Fairfax County Federation of Citizens Associations: Library Resolution for FY2016 Budget

www.FairfaxFederation.org  +  P.O. Box 3913, Merrifield, VA 22116-3913

Resolution on the

Fairfax County Advertised Fiscal Year 2016 Budget

(Adopted by Membership March 19, 2015)

  

Part B:  LIBRARIES 

RESTORATION OF 14 (13.5 FTE) LIBRARY CIRCULATION AIDE POSITIONS AND THEIR ASSOCIATED FUNDING TO FY2016 BUDGET

WHEREAS the Department of Management and Budget has requested the elimination of 14 (13.5 FTE) circulation aide positions in the FY2016 Advertised Budget as part of a 3% overall library reduction; and

WHEREAS the Library Board of Trustees budget subcommittee and Library Board of Trustees reluctantly voted in October 2014 to eliminate 14 (13.5 FTE) circulation aide positions as part of FY16 Budget reductions directed by the Fairfax County Executive; and

WHEREAS the Fairfax Count Executive included the elimination of 14 (13.5 FTE) circulation aide positions in the FY2016 Advertised Budget as part of a 3% overall library reduction; and

WHEREAS circulation aides provide necessary services in the library branches including supervising volunteers, assisting patrons with technology, processing holds/deliveries/transfers, mending books, processing periodicals, overseeing handouts, dealing with lost/damaged items, processing library card applications and entering patron data, sweeping, straightening, marking items that are used in house, helping investigate and clearing up items on patron accounts, ordering supplies, putting up signs for holidays and closings, clearing the book drop, giving directions, helping with surveys, handling book bag sales, assisting with programs, organizing monthly exhibits of the patron’s display cases, advising patrons on specific selections of books, providing translation assistance for patrons who speak languages other than English,¹ searching for items on various lists including “missing," "claims returned" and holds; and

WHEREAS circulation aides allow required staffing levels to keep branches open for their posted hours; and

WHEREAS eliminated staff positions can almost never be recovered; and 

WHEREAS the next Library Director will very likely have a much stronger vision for using all our library staff more productively and by eliminating the 14 (13.5 FTE) positions, we are robbing the current Library Director’s successor of that opportunity; and

WHEREAS the community library survey being drafted by the Library Board has not yet been conducted to provide community input as to what the citizens of Fairfax County want in a 21^st Century library; and  

WHEREAS funding allotments for the 14 (13.5 FTE) vacant circulation positions provide 30% of the total funding for overtime; and

WHEREAS overtime is now required in 90% of library branches to maintain hours of service, in part because of the vacant circulation aide positions; and

WHEREAS much of the library staff is nearing retirement age and cannot be expected to provide extensive overtime hours; and 

WHEREAS the 14 (13.5 FTE) circulation aide vacancies have not been filled due to Department of Management and Budget policy rather than because of lack of need within the branches; and

WHEREAS the 14 (13.5 FTE) circulation aid positions represent a wholly inequitable share of 31% of net positions cut from all county agencies in the FY2016 Advertised Budget; and

WHEREAS the $355,000 cut representing “efficiencies”  in addition to the $500,000 cut for circulation aide positions in the FY2016 Advertised Budget, in of and by itself, represents more than an adequate and proportional cut to the library after multiple years of declining budget and failure to fill library staff vacancies since 2013;

THEREFORE BE IT

1. Resolved that the Fairfax County Federation of Citizens Associations requests that the Board of Supervisors completely restore 14 (13.5 FTE) circulation aide positions and their associated funding in the FY2016 Adopted Budget.    

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¹ Available for translation assistance from all FCPL branches are staff, including many circulation aides, proficient in the following languages:  Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, Bulgarian, Chinese - Mardarin, Farsi, French, German, Hindi,  Japanese, Korean, Macedonian, Marathi, Punjabi, Polish, Russian, Telugu, Urdu, Vietnamese.