Residents worry about library changes

John Snediker is getting to know the Spokane Valley City Council three minutes at a time.

That’s how long the council gives citizens who speak publicly at Tuesday meetings. For the past few weeks, Snediker has used his three minutes to urge officials to slow down as they consider who will run the city’s library for the next several years.

The Spokane County Library District serves the city now, but the council has opened the contract up to competition among private companies and other government groups.

“This is a huge decision that impacts the entire community,” Snediker said in an interview Wednesday. “At this point we have more questions than answers.”

Based on the generous applause he earned at one council meeting, many citizens share his concerns. Patrons also regularly tell staff members at the Valley branch about their fears of a privatized library. And about 200 people are on an e-mail list that has been circulating criticism of the city’s handling of the next library contract.

“For 62 years, (the Spokane County Library District) has made this system work,” said Snediker, a loan officer, adding that a survey last spring showed a 98 percent approval rating for the district. “What is the city going to work on next? Are they going to make the wheel rounder?”

The Spokane Valley council issued what’s called a request for proposals last month, inviting public entities and private companies to bid for the library contract. The proposals, due Sept. 28, must say how many books the contractor would lend, what its hours would be, how many computers patrons could use and how much it would cost to provide those and other services. The bidders can offer library service for up to five years.

The city opened the contract up to competition to help fulfill the council’s goal to provide citizens with the best service for the least amount of money. The city paid the district just over $2 million for library services this year.

Like many Washington cities, Spokane Valley is facing financial trouble. Sales tax revenues are coming in lower than what had been projected before incorporation, and department heads are finding ways to cut programs to save money.

“We know the citizens have been happy with the services provided by the district,” Spokane Valley’s administrative analyst Morgan Koudelka said. “We feel there’s an opportunity to provide that level of service at a reduced price.”

However, citizens and some library officials worry dropping the price will mean one thing: poorer-quality service.

“I don’t think anybody’s going to give the level of service that Spokane County Library District is able to provide and come out with better numbers,” Spokane Public Library Director Jan Sanders said.

Sanders, who has worked in the field for 32 years, said she has seen privatization work well in some communities. But she said she doesn’t think a company could compile a collection with the “care and expertise that the current collection receives” by January.

Nobody will know exactly what price or what type of service will be offered until the proposals are submitted. But some details of what might happen are unfolding.

Three entities said they plan to turn in proposals: the district, the Maryland-based company Library Systems & Services LLC (LSSI) and the California- and Maryland-based company Library Associates.

Library Associates already has a job opening posted on its Web site for a library director/project manager in Spokane. The company’s president said the ad is there so that the transition would be smooth if Library Associates is picked as the contractor.

Many people have wondered what would happen to the books, the furniture and even the building at 12004 E. Main Ave., where the Valley branch is now, if the district loses the contract. The district owns everything there.

Koudelka said that it will be up to bidders to decide, but that there are companies that lease entire collections to libraries. A private company coming in fresh could lease materials and be open for business Jan. 1, he said.

Also, the district would lose almost 85,000 residents out of 230,000 without the contract, and Koudelka said that might mean it would have more items than it needs. The district could either sell or lease those items, or the city could try to negotiate getting some credit for the taxes Spokane Valley citizens have paid the district over the years.

District Director Mike Wirt said it’s still too early to discuss that, though.

“The property of the district is the property of the district,” he said. “The only way that it would be the source of discussion is if we received a request to do something with it, and we haven’t.”

That means discussion over what will become of the building will have to wait, too.

Currently, district patrons and Spokane Public Library patrons can use one anothers’ books and branches at no extra charge. Sanders said she’d have to reevaluate that partnership if 85,000 taxpayers are removed from the district.

“We would be supporting the people of the city of Spokane Valley,” she said. “It’s about the unevenness of the tax base.

As the three organizations prepare their proposals, the district could face a disadvantage. Since it’s a public entity, its records are open and anyone – including its competitors – could read its proposal before the deadline. Wirt said an attorney is studying whether it could keep its proposal private under this circumstance.

It’s possible that little could change if a private company wins the contract. Both companies planning to turn in proposals said they’d strongly consider rehiring the library’s employees if they won the contract. Library Associates said that includes Wirt.

City officials have said their concern is keeping their promises with residents to be fiscally conservative. The city is even tracking the time staff members spend on the managed competition contracts to make sure it’s not losing money before it even inks a deal, although a current cost estimate wasn’t available.

Koudelka said outsourcing library services could save the city 20 percent on the operations side of the contract. Figuring in the capital costs, such as books and a building, is “the great unknown,” he said.

“This is an approach that the council has always wanted to pursue, to provide the best service in the most efficient manner,” Koudelka said.