Jefferson County Public Library officials and county staff will begin hammering out a budget proposal for 2012 in a few weeks.
The groups met July 25 to begin discussions, but Christina Caputo, director of budget management for the county, said the initial proposals prepared by the library didn’t really meet criteria for a zero-based budget.
The library, one of two county departments asked to test the zero-based budgeting process this year, had developed three budget proposals that were based on mill levies ranging from 3.225, the levy appropriated by the county in 2011, to 3.5, the voter authorized maximum levy.
“They basically need to start from scratch,” Caputo said. “We will not start out with a set amount of revenue. We’ll look at what the needs are at the expenditure level, then look at what that means in terms of the county’s revenues.”
“We’re kind of regrouping,” said Rebecca Winning, associate director of communications and public affairs for the library. “We had not understood exactly what the expectations were for the zero-based budget process.”
The Library Board of Trustees will meet with staff Thursday, Aug. 11, to begin reworking proposals, and will meet with county staff to review them Tuesday and Wednesday, Aug. 16-17.
The proposals will address three levels of service: basic needs to keep the doors open and comply with minimum statutory requirements, an intermediate level of service and an enhanced level of service.
“The library could come out with more revenue needs or less, depending on the level of service the commissioners decide is appropriate,” Caputo said.
The other county department working under a zero-based budget approach is Human Services. Staff members in each division there are completing proposals, and two of the divisions will make an initial presentation to the county next week.
“We’re really excited about the process,” said Kris Kinzli, Human Services marketing and communications manager. “This is all about efficiencies, workload and effectiveness, and we get to look at all our programs and services through a new lens and evaluate them. We have an opportunity to show where the needs are.”
With zero-based budgeting, each function and program within a department is reviewed and all expenses, not just increases, must be justified.
Winning said library trustees have been discussing for months what the options are for reducing the budget.
“We saw that coming last year because they warned us that revenues from assessed property valuations would be down,” she said. “We’ve involved all the library managers and administrators. We’ve been talking about what we can’t live without and what we could cut.”
Among the options to reduce the budget are restructuring administrative support services, delaying filling vacant positions and reducing the employee training budget.
More aggressive measures could include closing all libraries for another day (libraries were closed on Mondays this year), eliminating positions and closing some facilities.
“This is all speculation right now,” Winning said. “Our goal is always to maintain the services we now offer.”