Could East Lansing Join the Capital Area District Libraries? Your ELPL Questions Answered
After publishing our story on Monday morning about workers at the East Lansing Public Library unionizing and calling for a better contract, we received follow-up questions from readers and a response from the City of East Lansing to our July 28 request for comment. This article covers those questions and the City’s response.
Could East Lansing’s library become part of the Capital Area District Libraries (CADL) system?
Yes, it could, but doing so would depend on both approval by the CADL Board of Trustees and majority approval of East Lansing voters.
To better understand this issue, we reached out to Scott Duimstra, CADL’s executive director, who pointed ELi to the State of Michigan’s District Library Establishment Act.
According to the law, to start the process on the CADL end, at least 5% percent of registered voters in an affected municipality must sign a petition expressing interest in joining the district library system. So this would require 5% of registered East Lansing voters signing a petition to support joining CADL.
The petitions must then be submitted to the City Clerk for verification of signatures. If the 5% threshold is met, the question would then be put to the voters via a referendum at either the next scheduled election or at a special election. (Usually scheduled elections are used because related costs are minimal.)
But since CADL is an already-existing district library system, there are additional caveats. Those organizing the petition drive would need to also submit “the proposal and the petition language to the existing district library board for review and approval.” CADL’s Board of Trustees would have to vote via resolution within 30 days to either support or reject the proposal.
The referendum language would also have to include both a millage request for “the municipality’s obligation to the existing district” and “language regarding the appointment of new members to represent any new participating municipality.”
If both the majority of voters in East Lansing and the CADL Board of Trustees support the proposition, ELPL could become a branch of CADL.
However, the existence of the East Lansing Public Library is inscribed in Chapter 17 of the City’s Charter, which suggests that voters would also have to be asked to change the City Charter, as well. The City Charter can be amended by a majority voting to approve a change presented in a ballot question. A charter change proposition can be brought to the ballot by citizen petition or by an act of City Council.
When was CADL formed? Has anyone else joined since then?
CADL was established in 1998 when the Ingham County and City of Lansing library systems merged, according to Duimstra. Since then, no other libraries have joined.
Would ELPL employees be able to keep their jobs if East Lansing joined CADL?
Again, Duimstra pointed out that this has not been an issue that CADL has dealt with in over 20 years when CADL was formed in 1998, but, he said, “when CADL was formed, the employees of the Ingham County Library System did reapply for their positions.”
What autonomy do individual branches have within CADL? Can they choose their own books and programming?
Books are selected centrally for all locations, but, Duimstra explained, “these collections can be transferred to each library based on demand.” He also pointed out that “the staff at all of our locations work with our Selection department for their collections so that they reflect the use and interests of their community.”
As for programming, branches have control over that, but CADL also runs “some larger, central programs as well,” Duimstra said.
Would East Lansing taxpayers save money if East Lansing joined CADL?
It appears that as of now, those who pay property taxes would see a decrease in their library-specific millages.
ELPL receives much of its financial support through two millages, which come to approximately 1.997 mills in total, with other smaller portions of revenue coming from the State of Michigan, penal fines, and private donations.
One millage for ELPL was approved by East Lansing’s Council in July 2012, and will soon either end or be renewed by Council. The other was approved by voters in November 2012 and would have to be approved by voters in 2022 to be renewed.
According to the CADL website, “CADL has operated under the same millage rate of 1.56 mills since 2006. The current millage expires Dec. 31, 2021.”
Since both millages are up for renewal soon, it is hard to say what the relative rates would be in future years, but as of now, the CADL millage is .437 mills less than the ELPL total, a savings of about 22%.
Where exactly does East Lansing Public Library (ELPL) sit in relation to other government entities? Who oversees whom?
We posed this question to the City after ELPL employees called the process that had been used for laying-off workers “opaque.” It was unclear what role the Council-appointed ELPL Board of Trustees played in the layoffs last year, or if decisions by others in the City government influenced the decision.
The City’s Communication Coordinator Mikell Frey sent us the following answer from ELPL Director Kristin Shelley.
Shelley wrote, by way of explaining the interplay among City, board, and library, that, as per the City Charter, “The ELPL is its own entity with a governing board; however, the City is its taxing authority and the City Council appoints the library board. The library director reports to the Board.”
“The East Lansing Public Library Board of Trustees provide that the library director makes personnel decisions; however, the library director communicates all personnel issues in regards to layoffs, furloughs and terminations with the Board,” wrote Shelley.
So, who was responsible for the decision to layoff and/or furlough workers at the library during the pandemic? What did the timeline look like?
According to Shelley, heads of City departments learned about the City Manager’s decision to furlough contingent staff on April 6, 2020. Shelley then discussed the furloughs with Library Board President Amy Zaagman and Vice Pesident Lance Wilkinson that same day.
Affected staff were notified on April 7 and 8. All staff and board members became aware on April 8, and the temporary layoffs went into effect on April 13. The issue was then discussed at the April 15 Library Board of Trustees meeting.
Shelley told ELi over email, “It was an excruciatingly hard decision and was not made lightly or without phone calls to the board.”
“It is important to note that the library and City were closed during this time per directive from the Governor,” Shelley wrote. “Only very limited and certain staff were allowed in the building for short periods of time. The majority of staff were paid and contingent staff who could perform their jobs remotely were not laid off.”
Why are ELPL non-supervisory workers not being offered a 2% raise on par with the director’s contract? What recourse do library workers, particularly contingent ones, have currently to address workplace grievances?
ELi had posed this question to the City before running Monday’s article on contract negotiations for non-supervisory ELPL workers. After the story ran, ELi was told by the City, “ELPL will not discuss the content of proposals outside of the negotiation process with anyone but the bargaining committee.”