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Seminole, library system make deal
By MAUREEN BYRNE
© St. Petersburg Times, SEMINOLE -- After threatening to pull out of the Pinellas Public Library Cooperative earlier this year, Seminole has resolved its funding issues with the non-profit agency and plans to stay in the relationship. City administrators will recommend at Tuesday's City Council meeting that Seminole sign an interlocal agreement with the countywide library system. If the council approves the motion, the city will renew its contract with the cooperative. That is good news for the approximately 70,000 people who live in unincorporated parts of the county surrounding the city, or what is commonly called the greater Seminole area. If the city was to leave the cooperative, it would have to charge them a non-resident fee. Some of the co-op's 13-member cities complained last spring about the formula used for distributing funds. They said they weren't getting enough money from the co-op for the number of non-residents they serve. Since January, a committee of representatives from member libraries has tried to devise a funding agreement that would be acceptable to everyone. Under the old agreement, which expired Jan. 10, 2001, monies were distributed according to a member's annual expenditures. Seminole and other cities said that wasn't fair. They claim that even though their libraries' expenditures are less than the larger cities, they serve more non-residents. Therefore, they argued, they deserve a larger piece of the pie. "Seminole is in a unique position in that not only does it serve the city but also a vast area of unincorporated (county)," said Dr. Lorraine Mayfield-Brown, vice chairwoman of the cooperative and an avid user of the Seminole Community Library who lives in unincorporated Pinellas County. A service analysis done by the cooperative for the 1999-2000 fiscal year shows that 32,336 people registered for their library cards at Seminole Community Library. Only one-third of the city's then 14,000 residents had registered at the library that year, the report says. "We've got a lot more people who are registered here who do not live in the city limits," said Michael Bryan, director of Seminole Community Library. With the new 12-year agreement, the basic funding formula hasn't changed. The higher the expenditures, the larger the allotment. But now, more dollars will go into a pool of money available for cities such as Seminole that have a non-resident use, said Bernadette Storck, director of the library cooperative. Previously, 5 percent of the co-op's funding went into the pool. The money was allocated according to the cities' non-resident circulation. The more non-residents, the bigger the chunk of the 5 percent. The new agreement increases the pool to 6 percent. The pool will increase by 1 percent each year until it is 10 percent of the co-op's total funds. "Is it equitable? No," said Harry Kyne, Seminole's director of finances. "It's not even close to what we wanted, but it is an improvement." Realizing the cooperative's survival could be in jeopardy if the funding formula was drastically changed too soon, Seminole decided to accept the new agreement rather than leave the organization. "The best we can hope for is a gradual increase (in funding)," Kyne said. Seminole is expected to receive $203,000 from the co-op for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1 -- a $20,000 increase from last year. Kyne said unincorporated residents in the greater Seminole area pay about $800,000 in ad valorem taxes toward the co-op, but only 25 percent of that amount comes back to their community library. "(The agreement) moved in the right direction," he said. "It's still not equitable, but the city has supported the co-op. We think it's a good thing to have. We didn't get everything we wanted, but we still feel it's an improvement." Kyne said the city's contract with the cooperative will not be affected when Seminole and St. Petersburg College begin sharing a library in 2003. Representatives of several co-op libraries also questioned whether East Lake Community Library should receive any part of the co-op's more than $5-million in county and state funds. Unlike their libraries, East Lake is not supported through a local taxing district. Efforts to create a taxing district in the East Lake area have failed twice. The 4,500-square-foot facility is the newest library in Pinellas County. It has been the subject of dispute over how it is funded since it was built in 1998. Because East Lake didn't have locally dedicated tax funds, it didn't qualify for funding, said some of the co-op's members, including Seminole. And since the original funding agreement was unclear on how to deal with the situation, the East Lake library was given a lump-sum allocation before the other libraries were funded. Under the new agreement, which is expected to be approved by commissioners with the county budget on Tuesday, the county has agreed to financially support the East Lake library. This qualifies the library to be a part of the co-op's funding formula. The cooperative was formed in 1989, when more than 70 percent of the residents in the unincorporated parts of the county voted to tax themselves for improved and expanded library service. Property owners in unincorporated areas pay a half-mill, or 50 cents per $1,000 of taxable value, on their bills. Today the co-op has 13 members: Clearwater, Dunedin, Gulf Beaches, Gulfport, Largo, Oldsmar, Palm Harbor, Pinellas Park, Safety Harbor, St. Pete Beach, St. Petersburg, Seminole and Tarpon Springs. The libraries share services with their residents, as well as those from the unincorporated parts of the county. "It would really have been a loss" if Seminole had left the cooperative, Mayfield-Brown said. "I do depend on our local library, and it has affected the quality of life in Seminole."
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