The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors
library ad hoc committee acknowledged on Oct. 20 the county has likely been
overcharging the libraries for decades. The committee stopped short of
endorsing the findings of the last two Mendocino County Grand Jury reports on
the library funding.
The committee, comprised of supervisors John
McCowen and Dan Gjerde with the assistance of Mendocino County Auditor Lloyd
Weer, found the county has been charging the library for buildings and
equipment which were not purchased or funded by the county.
The committee confirmed the Fort Bragg Library
was purchased by an insurance settlement of $287,638 after the 1987 arson fire
which destroyed the old library and a donation of $472,150 from the Friends of
the Fort Bragg Library and not with county funds. Another $295,130 paid by the
insurance settlement is still being investigated.
The county collects A87 charges at a rate
designed to repay the county general fund for these past “expenditures.”
Accounting Circular A87 provides general guidance to governments on ways to
distribute charges or get reimbursed for expenditures.
In this instance the county auditor applied
A87 charges on all capital funds believed spent by the county on capital
projects for the library. This effectively treated such expenditures as a
“loan” from the general fund to the library fund with A87 charges used to repay
the “loan.” In this instance the general fund was collecting payments for a
“loan” it never made. Also, once a “loan” is paid off, the county is no longer
allowed to continue collecting payments.
The BOS is not yet ready to concede that the
$407,500 state grant the county was given to build the Willits library was
actually received. The county has been collecting A87 charges on this grant
amount for decades as well.
Weer says he has not been able to verify any
account receiving the grant money in the 1990 time frame, but he vows to
continue looking.
A number of other A87 charges being collected
on discarded and obsolete equipment have been stopped and the money will likely
be returned to the library. The BOS conceded the process used to maintain an
up-to-date listing of equipment was not well understood or managed by all
parties.
How these funds will be returned is expected
to be one of the main objectives for a new BOS library ad hoc committee. The
creation of this committee was part of the Nov. 6 BOS agenda but due to other
matters was deferred for another meeting.
Another issue under consideration is the
annual share of property taxes owed the library. The BOS and the Grand Jury do
not agree on whether the library is a “special district” and is owed a direct
share of the property taxes or whether it should be paid at another rate.
The BOS is expected to request the new ad hoc
committee determine the appropriate share of county revenue the library is owed
annually.
On the issue of whether the librarian should
be paid out of library funds or the general fund, the BOS have determined the
law can be interpreted several ways and will ask the legislature to clarify the
law.
“Education Code Section 19147 states that the
Librarian shall be paid from the same fund as other county officers. The Grand
Jury interprets “same fund” to mean the County General Fund. The only problem
with this interpretation is that not all county officers are paid from the
County General Fund,” from the BOS response.
“The Board of Supervisors believes the
practice of paying the librarian from the library fund is reasonable since the
Library has two dedicated sources of income – a pro rata share of property tax
and Measure A sales tax.”
What remains
unclear is why the BOS, while espousing a love for the county
library--especially in the days leading up to Measure A when the libraries were
cutting hours and were unable to purchase new books, did not opt to pay the
librarian out of the general fund, but rather chose instead to interpret the
law to the detriment of the library.
November 6, 2015
Willits
News
By
Linda Williams
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