Went around and around, but we came to the same spot. What are the position titles of the 39 and what operational units are they being taken from?
The positions that have been eliminated so far have been done through attrition. So for me to identify at this time specifically which positions, I can't do that. I could get that later on. We are now going through a reshuffling of those positions so that we aren't filling all of the ones -- matter of fact, when we fill a position, we try to see where it is most needed. So to look at the decrease that we have seen so far doesn't really reflect the positions that have been eliminated. It really reflects the people who have retired or 82 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 left for another position. But I can -- the challenge for us is how we --
That is correct. And the bigger -- we have been very fortunate over the years, because often when City budget was cutting things back, we were able to use more state money, and as you know, at this time, we're being faced with both the state and the City reduction.
This past year, we lost 3.9 -- well, it went from 4.7 in this current year to 3.9 million. The projection for next year will restore some of that money, so that we will be at approximately about a third, it will be 30 percent down from where we were two years ago.
How many emergency library closings do we have due to staff shortages?
It, of course, 83 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 varies over time. We have seen an increasing trend in those spot closings as our number of staff is reduced through attrition. I believe we are now at a rate of about 100 spot closings a month throughout the City.
100 a month? And you do have libraries that are closed on Saturday. I assume that's because of the lack of staff?
Yes, that is correct. We try to move that around to various parts of the City, but there are definitely libraries that are closed on Saturdays.
And you say that we have 100 a month that are closed. We use emergency library closings due to staff. Is that what I understand?
No, I am not. However, this is -- we do not want to close 84 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 libraries.
If that's what you have now, how many will you have when you have 39 less employees?
Well, as my testimony pointed out, we have already lost many of those. In the last payroll, we were down to that 705 figure that was in my testimony. So I do not believe that there will be a continued loss. As a matter of fact, I believe that there will be a slight increase in the number of staff that we have, considering where we are absolutely today as opposed to when the testimony was drafted.
The Chair recognizes Councilman Rizzo for a point of information.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Shelkrot, could you describe what constitutes an emergency closure? I'd 85 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 like to know when and who makes the decision and what plan that you have to plug in a person from another library or Central library to go to maintain that building and what happens to the people that are there that do report to work. Could you describe where in the chain of command the decision to close 100 libraries a month, how that decision is made and what you're doing to try to come up with a creative way to stop those high numbers? I'm not suggesting that you have people sitting at home ready to get a phone call, but you would think you could move some people around to keep the property open.
Let me ask Helen Miller, who is the Director of Public Services, to respond to that question about how we make the decision to close a library and why and what we do to try to keep it open.
Thank you. Usually it's the branch librarian who makes that decision, but it's made on the basis of the number of people who are available for 86 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 work that day, and usually if there are fewer than three, the library closes.
Let's use an average library. How many people work in a library?
They usually go to another library to bolster the staff at another library, yes.
So 100 times a month you can't accomplish a plan that could keep that building open by moving a person from one library to another? It just doesn't make sense that 100 instances each month require you to close a building. You said in most cases that's a very -- that's a word that I have some trouble with, that those people -- the three that are 87 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 at the closed building go someplace else.
We do move people around. We moved people around much more when we had more staff, because we had -- each branch had their -- were closer to having their full complement of staff. We don't have that now, so that often when a library is forced to close, there really is no one to move into that library, because we are so short staffed. But we move people around all the time. And it doesn't mean that that library is closed for the entire day. It could be closing for a lunch hour because we need all the staff that's there to be on the floor, so we're closed for lunch, or it means that we're closed in the morning because there's some emergency and a staff person hasn't shown up, but we can open in the afternoon. So there are a variety of reasons why we close.
So I think what I'd like to see the Chair receive is a report. I think you kind of didn't 88 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 communicate at least, or I didn't understand clearly, you're not suggesting that 100 times a month a library is closed for the entire day?
How many libraries are closed each month the entire day where no one has access to the building from the time -- the library opens at what time in the morning?
