Middletown Library In Dire Financial Straights, Its Future Is In Jeopardy

A number of people over the past year, have been expressed their concerns about the future of Middletown's library, chief among them have been Randell Gabrielan and Linda Baum, who have warned repeatedly of the consequences that are now shaping up to take place, due to the Township's meddling in the affairs of the library and the raiding of it's funds. Library hours and services will soon be cut back, branches will be closed and possible employee lay offs could be starting next month or very early in the new year.

Consider how important our library has been to our community and all the good it has done for Middletown, particularly in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, it's a damn shame what's been happening to it and the fate that awaits it, starting tonight, at the monthly Board of Trustees meeting.  Tonight, the Board of Trustees will be discussing the budget for next year and thus the fate of its ongoing operations.

 According to the latest blog post by Library Director, Susan O'Neal (posted on the library's website yesterday) -  Library Working on 2013 Budget - the situation seems dire:

 ...Some very hard decisions lie ahead, and the Board of Trustees will be discussing this budget, starting tomorrow night. The details are not available yet, but we're prepping for a budget with these facts at hand.

1. The budget from the Township, called the municipal appropriation, will be reduced by 3.84% to $3,470,977, or $139,407 less than the 2012 appropriation. The cumulative decrease is 20% in 4 years.

2.Of this, $1,333,493 is expected to be chargebacks to be paid back to the Township for payroll, health care and retirement contributions and insurance costs. That's 40% of the municipal appropriation for the library, and we haven't even written out what we need to spend for books. These chargebacks are $300,000 more than was requested in 2011.

3. The net change in the financial picture since July of this year is -MINUS $477,407. Some of you predicted this last year when the library transfered nearly $500,000 in reserve funds to the Township.

What is there that can be done by library supporters/patrons to try and head off potential service cuts or branch closures? Ms. O'Neal states in her blog post:

"...The budget discussion will take place in open session, of course, and, hearing your priorities will be helpful to us as it is decided what stays and what goes....

You can come to the meeting or send me your comments. All signed comments will be shared with the Trustees of the Library." 

If you can't make it to tonight's meeting, you can send your comments to the Library Director via her email - soneal@mtpl.org 

The Middletown Library system has often been described as the "Jewel" of our community, I hope that residents make themselves heard loud and clear, in order to head off or lessen the severity of potential budget and/or service cuts that seem imminent. The jewel has lost a lot of  it's shine over the past 20 months, to allow it to be tarnish and grow dim any further would be wrong.  

Township Committee Actions Threaten Dismantling of Library Service

By Randell Gabrielan

The assault by the Middletown Township Committee on library funds threatens and will have the ultimate result of ending library service as township residents know, need, expect and love. The impending fiscal crisis is worsened by a reduction in equalized property valuations which will reduce the municipal appropriation, a not unreasonable practice, but one of the factors for which the library’s reserves, which were seized by the Committee, were intended to safeguard. After taking about $500,000 last year, the committee demanded and took additional funds this year, monies raised outside statutory municipal appropriations. The need to elect Linda Baum and place a voice for the people on the monolithic committee has become more urgent.

The Township is charging the library for ordinary municipal services in a manner and amounts that will end the library’s ability to maintain its hours, materials and branches. They provide no justification and regard the library as a profit center or piggy bank. The financial aspects of library operations are simple. The library pays for facilities, personnel and materials. The buildings need attention, even the totally rebuilt and now eight years old main library. Some are already saying that the branches are on the way out, a direct hit at the bayshore, Navesink and Lincroft. The new realities of the steep decline of planned revenue must have an impact on staffing and new materials. However, the township committee does not care and willingly makes war on its one facility that more residents need and use than any other. Linda Baum is a vocal advocate for an independent, property financed library.

After the township committee threatened to turn the library over to the county, but learned that it could not do so, it undertook a campaign to eviscerate the Middletown Library so residents might not care about the independence of our library and could conceivably vote in a referendum for a giveaway. But this is our library, built and paid for by Middletown to serve Middletown, operated by your staff to serve you, the people of Middletown. Your library needs at least one voice on the committee to defend it. Linda Baum is that voice.

