Librarian taking hard look at tax

Board praised for building new library without bonds, loans

After the controversy over the expansion of the East Regional Library project in 2009, both the St. Charles Parish Council and the Library Board are taking a careful look at the library’s millage renewal, which will be voted on later this year.

They’re also clearing up some misunderstandings about the expansion contract while they’re at it.

Councilman Paul Hogan called the expansion of the East Regional Library project into question last year and thinks that the Library Board should be investigated before it is granted any funding for the coming years.

“I’m of the opinion that until we get accountability with the Library Board, we should not ask the voters to approve the millage,” Hogan said. “I still think this complete library deal needs to be investigated.”

Hogan first became concerned about the project when the square footage was increased from 33,587 to 39,655 with no apparent approval of the increase in the Library Board’s meeting minutes.

After further investigation, Hogan saw that while one firm, CSRS, was chosen by the board to build the new library, the contract was actually awarded to a different firm.

“Something’s funny; something doesn’t add up,” Hogan said.

Tim Vial, chief administrative officer for the parish, said that some of the confusion was caused by the original firm’s architect, Norman Chenevert, leaving CSRS and forming his own company.

“There was never any contract with CSRS. The only contract that was signed was signed was with Chenevert Architects, LLC,” Vial said.

Vial said that the contract was awarded to Chenevert’s new company because he was personally chosen as architect for the project.

“(Chenevert) is the one whose credentials were submitted to the board when the firm was originally accepted,” Vial said.

But Hogan is still concerned by the fact that the size increase was never recorded in the board’s minutes.

“Any increases should have been authorized and approved by that board and none of them were,” Hogan said.

Councilman Terry Authement said that he and most of the other council members do not agree with Hogan’s concerns.

“(Hogan) has proposed all kinds of investigations and the majority of the council doesn’t see it that way,” Authement said. “We’re not a part of his march.”

On the contrary, Authement believes that the Library Board has done a good job managing their operations and sees no reason for change.

“I don’t see where they did anything that warrants any drastic measures against the Library Board or the director. They’re continuing to provide us with excellent library services and new facilities at no extra cost to the taxpayers,” Authement said. “Everything was done with the available funds that have been allocated to them. I think it’s by far a compliment to the Library Board and director that they’ve managed their assets and continue to provide and grow.”

Authement also feels that the concerns over the expansion have caused some unneeded stress for the Library Board.

“(The Library Board) is spending our money and they’re doing it in a responsible way and I don’t know how you can do that while you have people shouting, asking why you’re spending money – that’s their task: to provide us with library services, and I think they’re doing a great job,” Authement said.

Parish President V.J. St. Pierre agrees, saying that the board has no hidden agenda.

“If you look at the makeup of the board, these are retired citizens whose only desire is to serve the public,” he said.
The library system does receive a significant chunk of the parish’s taxes.

In 2008, the public library received $4,789,005 and in 2009 the library received slightly less with $4,749,049.

But thanks to accrued interest and prudent spending, the library was able to carry out the construction of the new East Regional Library without taking out any bonds or loans.

Library Director Mary desBordes said that the Library Board is currently in the process of reviewing costs and projected revenues over the next ten years to estimate what funding they will need.

“It’s very difficult for a library to imagine what is going to happen in 10 years,” desBordes said. “If you had told me 10 years ago that we would be having Wi-Fi in all of our locations and downloadable audio books and just a host of things we’ve got now, I wouldn’t have necessarily anticipated that.”

The technology that the library is anticipating, desBordes said, is downloadable texts, such as those used for Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook.

She said that the library hopes the demand for downloadable texts will stay low until the industry widely accepts one format. Currently, desBordes said that a lot of the readers for downloadable texts only accept special formats and that buying all of the different types would be costly.

Another thing that the board is taking into consideration before proposing a millage is utility and staffing needs with the new East Regional and upcoming Paradis library branches.

“We’re going to have additional space requirements for utilities and staffing and collections that have to be maintained – those things are all going to cost money and we’re going to have to try to anticipate how those costs will increase,” desBordes said. “We have to balance what we think the revenue stream will do over the next 10 years as well as what we think our costs are going to do.”

She mentioned that both the cost of utilities and staffing has gone up significantly in recent years.

Despite all of these challenges, desBordes said that she doesn’t anticipate the board asking for an increased millage.

“I can say really confidently that it’s not going to go up,” she said. “We don’t want to ask the people for more money than they’re giving us now.”