I don't know. I don't know if we have that information the whole day. I can tell you that --
I can tell you that we base -- what we have is some almost 400 hours, but that is not --
What time does a library, Mr. Shelkrot, open in most 89 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 cases in the morning?
Well, Monday, Wednesday, Friday the library is open late, which is either or 1 o'clock, depending on 6 the branch. Tuesday and Thursday it opens up 7 at 9:00 or 10:00, depending on the branch and 8 the community. Our regionals are open 9 earlier, as is the Central library. 10
The branches? Branches close about eight hours afterwards. If they open up at 9:00, they close at 5:00.
So what I'd like to know, how many times a month other than -- I can understand shutting it down for the hour so everybody eats lunch at once so you can get back to business. How many times have you had a staffing issue where you could not open the building at all or use a creative way to send a supervisor or a manager from the Central building to maintain the minimum staff that you need to keep the building open? I'd like to know -- 90 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455
We're not asking you questions to hurt you. We're trying to figure out what we can do to keep these libraries open. It's disappointing that -- and I think since I've been here in Council, we've gone from Saturday the library is open, to closed, now we're back to closed again. I think it would be real nice to be able to have a library system that someone can use on a Saturday.
Well, absolutely, and we agree with you and we'll get that information to the Chair.
Thank you, Madam Chair. 91 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455
Thank you. I'd just like to ask a few more questions, if I may, and then I'll go on to recognize my colleagues. The Administration's revenue estimates include an increase of a million dollars for library fees. Will you explain how you will generate these additional funds?
Yes. I'd be happy to do that. I think we have all -- everybody is aware of the suggestion that has come from the Mayor and it was -- I don't mean to say that I had nothing to do with it, but we did put together some ideas of how one might raise money, whether we liked it or not. But the question is how could you raise money if it were absolutely necessary. And in our estimation, although not something we want to do, it would be possible to raise a million dollars with a fee on the use of videos and DVDs and the like. It is a real challenge for us, because we, after all, are the Free Library of Philadelphia and we're 92 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 founded on the basis of the resources being made available free. We're exploring another way right now, which is also a challenge, but one way that could preserve the free access to materials, and we have -- and that is to increase the fines. As a matter of fact, to double the fines for overdue books. And at least in that way, we're not charging people for the initial time. We're exploring that. We're trying to determine whether, in fact, it will generate the kind of revenue that is necessary. The one thing that we do know -- or two things that we know. It will keep the resources available to people free of charge, and, second of all, it will not require some of the start-up costs that are necessary if we start to charge fees for some of the types of materials we have.
Yes. What I'm suggesting is, we're looking at increasing the 93 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 fine for overdue books and doubling it, as a matter of fact. And we're exploring --
The current fines are cents a day for the adult 8 materials and 25 -- or excuse me; 5 cents a 9 day for the items that are borrowed by 10 children. And we're looking, as I say, at 11 doubling that. 12 Now, I will say for videos and DVDs, 13 the fines are considerably higher for not 14 bringing it back on time. It's 2.50 a day for 15 items borrowed from the adult collection and a 16 dollar a day for items borrowed from the 17 children's collection. 18 But even so, if you follow the rules 19 of the library, you don't have to pay 20 anything. And so from a policy point of view, 21 if we can bring in revenue that way, that's 22 what we're exploring. 23
Okay. 24 So you are being cut by $2.8 million in your 25 general fund, correct? 94 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455
Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Shelkrot, I want to start where the President left off. I did find it interesting in your testimony, unlike other testimony that we've received, that you did not directly mention that you were getting a cut in your City funding. You talked about the number of employees and you highlighted certainly, and appropriately, the budget cut from the state. But as the President just pointed out, your FY04 budget is $38.2 million and your FY05 proposed is 35.5, a little over $2.7 million cut. Is there any particular reason that you didn't put the number in your testimony?
The reason is, I found personally that first paragraph or the first draft that had all those numbers so confusing, because there is money that was eliminated from the budget due to a different 95 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 way of paying for the DROP program and it didn't necessarily affect our bottom line in terms of what we could spend, and I believe that talking about the number of employees we could hire was the easiest way to focus on the issues. In addition, as Kevin just reminded me, with the addition in the grant revenue program of the Mayor's commission on literacy, it just became more difficult to focus specifically on dollars rather than what the dollars is able to buy.
