If its fiscal contribution isn't lowered, Treasure Island threatens to pull out of the consortium.
By ANDREW MEACHAM
Published September 21, 2003
TREASURE ISLAND - For a year and a half, Treasure Island has called the system that determines its library contributions unfair and is threatening to lower its payments.
Neighboring Madeira Beach, which houses the library, as well as Redington Beach, North Redington Beach, and Redington Shores consider Treasure Island's foot dragging ill-timed, at best.
Those municipalities acknowledge that Treasure Island may be paying too much to maintain the Gulf Beaches Public Library, the nonprofit corporation created in 1993. But library board members already have approved the budget for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. And while the two sides have moved closer this month, no one appears certain about what will happen next.
Following a City Commission workshop Tuesday evening, Treasure Island Mayor Mary Maloof informed other members of an ad hoc committee that the city would offer $80,833 as its contribution to the library budget. That's more than the $60,000 Treasure Island offered in previous negotiations, but still short of the $95,790 the library expected from the city. How other cities respond could affect the library's financial equilibrium for the year.
With a population of more than 7,000, Treasure Island is the most populated beach city of the five that make up the library consortium. Madeira Beach comes next with 4,500, followed by Redington Shores, Redington Beach, and North Redington Beach. Under a formula in place since the library's inception, population is the sole factor determining how much a city must contribute to be a part of the Gulf Beaches library system.
To get to the $80,833 figure, Treasure Island officials used a formula that includes how many library cards are being used, as well as population and a library's circulation.
"My personal thought is that their counteroffer is not satisfactory," said Charles Parker, a member of the library board and a Madeira Beach commissioner. But he said he would have to talk to other commissioners before going to the library board.
As reconfigured by the Treasure Island formula, Madeira Beach's contribution would rise by $10,000, to $71,595.
Participants in a Sept. 10 committee meeting urged Treasure Island officials to pay the $95,790 this year, and then negotiate in good faith to change the formula next year. But several Treasure Island commissioners rejected that idea.
If the parties do not reach an agreement, Treasure Island likely would pull out of the nonprofit corporation, City Manager Chuck Coward said. Residents could still purchase a Pinellas County library card they now get for free, but it would cost $100 per person.
Alternatively, Coward suggested, the city could seek involvement with St. Pete Beach's freestanding library.
The Gulf Beaches library board meets Monday to plot its next move. Director Jan Horah said that the library cannot absorb a $15,000 hit. "We're a small library and that's a lot of money for us," she said.
