[Michlib-l] Budget Approval Process

[Library Director]

Hi Sharon,

Hillsdale Community Library is a PA 164 as well and in regards to everything finance, I handle the first admin type half and then the actual finance department handles all of the bank end of things.

Our budget is set by myself in steps from Feb-April and then my board and I confer at our annual meeting, also in April. There is public comment available at our library board meeting.

After the library and finance confirm everything in April, the finance dept. prepares a presentation pie chart breakdown for our city council. The director has to then confirm and defend if necessary the budget in front of city council. Council can ask questions if necessary. During public comment people could ask questions as well. However if a public comment question is directed at me, I address it at the next library board meeting as an official response.

Each departments budget has to go to council to be verified and reviewed as they are our additional governing board. Then after that presentation, it isn't actually accepted/approved as the next FY budget until a May meeting. Between councils April meeting and the May meeting, changes CAN be made but only by budget amendments via council. Luckily one of our board members is a council member as well and can handle those essentially on my behalf. I don't think our council here would make amendments without our knowledge/request. I would hope they know that's a risky choice to do! It would show up on our monthly financial reports with which could garner backlash from us and our loving patrons.

Last bit I wanted to say is that our budget is the smallest in the city, and in a sense our revenues and expenditures aren't alarming/eye raising. We receive our yearly taxes, state aid, and monies from in house fees which isn't netting a huge amount more than our expenditures. Could council make adjustments? Sure. But we do get the money anyway and we have no outstanding debt or loans to consider. I would assume our council here just has larger fish to fry.

Hopefully any of this made sense, but feel free to reach out if you have any more questions! :)

Best,
[cid:image001.png at 01DAECB9.66DB8BA0]

From: Michlib-l [mailto:michlib-l-bounces at mcls.org] On Behalf Of Sharon Crotser-Toy via Michlib-l
Sent: Monday, August 12, 2024 12:24 PM
To: michlib-l at mcls.org
Subject: [Michlib-l] Budget Approval Process

Greetings, all!

We are a PA 164 city library. As a branch of city government, is public notification/comment a required piece of our budget approval process? We've done this in the past but the process is so much more under the control of the city, changes are sometimes made after our board has approved the library's budget.

Can anyone shed more light on the process, how it is handled by your library and municipality if you are a city library?

Any help will be greatly appreciated, as well as your time to offer it!

Thanks,
Sharon


Sharon CrotserToy
Director
St. Ignace Public Library
110 West Spruce Street
St. Ignace, MI 49781
(906) 643-8318


CAUTION: This email originated from outside the organization.  Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This communication and any attachments may contain confidential and privileged information for the use of the designated recipient named above. If you are not the designated recipient, an employee, or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you have received this communication in error and that any review, disclosure, dissemination, distribution, or copying of it or its contents is strictly prohibited. If you receive this communication in error, please destroy all copies of this communication and any attachments and notify the sender immediately via phone, fax, or electronic mail. Thank you.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail3.mcls.org/pipermail/michlib-l/attachments/20240812/502f738c/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 34766 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://mail3.mcls.org/pipermail/michlib-l/attachments/20240812/502f738c/attachment.png>