Okay. Well, I appreciate that, but it's just one more number in a series of numbers and we would actually figure it out. It's budget time. So let's talk about the utilization or the closing of a variety of libraries. This discussion, unfortunately, is quite reminiscent of, I think, some discussions that we had about 10, 11, 12 years ago with proposed closures and a variety of other negative impacts to the library. 96 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 You talked about the 100 spot closures a month which come as a result of lack of staff. Talk to me a little bit about more permanent closures that take place. How many libraries do not provide Saturday hours?
At this time, there are libraries that are not open on 9 Saturdays. 10
It grew over the 13 year as the attrition of staff occurred. 14
And you 15 were not able to replace the staff because?
We weren't able to replace the staff because of the budgetary shortfall, first with the state cut. And as we're moving through the year, there's no 20 sense in bringing people on that we won't be able to keep as we move into the next year.
State dollars goes for a combination of purchase of 97 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 materials, as well as for staff.
How much of the money goes for the purchase of materials?
In the last year, we had the full funding from the state, fiscal year '03. It was about $3 million.
Yes. I mean, excuse me. The full funding from the state was 9.4 million. That's correct.
Personnel -- excuse me; library materials. The remainder was personnel.
Well, you know, I'm being corrected here. I apologize for speaking before I get advice from my staff. There are other items, technology --
I always find that I get in trouble that way, too. 98 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455
We spent money of the 9.4 for technology and other items as well. So it's not a one --
So of the $9.4 million, how much is directly attributable to staff?
Well, in '04, since the budget was cut back so dramatically from the state --
Weren't our people already on staff in FY04 by the time the state's FY04 budget got done? Weren't we halfway through the fiscal year? Weren't the people already working for us?
I'm sorry. Bill 25 Flemming, Administrative Services Director. 99 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455
Staffing level for the state funds was somewhere on the order of 94 full time.
Okay. So on 7/1/03, you had 94 people on the payroll who you were using state funds to pay?
And how many of those people to date have left the payroll?
Those specific individuals who were on the grants fund payroll, we haven't experienced a large drop. Probably on the order of five people from the grants fund.
But what we're doing is to -- since we really didn't get sufficient funding from the state to support 100 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 that level of staffing, we're going to transfer those expenditures and individuals over to the general fund to cover the shortfall for this year. That surplus is generated by the fact that we do have some excess dollars in the general fund due to the hiring freeze. So we will cover that this year alone, just this year.
You have surplus funds in your general funds dollars for FY04; is that what you're saying?
This is Elliot Shelkrot. When we look at our personnel expenditures, look at all of our expenditures, the grant money, as you know, is reappropriated through Council, and so our positions all are -- some are grant-funded positions, some are City-funded positions, but all come through the same.
Right. You said you had 94 on the payroll last July that were paid by the state funds.
But we knew that 101 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 as we saw the state money drying up, we initiated a freeze at the library even before the citywide freeze came about. Whether a position vacancy occurs on the City side or on the state side is kind of luck of the draw. People don't necessarily leave -- when they leave, they don't -- half the people don't even know whether their money is coming through state grant revenue or whether it's City money.
Because it's still a check issued by the City. As we approach the end of the year, we need to make sure, and the Budget Office works very closely with us, to be sure that the amount of money in Class 100, whether it be state funded or City funded, comes to the end of the year with no more expenditures than we can afford. So it turns out that the vast number of resignations, retirements, et cetera, have come from City-funded positions. So we've 102 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 been holding that money --
Well, how many people have resigned since 7/1/03 and what was your total payroll, the total number of filled positions at the start of the fiscal year?
Just a second. I have that number right here. We had a combination. We were funded beginning of the year for a combination of full-time positions. We're not talking about part time or temporary, but between the state and the federal, we were funded for 845 -- the state and the local, excuse me, not federal. State and local money was 845. As of the middle of April, which is when we put the testimony together, we were down at that point to a total of 778.
