Popular downtown West Palm Beach library takes budget hit - Palm Beach Post

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Gary Coronado/The Palm Beach Post

Steve Engelsen of West Palm Beach uses the city's new library web catalog system. When the city finalizes its budget Monday, the library will take the largest percentage cut of any department, losing 10 percent of its roughly $420,000 budget.

By Andrew Abramson

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

WEST PALM BEACH — When the city finalizes its budget today, its popular new library is expected to take the biggest hit.

The city commission will trim $4.3 million from the city's $164.8 million budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year at a 5 p.m. special meeting. The library will take the largest percentage cut of any department, losing 10 percent of its roughly $420,000 budget.

That means a reduced book budget and the elimination of the teen librarian position and a second security guard position on weekends and nights. Also, visitors will no longer be validated for free parking in the City Center garage on Saturdays.

"We've had to cut the book budget significantly over the last couple years, and you hate to do that," head librarian Chris Murray said. "We've also had to cut staff significantly. We're trying to keep the doors open."

The library is down to 33 full-time staffers and one part-timer, down from 38 full-timers and one part-timer when the library moved from the waterfront to City Center in 2009.

Murray said the library continues to grow in popularity, especially since state law changed to require residents to use the Internet to receive unemployment benefits. The library provides free Internet service.

Murray was especially frustrated about having to cut the teen librarian position, a staffer assigned to work with teenagers. Murray said circulation doubled for teenagers after the position was created in 2004.

"There's a big gap," Murray said. "Everyone comes in as children for story hours, and a lot of times you lose them when they turn into teenagers. Then they come back as adults."

Despite the budget cuts, two nonprofit organizations hope to step in and make up at least some of the difference.

The West Palm Beach Library Foundation, which seeks grants and large donations for the library, is offering library naming rights.

The library can be named in your honor for a $5 million donation. For half that amount, the children's library on the third floor can bear your name.

For as low as $10,000, you can name the foundation office, staff lounge, study rooms or assistant director's office, with plenty of naming rights available for various donation levels.

"The potential of it is really great," said the foundation's director, Jim Sugarman. "The additional dollars can help us do that much more."

The foundation also is seeking a grant for a teen mentoring program.

"It would be a part-time person, so it's not replacing the teen librarian, but it's building the teen program," Sugarman said.

The Friends of the West Palm Beach Library, a 3-year-old volunteer-run program, is seeking smaller donations.

"We help the library every way we can to make up for the cuts," said the organization's president, Dorothy Jacks. "Ten percent is a big percentage - that's staff, programs, all those sorts of things."

The library's book­mobile, which visited communities around the city, was eliminated from the budget last year. The library also stopped validating weekday parking but continued to validate on Saturdays. Now that will be eliminated, too.

"Those are hard cuts to make," said Mayor Jeri Muoio, who served two years on the city's library advisory board before being appointed city commissioner in 2006. "It's still a great library. We have many programs for people of all ages, and it's always packed."

Muoio said she doesn't expect the parking fees to be an issue. Parking is $1 for the first two hours, and Muoio said traffic at the library hasn't decreased since weekday validation was eliminated.

Most of the city's other departments cut their budgets through buyouts, layoffs and attrition. A total of 73 positions have been eliminated from last year's budget.

The city gained $1.5 million after negotiating a new 30-year deal with FPL. Officials will use $1 million to build two fire stations.

The city commission voted in the preliminary budget hearing to reduce the pay of about 80 managerial positions by 5 percent. Finance Director Randy Sherman said only 61 of those positions are currently filled, with 44 paid for from the general fund. Sherman expects a $300,000 total savings from the pay cuts.