The Truth About Flagler’s Public Libraries: Doing Far More Than You Realize, with Far Less Than Necessary

Jim Ulsamer is the long-time chair of the Flagler County Library Board of Trustees. On June 27, he wrote a letter to the County Commission in response to pending reductions in services and hours at the Palm Coast branch library as the county prepares to open the Nexus Center library in Bunnell in December. The following is adapted from that letter. 

By Jim Ulsamer

 

On June 6, I stopped by the library to check out a book. When I arrived at the Palm Coast branch, I could barely find a place to park. Turns out that at 2:30 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon, more than 300 residents had gathered to enjoy the events surrounding the kickoff of the Summer Reading Program. 

As I was walking into the library, I passed a young girl carrying about eight or 10 books as she walked to her car with her mother. The look of excitement on the girl’s face can only be compared to a child’s expression seeing presents under the Christmas tree. I did not recognize any elected officials at this event, which I thought ironic. The library is the busiest early voting site. Elected officials are always there to solicit votes during that period. Why not to lend support to the very same library users who cast ballots in their favor, especially considering what some of them had been saying about the library barely a few days earlier. 

On May 28, during a lengthy budget discussion at a County Commission workshop, two commissioners challenged the staffing requirements of the new Nexus Center library opening in December in Bunnell. One suggested construction could be halted. Another said she would not approve any new staffing and called for the demotion of the library director, who was also an assistant county administrator, as if she could perform all of the functions of the proposed staff additions. 

These were emotionally charged reactions borne of frustration and made without a thorough understanding of all of the details involved with library funding and staffing. Some context is helpful in better understanding this issue. 

In 2006, one year before I joined the Library Board of Trustees, the library had 21 full-time employees. In 2007, the state cut $225,000 in aid. Flagler County chose not to restore the lost funding. The library cut staff by four and shortened operating hours.

Not to be defeated, Library Director Holly Albanese researched and applied for the Flagler County Library to be a passport-application facility. She was successful. Working with a depleted staffing base, Albanese cross-trained employees to the standards required by the U.S. Department of State to manage the passport acceptance program. She launched the program to great acclaim. Our library system received a national award for innovation. 

The library has since raised more than $1.7 million from this service and is on track to hit the $2 million mark by the end of the next fiscal year. While most of the revenue generated by the passport program has been used for capital improvements, money is fungible, and that $2 million is equivalent to more than five years of the incremental staffing requirements of the new library.

In addition to creating this permanent revenue stream for the library, Director Albanese was asked to take on additional responsibilities involving special projects, legislative liaison and acting Human Resources Director. At least a full headcount was saved by Albanese’s assumption of those responsibilities, probably to the tune of at least $75,000 annually. That is DOGE before it became the acronym that it is today. And, a series of government grants flowed through to the county. It’s not just about Albanese. 

Let’s put library staffing in perspective. In order to staff the new library in Bunnell, the overall library system headcount will increase to 24 people. Recall that in 2006, it had 20 people.  Over a 20-year period, the county population increased by 84 percent–from 76,000 to 140,000, based on the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research figures.

County government staffing, not including law enforcement,  increased from 343 to 467 (in the coming budget), a 37 percent increase. Palm Coast government staffing increased from 395 to 590, a  49 percent increase. 

By December, library staffing will have increased by four people, or 20 percent. If there is another department in the county with that record of efficiency, we need to celebrate it. 

 Speaking of context, we need to recognize the fact that there are more than 56,000 active library cardholders in Flagler County, not including children whose books are checked out with their parents’ library card. Our measurement of library cardholders is purged annually to accurately reflect active use of the library. Those 56,000 library cardholders not only enjoy the services of the library, but as a group represent the most highly utilized service provided by the county. So, aren’t the efforts to hamstring the library really an affront to 56,000 library users?

 Back in 2006, the county had the Palm Coast library and a small, 3,000 square-foot satellite branch in Bunnell. In 2021, the Bunnell branch building was given back to the county to house SMA Family Access. The Bunnell branch was then shoehorned into an 1,100 square foot storefront on State Road 100. The facility is totally inadequate to carry on most library functions, but the move was made with the assurance that a new facility would be opened in Bunnell. So in the last 20 years, space available for library service was actually reduced by 1,900 square feet while the county grew by 64,000 residents.

 When the Nexus center finally opens this fall the county will have two library locations that can offer a full range of services. The new location was nine years in the making and saw the approval of many prior commissions, current and former county administrations and the continuous support of the library trustees and Friends of the Library. 

