in town.
