By Lynn Blumenstein & Norman Oder

• Board says it didn’t get all the evidence
• Fate of director Gold remains unresolved
• Library says value of fines, lost materials is $4.6M

Just two weeks before the board of the Sacramento Public Library (SPL) must formally respond to a grand jury’s report slamming the library, the board seems prepared to reject most of the critical findings, according to the Sacramento Bee. In May, LJ reported how the 2007–08 Sacramento County Grand Jury slammed SPL on multiple counts, including hiring of a maintenance company that inflated invoices for more than three years, credit card abuses by managers, and overuse of consultants. It recommended consideration of the removal of library director Anne Marie Gold. 

While the board July 24 did not vote on a draft response that rejected the findings, according to the Bee, “members of the panel gave little indication they opposed much in the proposal.” A response is due August 6. The draft response notes that library officials have not seen all the grand jury evidence and that the board cannot discuss personnel matters publicly.

There remains considerable tension over the library. A lawyer who was on the grand jury told the Bee that the investigation took place "often in the face of obfuscation, indifference and non-cooperation from Library leadership."

Fines and lost materials
The library board recently acknowledged that library has an even bigger problem with uncollected fines and lost materials. SPL officials told the grand jury in March the figure was $2.7 million. “Upon performing data review and error checking,” that figure was revised to $4.3 million, and in July it was further revised to $4.6 million,” according to an SPL report released prior to the board meeting.

The report offers this explanation for the incorrect figures: “Because of limitations in the library’s circulation system, customer balances owed cannot be identified by the actual dollar amounts owed for overdue fines and fees versus the value of the overdue materials.” Library staff will work with Innovative Interfaces, the vendor of the Millennium ILS, to provide overdue rates by type of material and to determine cash value versus noncash value of the total amount owed.

The report recommends lowering the amount of debt, now at $15, at which customers are barred from borrowing materials; evaluating checkout limits per card, now at 50 items; investigating barriers to payment, including institution of credit/debit card capability; and determining if owing $50 is the right point to turn an account over to a collection agency.