By JOSEPH KELLARD and JUDY RATTNER
, the Rockville Centre Library's Board of Trustees adopted a resolution to oppose the plan. At its meeting on Sept. 19, the library board unanimously adopted a resolution stating, in part, that it "was more than willing to cooperate with initiatives to make us more efficient, as long as it's not at the expense of local control."
Library boards in other towns across Nassau County have passed similar resolutions in response to Suozzi's proposal, which follows the lead of Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who wants local governments to consider consolidating services - including water, parks, roads, sanitation, fire departments and libraries - to reduce the property-tax burden on residents.
Suozzi has awarded contracts to two firms - Public Financial Management, in partnership with the Center for Governmental Research and Hofstra University's Center for Suburban Studies; and Malcolm Pirnie, an environmental engineering and consulting firm - to develop proposals in four service areas: school business functions, parks, road maintenance and libraries.
A consolidated library system would likely be run by a central, appointed board rather than elected local trustees, and individual budgets would be allocated at the county level. The idea is to eliminate duplication of services and thereby reduce residents' taxes.
"We are exploring the possibility of creating a centralized, countywide public library district that would have the taxing authority to replace the current decentralized taxing system, and would serve all county residents," Suozzi said at a recent Long Island meeting of the New York State Commission on Local Government Efficiency & Competitiveness. "We could provide expanded service, and I believe it'll save a bundle."
For the past several years, the library in Rockville Centre and those in most other towns have shared many services through the Nassau Library System, including a common automation system, online data bases, and an interloan and delivery system. These are among the services that some people believe would be compromised under a consolidated system.
"We have been discussing this quite a bit since it's come up," said Eileen Burke Bucaria, president of the Rockville Centre Library Board of Trustees. "What troubles me about the plan is that it seems to look at libraries in almost a cookie cutter fashion. Libraries aren't a one-size-fits-all, communities aren't a one-size-fits-all. As a board, we are community members and taxpayers, and we always try to be fiscally responsible in our budgets. I think we also have a sense of what our Rockville Centre community expects and deserves from library services.
"I guess my fear is if [libraries are] consolidated and centralized, individual knowledge of a community's needs will be lost," Bucaria added. "The budgets are a relatively small portion of the tax bill, and I think that consolidation would not provide the tax relief that supporters of this program are promising. We are about as close to pure democracy as you can get. People vote for us and then see us at the store or on the soccer field and turn to us and complain about late fees, or a program they'd like. Under consolidation, that closeness would be lost. I know of no one in the library field or the local schools who supports this. The only supporters seem to be state or county agencies."
Echoing those sentiments, library Director Maureen Chiofalo said, "The public libraries in Nassau County are one of the few places where taxpayers have local control of what happens in the libraries because they vote for trustees in elections, they vote on the budget and they have a real democratic say in the libraries' affairs. The county hasn't shown that its taking over would be better for the average citizen. It's so complicated, it's very difficult to see how they would do it, as we are highly regulated by the New York State Department of Education.
"We feel that local control is essential to meet the needs of the community we serve," Chiofalo continued. "Under the proposed plan, which has few specifics, the programs and services that we offer the community might no longer be under our control.
"We don't want to end up like Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens: When there's a budget crunch, we're the first ones to get axed. We have local control - this is where people can say what they want and how they want to do it. To give up your control of something as important as a library ... it's questionable."
"The question of county consolidation of local library services has been an issue of grave concern among village officials all over Nassau County," Village Trustee Jeanne Mulry, the village board's new liaison to the library, said in a prepared statement. "In fact, at [Tuesday's] meeting of the Southwest Nassau Village Officials association, the topic of local library consolidation is number two on the agenda. At a recent meeting of the Nassau County Village Officials Association, which I attended, county consolidation in general [was] greeted with healthy skepticism.
"As a resident of Rockville Centre, I agree with this skepticism," Mulry continued. "Our library, through the hard work of an excellent staff, and under local control, has become a premier library in the county. [It] offers many services to our residents at a very controlled cost. This would not be a positive result for the residents of Rockville Centre."
"I don't support it," Nassau County legislator Joseph Scannell (D-Baldwin) said of the consolidation idea. "People in Rockville Centre know what's best for their community. Libraries are unique places, so much more than just books, and they're special to each community."
Arda Nazerian, Suozzi's senior policy adviser and the coordinator of the consolidation efforts, said that Suozzi is concerned about how consolidation might affect services. "He's been very clear that if you can't leave the service level the same or improve it, then it doesn't make sense to proceed," Nazerian said. "And Nassau Library Systems is a terrific organization. It might make sense to empower them more so the business aspect of the library is more centralized."
Nazerian said she has received calls from residents, librarians and library staff. "There's a lot of misinformation out there, a lot of panic and concern," she said. "We're at the early stages of studying all of this; it needs to be quantified and analyzed. There will be local input before any decisions are made."
Suozzi said that consultants must still determine how much money consolidation would save taxpayers, but he is also looking into reducing the school tax burden by consolidating business functions.
County officials were scheduled to meet with library trustees from across the
county on Tuesday.
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
