City, county differ on library break-up

The transition to a city library in

Whitefish may not be going the way city officials and leaders in

the library secession movement had hoped after the Whitefish City

Council approved splitting from the county on Oct. 18 last

year.

A plan on how to divide books and other

assets at the Whitefish branch library between the city and the

county that was developed by county library staff was unanimously

approved by the Flathead County Library board at their March 24

meeting.

The plan also calls for closing the

Whitefish library on June 18 so all county-owned materials can be

removed before handing over the library to the city on July 1.

Staff will gradually remove materials through April, May and June,

according to county library director Kim Crowley.

Whitefish city manager Chuck Stearns

said he and others in Whitefish are disappointed about the two-week

closure. Members of the Whitefish Library Association and the

Whitefish Community Library board of trustees had hoped the library

could remain open while the city transitioned in and the county

transitioned out from June 1 through the end of August.

“They’ve said they need months to move

things out and a two-week closure,” Stearns said. “We think some of

that isn’t in their purview, and we say the interlocal agreement

doesn’t allow for that.”

County library board member Connie

Leistiko has a different view.

“Their objective is to start a new

library,” she said. “Ours is to do as much as we can before we

vacate.”

There’s simply no way for the county to

operate through June 30 and vacate the building by July 1, Leistiko

said. She acknowledged there will be some inconvenience to

Whitefish residents for the final 12 days of June.

“But we didn’t terminate the

agreement,” Leistiko stressed. “Whitefish did.”

Board member Laura Long agreed.

“We can’t operate until midnight and

then poof, we’re gone,” she said. “No reasonable person would say

that.”

———

Dividing up the library materials could

be more crucial. The Whitefish library currently holds about 35,000

items, Crowley said, including books, magazines, newspapers, CDs,

DVDs, tapes and audio books.

City and county representatives have

been meeting to talk about the transition for several months,

Leistiko said, but every time the conversation turns to the

relocation plan, an impasse occurs.

“They don’t want us to take out one

book, and we’ve told them that’s not the case,” she said.

Fellow board member Michael Morton

pointed out that it’s the library board and library staff’s

responsibility to keep valuable books in the county library

collection.

“For someone to say we can’t move a

book is ridiculous,” he said.

The county library board is established

under state law and is independent of the Flathead County Board of

Commissioners. The commissioners have no say in how the library

board conducts its business, but they do have a say over whether a

levy supporting the library is put on the ballot.

Whitefish community leaders recognize

that county library officials have compromised in what books

they’ve agreed to leave in Whitefish, Stearns said. However, when

negotiations about the library’s assets began, the county’s

position was that nothing was to be left behind. Stearns also is

worried that books relocated to other county libraries “will be the

cream of the crop.”

“We think in order to best serve people

around Whitefish it makes sense to keep all or most of the books

there,” Stearns said.

Anne Moran, a member of the Whitefish

Community Library Board overseeing the establishment of a new local

library, supported the city’s efforts.

“Given the history of the Whitefish

library’s interlocal situation and the Flathead County Library

System’s funding structure, the Whitefish Community Library Board

believes the city’s requests on behalf of the Whitefish community

are fair and appropriate, and we strongly support the negotiating

team’s efforts,” she said. “Meanwhile, we’re focused on progressing

with preparations for the new Whitefish Community Library to open

its doors this coming July. We’ve had tremendous support and

enthusiasm from the community and are excited about our new

opportunities.”

———

According to the county library board’s

plan, library staff have begun assigning materials low, medium and

high classifications. Items not pegged for transfer to another

county library could be donated to the new Whitefish Community

Library, to another library such as a school library, to the

Friends of the Library for resale, or they could be discarded.

Library staff already have determined

that most audio books and DVDs will be placed in another county

library because of their popularity, but Crowley and Leistiko

estimate about half the items now in Whitefish will remain there

once the county completes its assessment and relocation effort.

Items that will remain in Whitefish,

according to the county plan, will include all books donated to the

Whitefish library by Whitefish residents as a memorial or a gift,

books and other items purchased for the library by the Whitefish

Community Center, books belonging to the Whitefish city library

prior to when it became part of the county library system in 1976,

and books that the county library has multiple copies of and

doesn’t need.

Whitefish library supporters had a

different proposal that included four options:

• Leave all Whitefish library assets in

place;

• Transfer library assets to the new

Whitefish Community Library in exchange for library services to

county residents who live outside the city limits but near

Whitefish and who won’t be paying city taxes to support the city

library;

• Allocate an additional 800 volumes to

the Whitefish library or sell them to the city at a nominal

cost;

• Agree that as a condition of leaving

all assets in Whitefish, if the Whitefish Community Library ceases

to exist, all those assets be transferred back to the county

library system.

“I’m not prepared to recommend any of

those,” Leistiko said of the local supporters’ proposal.

———

The division of library assets involves

more than books — it also involves money and tax revenue. It’s

worth noting that Whitefish city residents are also county

residents, and they were paying about $120,000 a year to the county

library system. All told, taxes paid by Whitefish residents

constitute 12 percent of the county’s tax base, Stearns said.

“One way would be to think we should

get 12 percent of the countywide library books,” he said.

Stearns notes that while Whitefish has

asked for books and other items in the library catalog, it hasn’t

asked for any equipment or furnishings that Whitefish tax dollars

helped pay for.

Along these lines, Whitefish library

supporters also have asked that a portion of the county library’s

depreciation fund be given to them. That idea didn’t receive a

favorable response from the county library board.

“We’ve said ‘no way,’” Leistiko

said.

Long agreed.

“I’m struggling with their inability or

refusal to acknowledge things like they deserve a piece of the

depreciation fund,” Long said. “There’s no basis for that position.

That’s county money. The entitlement issue has been interesting and

frustrating.”

On the same day the Whitefish City

Council voted to terminate its interlocal agreement with the

county, it received an opinion from the Montana Attorney General

saying city residents could be exempted from the 5.95 mill levy the

county currently collects for the valleywide library system if the

city established its own tax-supported library.

That levy money could now be

re-directed to a city library, but it was unclear if it was enough.

To make up any shortfall in operating costs, the Whitefish Library

Association has pledged $15,000 a year for five years, while

library supporters Jake and Connie Heckathorn have pledged

$100,000.