ST. PAUL – The County of St. Paul is cutting $30,000 to library services, following the approval of the County’s operating budget on April 8, which could mean potential cuts to all libraries within the County.
The funds were transferred to the County’s reserves, which would allow council to reverse their decision should they change their mind later on, explained CAO Jason Wallsmith.
Coun. Ross Krekoski made a motion to restore the funding to library services, saying, “I think this is a misstep.” He noted that many people use local libraries on a daily basis.
The motion was defeated.
The County’s library board, responsible for library services funding allocations, will discuss how the reduced library funding will be allocated in the future. The County’s library board will meet on May 26.
On April 9, during the St. Paul Municipal Library’s board meeting, that board discussed how the cut could potentially affect the library’s programming. In 2024, the St. Paul Municipal Library received $46,000 worth of funding from the County of St. Paul.
Town of St. Paul Coun. Norm Noel, who sits on the library board on behalf of the Town, asked Krekoski what the intent was behind the cut.
“No rationale was given,” said Krekoski. Personally, Krekoski said he believes it is still not a good decision even if the intent is to increase reserves for future capital projects.
The County transferred $5.8 million of surplus from 2024 to reserves on April 8, specifically for the following: $2 million for future operations; $1 million for future MD Foundation project funding; and $2.8 million for future capital reserves.
Town of St. Paul Coun. Sid Sood asked how the cut would specifically affect the St. Paul Municipal Library’s programs.
“We will need to let go of one staff [member], for sure,” said Eunhye Cho, St. Paul Municipal library manager. Cho said that even though the County’s library board has not announced how the allocation will look like just yet, she believes the St. Paul Municipal Library will take the brunt of the cut, as the other libraries within the County of St. Paul rely more heavily on County funding.
Other libraries funded by the County include locations in Ashmont, Mallaig and Elk Point.
“We will need to cut our hours significantly, and we will need to cancel a large portion of our programming,” Cho added. “There isn’t anywhere else that we can cut.”
Board member Dwight Wiebe, who is also a St. Paul Education trustee, said, “That’s pretty brutal.” He contemplated that the only way to alleviate the potential effects of the cut would be to start charging user fees, but he was against the idea.
Noel and Krekoski were also against the idea of charging user fees.
“You’re disadvantaging vulnerable people when you’re charging user fees,” Krekoski said.
“You’re already doing the same thing when you cut $30,000 from the budget,” replied Noel.
Cho suggested speaking to the County of St. Paul to ask council to reconsider the decision.
Wiebe doubted the act would make any difference as the County had already passed its budget.
The library board will be considering what programs to cut in future deliberations.
Why the cut?
In a follow-up with the County of St. Paul, Reeve Glen Ockerman provided a statement and said council “opted to reduce the funding to the County Library Board based on the financial positions of the libraries.”
“The funds have been placed in a reserve that council may provide to the County Library Board should the need arise,” reads the statement.
The County did not provide further details regarding the financial positions of the libraries, but council had prior discussions about the financial position of the St. Paul Municipal Library during the County’s March 11 council meeting.
“The library in town has a $30,000 GIC,” said Coun. Maxine Fodness, during discussions.
Ockerman replied, saying, “Are they allowed to have that? . . . why would the library have a savings account?”
“And not give their staff any increase in wages,” Fodness responded. “I don’t know why . . . I just wanted council to be aware of it.”
Ockerman responded, “I am aware of it. It’s concerning me.”
When asked about the $30,000 in reserves, Cho explained to Lakeland This Week that the money is used for emergencies.
Per the Northern Lights Library System’s (NLLS) recommendations, best practices for any organization includes having reserves equivalent to six months' worth of their operating budget. But, according to Cho, the $30,000 the St. Paul Municipal Library has is just enough to cover one month of the library’s operations.
Where did the $30,000 come from?
Asked where the $30,000 came from, she said $10,000 was already there when she became manager in 2018.
The $20,000 is from when six staff were temporarily let go in 2020 during COVID-19 to abide by pandemic restrictions. The library has since kept the $30,000 in reserves.
Having that money in reserves also helps deal with unexpected situations, such as delayed funding, explained Cho.
For example, up until 2019, the County Library Board used to provide the St. Paul Municipal Library its funding by March, while the Town of St. Paul and the provincial government usually sends out money later in the summer.
Receiving money by March allows the library to pay for operational costs while waiting for further funding from the Town and the province.
But in 2020, the expected money from the County’s library board did not come in by March. The library was able to pay for operational costs, including staff wages for March and April but would not have been able to pay for operating cost in May if staff had not been temporarily laid off mid-March due to pandemic restrictions and would not have been able to call back staff until funding was received.
The library reached out to municipalities, and funding came in before the end of April.
“That was a close call,” she said. And so, after that, the library chose to leave $30,000 in the account for future emergencies.
Asked if the County had contacted the library about the $30,000 in reserves, Cho said she’s unsure if the County reached out to any of the library’s board members, but she personally did not receive any communication from the County.
