For the second year in a row,
the Mendocino County grand jury has looked into the county’s free library
system, this time focusing more on the subject of “A-87”, costs.
The grand jury described A-87
costs in last year’s report as “charges levied on another government body to
reimburse the county general fund for indirect costs,” things like building
maintenance or producing paychecks. The grand jury noted that the state has
specific rules about how counties can calculate those costs and pass them
along. It also notes that’s there’s no law requiring counties to charge these
fees and that its up to the Board of Supervisors.
The report points out that
the county is charging the library for A-87 use costs the grand jury believes
are not allowed. The county is calculating its percentage owed from the library
by including costs for things actually paid for with federal grants and
donations from the public or by Friends of the Library groups, the grand jury
says, all prohibited by state law. According to the report, the donations from
the public for the Fort Bragg Library building, and the federal grant for the
Willits Library, are used by the county as a basis for computing A-87 costs.
That means, says the grand jury, that the library is being forced to give over
funding to the county that could be used for library services.
In assessing A-87 charges for
library buildings the county charges 2 percent a year for 50 years. The grand
jury report says the county determines its charges to the library budget based
on the total cost of the building, excluding land, of the Willits Library of
$832,719, and the Fort Bragg Library of $1.2 million. Yet the Willits library
was paid for with $407,000 of federal money which should not be included in the
county’s A-87 calculations. In Fort Bragg, the library building construction
included $300,000 in insurance repayments after a 1987 fire and a 2007 remodel
included $450,000 of donations from the local Friends of the Library group, and
should not be included. (The Ukiah Library is owned by the City of Ukiah, the
Coast Community Library building in Point Arena and the Round Valley Library
building’s are owned by Friends of the Library groups in those areas.)
The county charges 6.67
percent a year for 15 years for library equipment it paid for. But according to
the report, the county is still charging A-87 costs to the library for
equipment that the county Auditor acknowledges were bought before 1996 and have
presumably been paid off. For instance, the report notes the county is still
charging a percentage for the wooden library card file drawers bought 43 years
ago. The total of these charges, the grand jury points out, continues at
$10,542 per year. Again, once the cost has been recovered, that should be the
end of any charges. All of these charges should have expired in 2011, if not
earlier, the report says.
The expenditures in the
library’s budget include both direct and indirect costs. Direct costs include
salaries, materials, insurance, and direct billed payments to the county
General Services Agency. These costs appear as line items and are paid for by
the library’s dedicated funds.
Indirect costs, or general
overhead, appear as A-87 charges. The two elements of these charges, support
services and use of equipment and buildings, used to appear as a combined
figure in the library budget.
In response to last year’s
grand jury report, this year’s grand jury noted A-87 charges now have a
separate line item instead of being listed as “operating expenses out” which
could include other expenses. This increases the transparency of the library budget.
Despite two years of
controversy, the grand jury says the county administration gave no evidence of
understanding of A-87 costs: not origin, purpose, limitations, or applicability
to the factual circumstances of the county free library. The major consideration
seemed to be revenue to the county, not the impact on the library, the report
states.
“There may be legitimate
county costs for building and equipment use if the county paid for it and the
county has not been fully reimbursed,” the report states. “If so, these costs
have not been clearly identified. The county should have these records, if they
exist. The grand jury was unable to obtain these records.”
The grand jury also repeated
its contention, made last year, that the county is responsible under state law
for paying the salary of the county librarian and that those funds should not
be coming out of the library system budget.
The grand
jury is requiring responses from the county’s Auditor-Controller, County
Executive Officer, County Librarian, Board of Supervisors and the Library
Advisory Board.
June 12, 2015
Ukiah
Daily Journal
By
Ukiah Daily Journal Staff
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