In neighboring counties, St. Johns has six library locations with two more under construction and plans for further expansion and creative use of county facilities to increase the number of locations to 10. Not so incidentally, St. Johns County year after year is by far the top-ranked school district in the state, by every measure, and has maintained an A rating for years. Flagler County has been a B-rated district in 11 of the last 12 years. 

Volusia County has 14 library locations. Even Putnam County, not known for being a wealthy area, has five library locations. The $500,000 construction grant the library qualified for on seven separate occasions was because the State of Florida deemed Flagler to be the neediest county in library services. It still is. 

Against this backdrop, attacking the coming opening of the Nexus Center and library is bewildering. It lacks understanding of what the library is all about. A disconnect between the current County Commission and the library board has not been helpful. 

The library is assigned a liaison and an alternate. For the past 10 years, Commissioners Sullivan and then Donald O’Brien regularly attended our monthly Library Trustee meetings. Both were champions of library services. Both have since stepped down from the Commission. (Sullivan is an appointed member of the Palm Coast City Council.) On Dec. 2, the commission named a new liaison and alternate. 

Five trustee meetings have been held. Neither has attended any of the meetings. We can operate quite effectively without a commissioner’s presence. But it is often helpful to obtain the perspective of a sitting commissioner. More importantly, that commissioner develops a better understanding of the library, and often a level of empathy for the work being done. A commissioner attending the trustee meetings would have been aware of the staffing requirement in the grant for the new library well before the May 28 commission workshop . Those details are covered by the library director during our meetings. [Correction: an earlier version of this article stated incorrectly that six trustee meetings had been held since December.] 

As an advisory board to the commission, the Flagler County Library Board of Trustees provides input on the annual budget of the library, including headcounts, services and library hours. The board also recommends that the commission adopt a library patron’s perspective by becoming more involved and better informed about the operation of the library. Here are some suggestions:

1. Respect the deliberations of former commissions and county administrations that saw the need to make improvements in library service and specifically to replace the obsolete Bunnell Branch with a facility that will meet the current and future needs of that area of the county.
2. Drop in on library trustee meetings and observe firsthand what is going on with the library and how it is managed.
3. If you don’t have a Flagler County library card, sign up for one. It’s free. Then come in and borrow a book. Check out the level of customer service at the circulation desk. Download an e-book. Check out the passport service you’ve heard so much about. Ask what’s involved with applying for a new passport, or renewing an expired one. Sit in on one of the many programs offered and see how library patrons enjoy them.
4. Be an ally for the 56,000 library patrons, not an opponent. Support ideas to improve library service rather than looking at it exclusively as a line item to reduce in the annual budget, as has happened off and on for the past 20 years. Consider joining the Friends of the Library.
5. Acknowledge those who are comfortable inside their cocoon of electronic devices, but recognize that a very large number of people enjoy the inviting, communal atmosphere of the library and its numerous periodicals and rich reference works even before borrowing books and other materials. Parents like to introduce their children to reading at an early age, attend programs to advance continued learning and interact face to face with others in the community.

I have full confidence that the library will do its best to maintain service levels within the constraints of the budget and that the current proposed operating restrictions are the best that could be crafted. But there will still be a reduction in service levels.

After the opening of the new library in December, the Palm Coast location will still contain more than 70 percent of the total library space in the county. Cutting staff and reducing operating hours by 23 percent is going to have a big, negative impact on service levels to Palm Coast residents. A working woman or man accustomed to going to the library after work, perhaps with their children in tow, may find the doors closed. Starting the week off with a Monday visit to the library will not be an option. Residents of the barrier island, having no local library service and unaware of the reduced operating hours, may make the trek only to find the library doors locked. Patrons accustomed to enjoying any of the fine programs the library offers may see some of them cancelled due to reduced staffing and operating hours.

 It should not have come to this. 

This a watershed moment for Flagler County. The county commission has a choice. It can champion this much-needed and long-overdue improvement in the quality of life for its residents as one of the most accessible and enriching community and cultural assets we can be proud of, and as an indispensable partner with Flagler County schools. Or it can go down the narrower path of limiting access to library service, and in so doing, limiting far more than just library services. 

We ask that you objectively examine all of the facts and choose wisely.

Jim Ulsamer, a Hammock resident, has been on the Library Board of Trustees since 2006, most of those years as chair.