Well, the budget book says for fiscal '04, you had 821 budgeted positions.
And I was just reminded by the Budget Director, by Rob Dubow, that the number -- not the number budgeted, 103 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 but the number on board at that first payroll was very close to what you just indicated. He indicated to me it was 815, not 821 as combined on board at the time of the first payroll.
Rob Dubow. It depends what you're asking. If the question is how many people did they have on board July 1st?
That would be the actual -- the best way to look at that is -- the comment is "actual position" of this June 30th, '03 and you see full time, all funds, 815.
Yeah, , the top over towards the left, the second column, that 815. 104 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455
Right. And then how do you get then down in C to the 782?
Okay. That's just the general fund down in C. So you have to -- so if you subtracted the 718 from the 815, that would be the number of grant-funded positions.
So then at the start of the next fiscal year, you were supposed to go from 815 to 845?
The number that 105 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 were actually filled were that 799 as of November, and of that 799, you can see that 94 --
So not only did it not go up toward the budgeted number, it actually --
It was budgeted, but a couple of things happened. The big thing is, there was a state reduction in state funding. So once that state funding cut hit -- 106 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455
We didn't build their budget on the assumption that that funding was never going to come in, because we were lobbying for that funding to be restored. So we included in our budget last year the assumption that that money would be restored. And for a lot of our services, the money was restored. So, for example, in the health area, about 90 percent was restored. Here it wasn't restored, so we had to make adjustments.
And part of that adjustment was to essentially freeze their hiring, and that's why the position numbers never hit what was budgeted.
Right. And now, along with that, it's proposed that the City cut them $2.7 million. How are they supposed to run --
Well, part of it, if you look through the cut -- 107 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455
Right. If you look through Pages 4 and 5, they run through a lot of the reasons for that reduction. So, for example, you can see there were big lump sum payments for DROP, and that's going away. There were nine occurring grant subsidies.
It's spread by division, so for Central Public Services, for example, there were 217,000.
I mean, what we can do, if you want, is send you something that lumps all that together to see the elements of the reduction.
Thank you. Let's talk about the fees and fines. Well, let's go back to this for a second. So you've been hit by the state cuts. You've had attrition of employees. You can't hire people. You're expecting a further cut in positions and funding. You've got, you testified, 15. I'm being told branches 10 have no hours on Saturdays. 11 What would it cost to keep the 12 branches open on Saturdays? 13
What would it 14 cost citywide to keep the branches open? 15
Yes, and 16 how is it decided which branches will be 17 closed on Saturdays?
Well, let me answer the first question. I believe that the total cost to keep all branches open on Saturdays would be about a million 3 hundred thousand. A million 3 hundred thousand, that would allow us to hire the people back that we need to hire.
Let me make 109 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 sure that I have them correctly. I have a list of branches that have no Saturday 4 hours. You can certainly feel free to tell me 5 if any of these are incorrect. Fishtown -- 6
Wait just a 7 minute. Let me get our list, too, because I 8 don't have it off the top of my head; that's 9 all. 10 Okay. We're ready. 11
Fishtown, 12 Fumo Family, Haddington, Haverford, 13 Holmesburg, Kensington, Lehigh Avenue, Logan, 14 McPherson Square, Nicetown-Tioga, Passyunk, 15 Queen Memorial, Rodriguez, Richmond, Santori, 16 Wadsworth and West Oak Lane. Was that a 17 correct list?
I know that Holmesburg was just recently closed. It had been open on Saturdays, but just recently. That's one of them. And I believe there's another one in the list that was closed since my testimony was prepared, which indicated 15. The decisions are made --
I want to 110 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 make sure. You don't want to end up in the Recreation Department conundrum. Is it or is it 15? 5
And how is 12 it decided that these 17 would not have hours 13 on Saturdays? 14
There are 15 several ways. As staff are -- as staff retire 16 or move on to other positions, we try to 17 reshuffle and move people into different places. If we have to shut down another branch by reshuffling and taking somebody away from that one, we take a look at what the pattern is. Also, now that we are towards the end of the year and our branches are not open on Saturday, we do less permanent shuffling of staff, because we know that none of the 111 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 branches will be open during the summer starting early in June.
