Auditor Marshall Decker told board members of the Pulaski County Library District Wednesday that their finances are improving.
That’s thanks mostly to an increase in property tax revenues, Decker said, which increased from $367,479 in 2006 to $404,514 in 2007.
The library district includes all of Pulaski County except the city of Dixon, which has its own city-run library. Decker said he’s urged Dixon to consider merging with the county system since the city library is costing the city about $10,000 per year, but Dixon voters have twice rejected merger proposals placed on the ballot by the city council.
The county library system faces no such financial problems, Decker said.
“You’ve had another good year,” Decker said. “As long as you don’t go out and build a million-dollar complex, you’ll be safe and secure.”
Decker complimented the library board on its decision to hire an outside bookkeeping firm to handle most of the district’s finances. That prevents many problems, he said, and for a small organization, the county library system has a good set of checks and balances.
That isn’t the case for all small government bodies, he said, noting that he’s found a city clerk in one city that he audits who had written a check to herself because nobody else was checking the bank statements.
“I’ll tell you, that was bold,” Decker said. “I’ve found people who were stealing vacation time or things like that, but writing a check to yourself was something new; I’ve never seen that before.”
Librarian Osa Kays said she’s glad that she doesn’t have the authority to sign checks.
“I have people come to me sometimes and ask if I can fix their paycheck, and I say, ‘I don’t write any checks,’” Kays said.
Board members deferred decisions on what to do with a proposed expansion project for the Waynesville library until the July meeting; the board doesn’t routinely meet in June. Board chairwoman Barbara Olsen said everyone who had made contributions toward a proposed new Waynesville library has been contacted and asked what they want to have done with their donation now that the board has decided to expand rather than build a new library; Olsen said so far nobody has asked for their donation back and most don’t have a preference on how their donation should be used.
In other business:
• Board members agreed on a previously budgeted 3 percent across-the-board raise for staff salaries.
“We have always felt that’s barely a cost-of-living raise,” Olsen said.
• Kays complimented the Crocker library staff for a dramatic increase in patrons; the Crocker library recorded 1,682 patrons in April compared to 2,132 for Richland and 2,651 for Waynesville.
“That little library is just growing by leaps and bounds,” Kays said. “(The Crocker librarian) just does everything she can to get people in there.”
• Kays reported that board member Joyce Peterson has asked not to have her name submitted to the county commission for reappointment when her term expires this summer. Kays said former trustee Adam Sadowski is available and willing to serve, though they noted that he’s a Waynesville rather than Crocker resident. Traditionally the library board has had two representatives each from Crocker and Waynesville and one from Richland, but that’s not a fixed requirement.