Sonoma County libraries seek public input on services

What should Sonoma County’s libraries focus on in the future?

The public is invited to weigh in on that topic as part of the Sonoma County Library’s strategic planning process. The first of four public meetings is from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the Healdsburg Library.

“I really want our residents to tell us what they want their library system to be,” Library Director Brett Lear said.

Lear said it’s been about a decade since the 13-branch library system formulated a strategic plan with input from the community.

Should library branches focus on youth education? Serve as community or technology hubs?

Lear said the final plan to emerge from the process will be a “fairly literal road map that will help guide staff in what they do.”

Any discussion of the library system’s future has to include budget constraints that potentially could limit change or growth.

The budget outlook for the upcoming fiscal year may best be described as keeping things status quo, including library branch closures on Mondays. All 11 of the largest library branches operate during the same hours, with the exception of the central branch in Santa Rosa, which unlike the others is open Sundays from 2 to 6 p.m.

The county’s library system receives almost all of its funding through a share of property taxes. The formula, which was set in 1978 with the implementation of Proposition 13, is projected to generate about $15.9 million this year, or about ?97 percent of the library’s operating budget.

Payroll represents about 73 percent of the library’s total expenditures.

Library officials were hoping to add programs and hours with revenue from Measure M, a proposed one-eighth-cent sales tax that fell just shy of achieving the two-thirds necessary for passage ?in November. The sales tax would have generated an estimated $100 million ?for the library system over the next decade.

Library commissioners in January formed an ad-hoc committee to explore additional sources of revenue for the library, including grants, private giving and tax increases. Lear said he has convened a separate committee to explore the timing of another ballot measure. The group for now is focused on the November 2016 elections, he said.

Lear acknowledged that the finances color conversations about the library’s future.

“With priority-based budgeting, we would put money in those areas the public wants us to focus on,” Lear said. “It would still force us to make difficult decisions.”

Lear said the library is spending about $41,000 on The Results Group to facilitate the planning process, and that he expects the process to wrap up in June.

Thursday’s session in Healdsburg will be followed by similar meetings March 5 at the Rincon Valley Library; March 12 at the Sebastopol Library and March 27 at the Petaluma Library.

All of the meetings are from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

You can reach Staff Writer Derek Moore at 521-5336 or derek.moore@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @deadlinederek.