Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
1. The Will Rogers Library operating out of the Claremore City Budget
2. 2017-2018 Budget for the Library: $347,959.00 (not including ODL, library fines, etc.)
3. Budget Categories:
FICA $ 14,426.00
Retirement $ 4,791.00
Longevity $ 1,944.00
Programs/promotions $ 1,500.00
Periodicals $ 5,800.00
Postage/freight $ 1,200.00
Utilities $ 16,000.00
TOTAL: $347,959.00
I would schedule a meeting with the City Manager, James Thomas, as well as the Director of
Finance, Susy Collins, and the assistant librarian/business manager of the library so we could go over
the budget together and I could explain the necessary cuts. During the meeting we will examine the
budget items that cannot be cut based on fixed costs and increases such as utilities and insurance.
These items will also include taxes and regular wages. Next, I will determine items that are less
significant to the success of the organization and those that can handle a cut in funding. I will
eliminate two items in the budget completely that will help save money. Those include comp time
and special payout categories. The largest cut will be part-time salary employee hours and
service/labor contracts. Some of the part-time and contract positions will be dissolved and
workloads will be absorbed and divided among staff. Service and labor contracts may be reinstated
The library will begin a campaign to reduce postage costs by emailing overdue notices to
patrons in lieu of mailing them. This will be a process that requires permission from patrons to use their
email addresses so it will have to have ample time to be put in place. The email method will be
examined the following year to evaluate its short term practice and success. If successful, the postage
fund could be cut significantly the following budget year. This system of emailing overdue notices would
also allow cuts in office supplies such as envelopes, paper, and printing. Again, with success, office
supply costs can be further reduced the following year. Programs, periodicals, and tools are categories
that will have a 5% cut. With proper planning, these budget line items can continue to be effective even
while operating with smaller funds. Periodicals will be evaluated for check-out use and statistics to
determine which to eliminate. The cleaning supplies category will be cut as well and our purchasing
department will buy less expensive products and limit unnecessary purchases. I will explain to those in
the meeting that keeping money for employee training and professional development is a positive
decision in this case to preserve employee optimism during budget cuts such as these.
After the final budget assessments are completed and adopted, I will send a memo to staff
letting them know that we will no longer honor comp time beginning the new fiscal year. The memo will
also describe the reasons we will be cutting our part time staff hours as well as the service and labor
staff. Employees will pick up additional duties and pitch in to help with shelving, circulation duties, and
other work assignments to be added to job descriptions. With good communication, the goal will be to
have staff on board with these decisions. *Finally, if the library experiences an unplanned financial crisis
or needs to reinstate some of the funds, we will use the $20,000 that is earned through fines and public
library use (copies, etc.). This income is not part of the regular budget income and will be tagged as a
“rainy day fund” to be expended for emergencies, including service contracts (roofing, repairs, etc.). I
think the organization will benefit from the initial cuts and the future goals of the library will be
positively affected.