Editorial: That’s Not How It Works
By John Swartz
At the November 17th budget committee meeting something happened that demands comment. The issue was the budget for the Orillia Public Library. The meet meeting’s purpose was to ratify the committee decisions of November 12. The library proposed a budget with a $26K operating increase.
Mayor Don McIsaac cut $64K from the additional amount requested, which caused councillor Janet-Lynne Durnford to put up a motion to amend the budget and restore the $64K. It passed, and the mayor waived veto, so that money will be put back into the budget.
But it’s the conditions attached to resorting the money that is causing concern. At the heart is a fundamental misunderstanding of the library’s relationship with the City and the Library Act.
Municipalities are required under the Act to fund a library. Our library is a separate entity from the City; they request an amount to fund operations each year and council accepts or rejects – but council has to spend some amount of money. It’s the law. There is no provision the municipality, or any municipality can tell a library board how to spend the money they receive.
Theoretically, the board could come to council with a blank sheet and request $1 million and council could say, sorry, you only get $900K and then board could dicker over how to use the money. But that’s not what happens, the board submits a line by line account of what the previous year was and what they ‘think’ the coming year will cost to do the same thing. Inflation alone always dictates an budget increase, so too do any wage increases.
At this point it is worth noting this writer served on the board for 13 years, all of them on the finance committee, 6 years as vice-chair, and almost a full term as chair (resigned as chair right after the old library building demolition started in order get someone from the all-rookie board acclimatized to being chair before the term was up).
Preparing a budget is not done in the dark, there are numerous meetings with City staff about shaping the next year’s budget, what will pass, what likely won’t. Then there is defending it before council.
Every single year some councillors wanted to spend money from the library’s reserve accounts instead of funding operations from the tax levy. One account, the materials reserve had approximately $250K in it, there were other reserves as well. That $250K looked tempting to some councillors.
Repeatedly (annually) council had to educated on the reserves, their purpose, and the conditions the money can be used. Each reserve is set up with board voted rules regarding how the money can be spent. Operating funding is not one of them, and never has been.
The library’s updated current policy manual reflects what has long been policy:
“The Orillia Public Library Board Reserve Funds have been established to hold the proceeds of fundraising, grants, donations, and bequests (FDGB) received by the Orillia Public Library Board until utilized to support special programs or initiatives outside of the annual operating budget of the Library.”
The reserve accounts are – general, materials, designated donations and Born to Read. The policy states quite plainly any money donated to the library without a designated purpose goes into the general, or unrestricted, account.
The policy further states:
“Unrestricted FDGB (fundraising, donations, grants and bequests) should not be used to pay for utilities, building maintenance, administrative expenses, or other expenses typically supported by the Library’s annual operating budget.”
So when mayor Don McIsaac added a amendment to the motion to restore the City’s funding if the library receives money from a particular source large enough to cover the $64K, he was over stepping the City’s authority. The City can only agree to fund, but not how to spend, and reserve accounts are not the City’s they are the library board’s. Only the board can authorize spending reserve amounts.
At issue is a bequest from the estate of Brenda Brett. The board has a letter from the executor stating there is money being left to the library, but not how much. The mayor said at the November 17th meeting is was $250K.
So here’s the issue, people give money to the library all the time, but they don’t give money for wages or paper clips. If for example someone is a huge fan and wants to give enough money to the library to buy the complete works on any medium of the Month Python catalogue, they money received would likely go into the materials budget, the material would be bought and then paid for from the reserve. There is no decision to make because the donor said how the money was to be spent.
Another example, suppose someone thinks the library should have overstuffed easy chairs all around and they donate the appropriate amount. The money goes into the general reserve, staff have a field day picking out chairs, and the cheque gets sent.
One more example, suppose I decide in my will to leave money for the library, but I do not stipulate how to spend it. The money goes into the general reserve, the board spends countless hours debating staff’s ideas how to use the money, or maybe they just wait until something comes up, they authorize spending the money and pay for their decision.
At no point is council involved because it is not the City’s money in question.
The last example is the case of the moment. There is no word from the Brett estate what the money is to be used for. She obviously figured out the library staff and board had a better idea how to use her money than she did, she just wanted to leave something to be enjoyed by the citizens of Orillia.
So here’s the thing, no one is going to give a dime to the City beyond their property taxes to fund the operation of anything, snow plowing, grass cutting, or paper clips.
They will however leave money for park benches, playground equipment, Aquatheatres, recreation facilities, and books, chairs, DVDs, etc., the library could use.
If council wants to dry up urge for people to make donations for municipal projects then council can allow this grab of reserve funds the City does not own to happen. They will forever kill fundraising initiatives if people don’t think council will spend the money in the spirit it was given.
And Another Thing
A secondary issue came up which relates to funding, but by the neighbouring townships. Council has forever castigated the board for the failure of Severn and Oro-Medonte to pay up according to how many people from the townships use the Orillia Public Library.
This is like fishing in a parking lot. First, the board has no stick to command subservience to funding levels – not even with the City of Orillia. Yet, year after year council tells the board to go to the townships and demand they pay more. If anyone has the ability to solve this one it’s the City, not the library board.
The Act says a municipality must fund a library, but not how much. Both Severn and Oro-Medonte do. If Severn wanted to they could tell the City thanks, but no thanks because there is a library in Coldwater. Council might care to revisit the case with Ramara which said just that and built their own library.
Oro-Medonte is surrounded by 5 municipalities and they send money to each of those places. Orillia acts as though our library is the only one Oro-Medonte councillors take into account.
Council also does not see the disconnect; we have a library, the Act entitles all citizens to free library access and service regardless of where they live, so naturally those living close to Orillia use ours.
They also drive on roads Orillia tax payers provide, use our parks, and most importantly shop here. Yet, there has never been a word to correlate those things with library use.
I’m sure if Severn built a library of similar size and service offered next to Orillia Square mall our council would be using the same arguments the township uses in order not to pay on a per capita, or pro-rated basis.
The beef the City has is with the province. There is an annual grant to libraries from the province which was originally meant to compensate for people living outside a jurisdiction using a library they don’t pay taxes to. For decades it remained unchanged at $47K and only recently increased to $51K.
The best case would be for the province to grant municipalities money equal to the cost per user of all, and then portioned for out of town users (libraries track this). If that was the case, Orillia would receive substantially more than the $126K increase proposed for 2026 – to the tune of $1.2 million because 37% percent of library users do not live in Orillia.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia)
