By Nathan Prewett
LEEDS – The issue regarding the Leeds Jane Culbreth Library’s budget was brought up again at a March 7 meeting of the Leeds City Council following a previous meeting where Director Melanie Carden’s proposal to allocate funds to the library was rejected.
Former Susan Carswell addresses the Leeds City Council on March 7. (Photo by Nathan Prewett)
At the last meeting, Carden proposed that the council allocate funds not to exceed $200,000 to the library’s budget, which was cut during the pandemic. In her proposal, Carden said that the funds would allow the library to resume programs certain services and compensate employees who were affected by the cut.
Councilwoman DeVoris Ragland-Pierce supported the proposal, but it was not seconded, so the resolution failed to pass. Other council members cited the feasibility of allocating from the general budget, money owed from the library board, and the current payroll of employees as reasons for not passing the resolution.
Miller started by saying that the previous administration under former mayor Eric Patterson with former council member Susan Carswell “literally overnight” formed a new, separate library board and written the library a $1 million check.
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Miller said that the money was taken away before former councilman Johnny Kile, in response, sued in a circuit court. According to Miller, the judge ruled that the money transfer was illegal and ordered the funds to be returned to the city, even saying that all recipients were possibly criminally liable.
“We did not take the million dollars from the library,” Miller said. “The judge ordered it.”
He addressed a second point that when former library director Mondretta Williams retired, the board told the city that it did not have the authority to select a new librarian once the process was starting. Similarly, he said that the board told them that they didn’t have the authority to set librarian pay.
However, after research from a legal team, it was found that the library was a city department with librarians being employees of the city, Miller told the public. He then read a list of salary rates for the librarians and their assistants ranging from more than $68,000 to $35,000.
He also said an audit financial record showed that the city had supported the library with an estimated $400,000 – $500,000 each year. According to Miller, a process was started to determine budget cuts during the pandemic, during which he said that the library was being overfunded “in a major way” compared to other city libraries.
In the next point, Miller said that Carden was offered help by providing volunteers with her turning it down, allegedly stating that she would not accept volunteers while the library was understaffed and underfunded.
He then said that Carden and an assistant stated that the library would cut programs if the requested funds were not allocated, which he said was “not so” with all programs being funded in the budget provided to the director.
“The director’s own budget request specifically states that the requested $205,000 would be spent on personnel expenses, not on programs,” he read. “Yet she took the action of cutting the funded programs and falsely telling the public that the library could not provide these programs due to being understaffed and underfunded.”
Afterward, he claimed that Carden went over budget by an estimated $60,000 on the 2021 personnel budget. She presented to the finance committed approximately $37,000 in unpaid and overdue invoices during the finalizing of the fiscal year 2022 budget, which caused a deficit of $97,000.
Additionally, there was no funding for an employee that he said was hired without the city’s approval. Among the final points in his remarks were a 13 1/2 % salary increase for employees as well as a $25,000 check from the board of education that he said was not reported to the city as required by state law.
He concluded that there was a “campaign of misinformation” regarding the city’s situation with the library “in order to coerce this city into providing a massive budget increase to cover mismanagement of funds.”
He followed by stating that a meeting will be held to discuss the library’s practices and city policies and that “all programs were funded and are now funded shall be restored immediately.”
Carden asked if she could speak but was disallowed by Miller, telling her that her comments would be heard elsewhere.
Miller’s remarks were met with disagreement from several people who spoke during public comments. The first was from Carswell, who addressed the Patterson administration’s actions, saying that they voted to form a library building authority over the course of two meetings and that the members were voted on “properly.”
She then said that they voted to approve $1 million to be in the control of the building authority with a clause requiring five days for the check to be transferred. But a city employee transferred the money ahead of the required time, she stated, which left a loophole for Kile to file suit so that the city could take the money back.
“It was very planned and orchestrated,” she said, adding that “there was nothing illegal about any of the actions that we as a council took. The action that was done incorrectly was the transfer of funds for the five-day waiting period.”
There was then an exchange between her and Miller in which Carswell brought up the salaries of other city employees versus the library staff. A second speaker was Amy Shorter, who said that she makes $29,000 per year, contradicting a report saying she makes $40,000. She then said that the council had the wrong information on their payments.
Others spoke, including Tina McDonald, who questioned Miller on the budget process, believing there was a discrepancy between what the city has a budget for and what is given out. She criticized the way the city was handling budget expenses.
Carden declined to comment on the matter.
Meetings are held on the first and third Mondays of every month at City Hall on 1400 9th Street Northeast. Agenda packets can be seen online at the City of Leeds website.
