The Harford County Public Library's Board of Trustees approved an $18.5 million operating budget for fiscal 2016 Thursday, a budget that includes an additional $143,000 in county money to help fund a salary increase for employees.
The operating budget for next fiscal year, which begins July 1, is $222,794 higher than the $18.3 million operating budget for fiscal 2015.
Board members did not vote on a capital budget for FY2016, however, because the library system did not receive any capital money from the county this year. The previous year's capital budget was $19.69 million.
"We submitted a request," board Chairperson Alex Allman said. "We didn't receive any funding."
County Executive Barry Glassman has curtailed capital spending for fiscal 2016, and he has worked to promote "human capital" by providing money for salary increases for teachers, county government employees and Harford County Sheriff's Office employees, as well as library system workers.
"My opinion is, there's really nothing to put to a vote," Allman said. "I don't think we need to approve a compete absence of funding."
The board members agreed not to vote on the capital budget. The budget documents show zero dollars allocated for capital expenditures in FY2016.
Library Director Mary Hastler said after the meeting that projects such as the replacement of the Havre de Grace library branch and repairs to windows and the HVAC system in the Joppa branch will continue, since funding was allocated in prior fiscal years.
Hastler said feasibility studies for improvements to the Aberdeen and Darlington branches have been completed, but library officials will "slow the process down" on those projects until they can determine what capital funding will be available.
She said library staff will work with county facilities staff to deal with any unforeseen repairs to library buildings, which are owned by the county.
Salary increases
Library system officials, who matched the county's contribution with funds from their own budget, were able to give full-time employees a $1,000 raise and a pro-rated increase to part-time workers.
Board members approved the salary increase separately from their vote on the budget. Both items passed unanimously.
Terri Schell, senior administrator for human resources, told board members that "it didn't seem equitable" to give a $1,000 raise to an employee who works full time and the same amount of money to an employee who might work 15 hours a week.
"We broke that $1,000 into an hourly rate, so everybody's getting the same hourly-rate increase, and then it's just a matter of, how many hours you work determines what your annual increase is," Schell said.
The hourly rate comes out to 51 cents per hour for employees who were hired before the previous fiscal year ended June 30, 2014 and have had a successful evaluation for fiscal 2015, according to budget documents.
An employee who works 30 hours a week will receive a $796 increase, a 20-hour employee receives $530 and anyone who works 15 hours a week gets a $398 increase, according to documents.
The rate has been cut in half to 25 cents an hour for employees who were hired after June 30, 2014 and have passed the 90-day probationary period for new hires.
The newest hires will be eligible for the 25-cent increase once they complete their orientations and probationary periods, according to budget documents.
Schell said administrators wanted to acknowledge the contributions of newer employees, but also "maintain an internal equity" for workers who have stayed with the library system despite not having any salary increases for several years.
If newer employees were given the same increase as more experienced employees, then "we have people who have lots of years of experience basically making the same amount as people who just joined us in December of last year," Schell said.
"I think that would have created problems internally," Allman agreed.
Trustee Taryn Martin, who is also a teacher at Aberdeen Middle School, noted Harford County Public Schools teachers have not had a salary step increase for some years – money has been allocated in the school system's budget for FY2016 for steps.
"If there's anything that kills morale, it's that," she said of a new teacher making more than an experienced teacher who has not had an increase.
Martin praised library system officials for working to create an equitable distribution of their employees' salary increase.
"Making sure that you're honoring people who have worked for the system, that is spot on," she said.