Dear Friends:
Yesterday
the Library Administration sent out an "FAQ document" purportedly to
answer questions about the County's draft MOU . The information sheet
does address some issues, but raises other new ones. Overall, the FAQs
are a step backward and represent further unwarranted - and
counterproductive - overreach by the County.
1.
CONTROL OVER FRIENDS RESOURCES: In section 3, paragraph 3 the County
states: "The Library has a responsibility to oversee those public
resources and to support transparency and accountability. That includes having some oversight of what use is made of those resources and how a group's financial records support that use."
This
asserts a "right" not found in the MOU or permitted under state or
federal laws. The County cannot dictate how independent 501 (c) 3
organizations organize themselves or choose to allocate their
resources. This is the same assertion the County has been trying to
make for years but has never succeeded in obtaining because they have no
legal leg to stand on. If the MOU and this "FAQ" are accepted they
will have gotten the Friends to do to themselves what the County lawyers
haven't been able to.
2.
WHAT RESOURCES ARE WE TALKING ABOUT? The authors of the FAQ (and MOU)
have a very skewed understanding of how the Friends operate and how the
value we produce is created. Simply put - the Friends produce value - hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for the Library and the County - because all the work we do is done by unpaid volunteers.
Thousands of Friends put in tens of thousands of hours every year AT NO
COST TO THE COUNTY. The County does provide workspace, which is
appreciated and useful, but the County gets back between six and ten
times the value of this space as DIRECT SUPPORT FOR COUNTY PROGRAMS.
No one with even a passing familiarity with the Friends thinks that
"discarded library books" have any real value and extremely few are ever
accepted by the Friends. Donations from the community are the raw
material we often use to create wealth and it is important to remember
the County's role in this is limited to having convenient deposit spots
in the Library buildings. The public gives the books to the Friends -
not the County - and ALL the value above a few pennies per volume comes from the sweat and managerial expertise of the Friends.
3.
SAUCE FOR THE GOOSE, SAUCE FOR THE GANDER: Section 5, paragraph 2
states, "Any amendment to the MOU would apply to every Friends (sic)
that has signed an MOU, and therefore each Friends would have to agree
to the amendment --- ". By this logic, this should apply to every Trustee
also. Thus, if they believe this, the Trustees should set an example
by getting unanimous agreement on any changes to the current MOU. This
didn't happen and thus the January 10th draft should be recalled until
all Trustees approve the draft language. It would then be forwarded to
the Friends, who also would need to have 100% agreement before a new MOU
takes effect.
4.
THE REAL REASON FOR SECTION 5, PARAGRAPH 2: The discussion in point 3
above is pertinent only if the Trustees and County considered the
Friends to be equal partners in the MOU that establishes our
relationship. Sadly, there is no evidence to support this (with the
exception of a couple of individual Trustees). The Trustees consider
the Friends to be employees - at best. Thus, the purpose of this
section is to make it very difficult to impossible for the Friends to
ever propose amendments to the draft MOU. That is, experience has shown
there will always be a "teachers pet" or two among the Friends Groups
who will do the County's bidding, no questions asked, and deny the
Friends the unanimity this calls for. Further, given that the County
has been unwilling to meaningfully discuss the Friends' concerns during
the drafting of the MOU, how likely is it that they would listen to us
after one signs on the dotted line?
5.
CONFUSION OVER THEIR RESPECTIVE ROLES: In the opening paragraph the
FAQ states, "This document will hereafter use the term "Library" to
include both the Board of Trustees and the Library Administration." The Board of Trustees and the Library Administration are two separate entities
with very different roles and responsibilities as laid out in statute
and regulation. This "blending" that has been evident throughout the
MOU discussion is inappropriate and probably in violation of both the
spirit and letter of Trustees' Policy Manual.
6.
MORE INAPPROPRIATE OVERREACH: In section 3, paragraph 3 the County
states "Periodic access to underlying records provides the Library the
required oversight of financial record keeping" This directly contradicts
language in section 3 paragraph 2 which states " it is the Friends'
determination what records and in what format, are sufficient to support
the Group's tax exempt status." Nothing about "underlying records"
in paragraph 2. But then, the real issue here is that the County has no right to demand any of this in the first place.
7.
ENGLISH GRAMMAR: A minor point, but indicative of a bigger problem.
Try saying out loud, "The Friends understands that it needs to maintain
copies --" (section 3, first sentence) Shouldn't organizations involved
with Libraries be able to figure out subject/verb agreement?
Actually, the purpose of this fractured English is the County wants all
Friends - regardless of size, focus,, volunteer base, resources, etc. -
to be treated exactly the same and thus considers "Friends" to be
singular.
Others may have additional objections to specific sections of the FAQ, but these are the ones that jumped out for me. Again, all of this could be avoided if the Trustees would just agree to meet with the Friends as equals.
Best regards, Dennis
Dennis Hays
Chairman
Fairfax Library Advocates
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