The Library Board and City Commission to Vote on a New Management Agreement, Likely to Include Budget Cuts

For the past six months, the Library’s Renegotiation Committee has been working in good faith with Great Falls City Commission members on a new Library management agreement and budget.“A healthy community has an excellent Library, great parks, solid public works, wonderful schools, and a robust public safety system,” said Susie McIntyre, Library Director. “We appreciate the City has to fund an array of community needs, and throughout this negotiation, we tried to be a good partner to help the City with its budget shortfalls without sacrificing too many of the promises made from the levy.” As part of the Library’s 2023 ballot measure, the Library returned $350,000 to be reallocated to other priorities in the City budget. Now, the City proposes reallocating an additional $420,000 to other priorities--essentially removing about half of the value of the Library Levy dollars. The people of Great Falls voted for and passed a levy to increase library services, not for the money already allocated to the Library to be moved to other programs. “Unfortunately, negotiations to update the City/Library management agreement have stalled, and the City’s final offer is to take 3.5 mills of Library base funding that has been a part of our budget for over 30 years,” said Whitney Olson, Library Board of Trustees Chair. “Regardless of which mills the City takes, this will be a budget cut of over $420,000 annually for the next four fiscal years that will result in the reduction of programs and the elimination of some staff positions.”“The Library quickly implemented the promises from the Levy, such as making parking free, opening seven days a week, restarting homebound services, and increasing our educational programming,” said Brianne Laurin, Executive Director of the Great Falls Public Library Foundation. “These changes were exactly what the community wanted when they voted for the Levy. Additionally, because of the addition of two safety specialists and other security measures, calls to the City Police for help are way down.”The agreement must be approved by the City Commission and the Library Board of Trustees to go into effect. The City Commission will vote on its proposed City/Library Management Agreement at its November 19th meeting. If the Commission approves the proposed management agreement, the Library Board of Trustees will consider it at its meeting on November 26th. “Great Falls has had a Public Library for 130 years. It’s in our City Charter as a fundamental part of our community,” said Susie McIntyre, Library Director. “Losing 3.5 mills will negatively affect the Library. However, failing to reach an agreement could result in even harsher consequences by losing nearly a million dollars out of our budget annually and putting our future within City government at risk.”Losing 3.5 mills will delay the implementation of some essential items, cause job losses, and cut services and programming, which could include: Cuts to youth services staff, reducing early literacy outreach, school-age programming, and college and life preparedness for teens. Stop or cap Homebound Service and reduce Bookmobile Services. Close one day a week and cut public services staff. Reduce IT staff, outreach, and/or program staff. Reduce access to eBooks and eAudiobooks. Eliminate contract with Many Rivers Whole Health. To learn more about the Great Falls Public Library, go to greatfallslibrary.org.