Friends, users and advocates of our library may be expected to vote for Linda. Perhaps straight ticket Republicans may not, but they should reconsider. Regardless of a person’s broader political affiliation, local government is best run on a non-partisan basis, but if partisanship is the rule of the day, more than one voice is needed. All voters should realize that a strong, independent library is one of the assets that makes Middletown a desirable place and enhances and maintains your property values. The present dictatorial township committee, which runs a once-independent library board, would erode your property values as a convenience in their fiscal planning. They must have another voice and that voice should be Linda Baum. Voting to maintain the integrity of the library is also voting for quality of life in your town.

Library Board Approves $338K Transfer Of Funds To Township At Last Night's Board Meeting; Former Board President Gabrielan Speaks Out

Former Middletown Library Board of Trustees President Randal Gabrielan, sent me his comments last night shortly after the current library board voted in favor of turning over $338,493 to Middletown Township, which the township last month stated was owed by the library to cover its portion of pension, hospitalization, and workers compensation expenses for budget year 2012. 

I first posted that something fishy was going on at the library when I was informed that both the Mayor, Tony Fiore and his hench-woman on the library board, Committeewoman Stephanie Murray, were seen leaving the office of Library Director Susan O'Neal several times early last month and  Linda Baum followed it up by submitting a blog post after last months library meeting which detailed the sneaky, underhandedness and questionable accounting that lead to this latest money grab that now places the Middletown Library's finances in a precarious position.    


Here is what Mr. Gabrielan had to say last night before the current library board approved the transfer of funds:

After seeing the proposed new budget, I was shocked, but not surprised. After the township committee raided library surplus for about $500,000 last year, the smart money asked “how will they get the rest?” The hopeful thought perhaps the township committee had a modicum of decency, but this proposal shows there is no hope and no decency. After I declared that the committee’s taking of funds through the bullying of the trustees was tantamount to the committee’s declaring war on the library, the only question should have been when and how would the next attack come.

The township charges to the library range from the unjustified, to the exaggerated to the ridiculous, the latter the characterization of the casualty insurance charges, a subject of my expertise. The 14% figure was either pulled out of the air or based on an irrelevant statistic that has no relationship to the library’s risk to the township’s overall risk of loss. It is not merely a puffed-up figure to permit a small reduction, since the measure of risk for the library, depending on how workers compensation is treated, is closer to 1.4%. Figures do not lie, but liars figure, so justification was either a small or likely no part of the equation. The proposed budget is nothing less than an evil money grab, an example of the township using the state- mandated separately financed library as a profit center. They chose a deceptive way to accomplish this raid. They will seek the surplus now, then take these unjustified charges from future appropriations, thereby cutting into library operational funds and ending library service as we have known and enjoyed for decades.

The committee’s expanding and packing the library board was simply an effort to gain control, a battle in their war was to end the practice of an independent library board of library advocates. This township committee does not tolerate dissent. But how will you, the board, defend or even rationalize these numbers?

Everything comes to an end including all terms of public service. As my position ended and I looked back on my service, I took pride in being a major force that built this library. How will you look back on your service? As being political tools who turned over governance of the library to the township committee? Political tool is a gentle term compared with what others might say, but I do not have a grip with the library board. Indeed, I sympathize with your position. But what will you do?

Quoting a remark attributed to Edmund Burke, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men – and good women – to do nothing. I urge you to defeat this proposal and tell the mayor that the future of the library and the independence of its board are not up for grabs and do not exist for his budgetary convenience. If not, you may wish to consider resigning. Think of how you will look back on your service.

With respect to good people doing nothing, I find it incomprehensible how anyone who supports the library can tolerate a township committee in continuous control for a generation that does not have at least one member who will serve as a voice of dissent and as eyes on the fiscal irregularities that have been visited upon the people of Middletown.

Regarding that unbroken reign of the existing forces, I’ll repeat Lord Acton’s dictum that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The budget proposal is evil and corrupt. I urge you to turn it down.