When we move to the summer schedule, which we do in the first or second week of June, then no branches are open on Saturday. The regionals and Central are, but the branches are not. So what occurred earlier in the year in making the decision --
No, no. That has been -- we've never had -- we never had the branches open on Saturdays during the summer. Just the regional and Central.
When we had the big fight about this in the early to mid '90s and the various friends groups of the libraries, there was a proposal, I thought, to close the branches on Saturdays. Weren't there some Saturday branch hours or was that just for the regionals and the Central? 112 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455
To the best of my knowledge -- well, first of all, the big fight was because we were going to have to close a lot of libraries several days a week, not just on Saturdays.
The regionals were open. I know there was a time quite a while ago when some branches were open on Saturday and closed on a Thursday. Off the top of my head, although Helen or somebody else may be able to help me remember when that was, but to the best of my knowledge, it was only maybe about ten years ago that we were able to get all -- get branches or branches open six days a week.
Well, I understand that. But, one, we're not in the summer yet, but, two, I have to at least tell you that based on what we've been hearing over the past couple weeks, and we got hopefully our last list from Recreation yesterday, I mean, we are looking toward a summer where 113 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 we'll have potentially some rec centers closed, swimming pools closed, libraries closed. I'm not sure who else is going to come in to propose to close something, but I guess I'm starting to really wonder what are these kids going to do and even some of the adults during the course of this upcoming summer.
Well, I hear your point. Was that a rhetorical question or do you want me to try to answer?
I can tell you for sure that we intend to have a very active summer reading program. Some of that goes on inside our branches, some of it goes on in other settings around the City. But I understand your concern.
Okay. I'm 114 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 way over my time. I'll be back. Thank you.
The first question I had is the expansion, which I understand will make the Central library a state of the art --
-- when it's completed, what's the total cost of the expansion? I know the City number is around 30 million that we're committed to.
Has there been any estimate of what it will cost to bring the -- let me just parenthesize. My 115 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 constituents don't often get to the Central library, and I think that's true of a lot of people that live in the neighborhoods. It's not an easy trip for most people. They go to their branch libraries and they go to their regional library if they're fortunate. What would it cost, if there is some estimate, to bring those libraries, the ones that are used more by regular people and kids and seniors, into the state-of-the-art position?
You may recall that we have just or almost completed that process. Before we even began to think about the Central library, we decided that it is most important that we work on our branches, and we went through a five-year program, raising money from private sources as well as City sources and renovated and brought new technology and new children's areas to every single one of the branches, two of which are still in the final stages of completion.
Would you consider them state of the art as you use the 116 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 term in reference to the Central library?
Yes. Relative to the Central library, many of them are advanced relative to what the Central library has done, yes.
Well, no. They were state of the art as they were completed in the late '90s. As the art of technology has changed, we're always playing a leap frog game, and we have a program of renovating the computers and the technology every three to five years. So that it's not that every place at any single time is everybody -- because state of the art changes. It keeps evolving. But we did focus on the branches first, and that was our -- that was because just as you said, so many people do not get to the Central library, but use their community libraries first.
Is there an estimate of cost as to what it would take to bring the regionals and the branches up to 117 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 what would be then the current state of the art equal to the new addition to the public library, the Central library?
Let me just say, it's a lot easier to support a $30 million appropriation if I can tell people that are never going to use it that there's additional money in that appropriation so that they will be experiencing the same technology and the same learning that people that are able to get to the Central library experience.
Right. But you've already said that there's a different state of the art. I mean, technology is advancing. I'm trying to match an apple and an apple. The apple has already gotten a little brown by the time the --
With all due respect, my neighbor's house is -- the paint looks fresher because they just finished it 118 Whole - 5/4/04 - Bill No. 020455 last month, whereas my house, which certainly doesn't need painting, I did a year and a half ago, it doesn't look quite as fresh, but it is still better than it was --