Monmouth County Library System in Trouble?

According to an article posted on NJ.Com, it looks like Monmouth County Freeholder John Curley wants to do to the Monmouth County Library system what Tony Fiore and the cronies here in Middletown have done to our library, which is to systematically disparage and cripple it to the point where a few individuals speak out and confront its leadership about the extravagant cost in tax dollars it takes to operate the library and then accusing its administrators of neglect and mismanagement of funds. All of which then leads to the threat of to defund the library, take its surpluses and get rid of (fire or lay-off) those that oppose them, all in the name of budgetary austerity.

From NJ.Com:

The Monmouth County Library system continues to modernize and expand, but the cost is alarming some residents and officials.

The Board of Chosen Freeholders approved a $13.6 million tax levy to help fund the libraries’ $19.2 million budget, but not without protest from one member.

“I am very much concerned over these expenditures and how the library needs to reign itself in,” Freeholder John Curley said.

Curley said the library was on the path to fiscal insolvency.

“There has to be a drastic overhaul of the library system,” Curley said. “It can’t sustain itself. In 2014 at this rate the library’s bankrupt. I hope this plan can be incorporated.”

Monmouth County Libraries Director Ken Sheinbaum demurred, arguing that the system is a paragon of how to do more with less.

"Our library is among NJ's large public library systems and by a substantial measure the most efficient," Sheinbaum said. "Based on the number of circulations that each full time employee is responsible for, our employees are doing twice as much work as some of our sister institutions, and that was before we had a cut. It presents an exciting challenge for us to see how long we can maintain services on the level... while at this point losing eight percent of our staff over the past eight months."

Though the library's budget has decreased around $650,000 from 2012 levels, the gap between the library’s budget and its tax levy has increased. That shortfall been filled over recent years by Monmouth County’s surplus funds – this year, almost $6 million will be spent keeping the library solvent.

Sheinbaum said the money will come out of the system's fund balance.

"It is a library surplus, the library operates on a dedicated tax," Sheinbaum said. "We don't rely on the county to make a contribution, we take that from our own reserve." ...Continue reading.

I suppose if you're a Middletown Library supporter and advocate the good news is the Middletown Library won't be changing hands anytime soon no matter how much Fiore wants to destroy it.