Even in a largely routine meeting on March 23, the West Florida Library Board of Governance signaled that the system is moving through a period of change.
- Background: The West Florida Public Libraries Board of Governance consists of five members appointed by the Escambia County Board of County Commissioners (three members), the Council of the City of Pensacola (one member) and the Mayor of Pensacola (one member).
Clearing the Air
With Christal Bell-Rivera stepping into the role of library director, much of the discussion focused on what comes next for the library system. During the meeting, board members emphasized the importance of longer-term planning, staff input, and giving individual branches more say in what programming and services work best for their particular communities.
Though the Board of Governance recommended two other candidates over her for the position, board chair Kenneth “Blaine” Wall told Bell-Rivera, “We want to see you be successful, but it’s your success, the library’s success, and the community’s success.”
- More Background: In early March, the Escambia Board of County Commissioners approved, 4-1, County Administrator Wes Moreno’s selection of Christal Bell-Rivera as the county’s library services director over Bradley Vinson and Chris Hare. Read more..
Operational Updates
At the March 26 meeting, Bell-Rivera shared several operational updates. The Molino branch is currently being used as a testing site for patron credit card payments, and the program could expand to other locations if successful.
- The system is working through several financial and infrastructure challenges. A significant portion of funding is currently being directed towards information technology, including the replacement of computers and laptops over 10 years old.
- The board discussed how the library system had previously been unable to collect certain fees during a system transition, which were ultimately written off.
Budget discussions showed how complicated the library’s funding really is. The county handles most of the day-to-day operations, while the city owns several of the buildings and covers larger repairs once they pass a certain cost. However, funding is limited and gets used up quickly across multiple locations.
Even within these constraints, the library system continues to look ahead. The board discussed increasing investment in digital resources, such as audiobooks. Branch-level programming is expanding, with ideas such as a possible ballroom-dancing program at the Brownsville library.
While the meeting itself was relatively quiet, it reflected a library system balancing day-to-day operations with larger changes in leadership, funding and community engagement.
Megan Bryant covered the meeting for Inweekly.
Above we read, “Budget discussions showed how complicated the library’s funding really is.” I was there. In truth, much of the budget “complication” seems self-inflicted. In spite of Director Bell-Rivera’s boastful resume claims of having overseen big budgets with the Division of Motorist Services and the Library, she continues to struggle to answer even simple questions and routinely mangles basic budget language such as always saying “physical year” in place of “fiscal year.” On March 23rd, she persistently seemed to hesitate to answer simple budget questions asked by Chairman Wall. The easiest softball question asked by Wall was the percentage/amount of property tax paid by city property owners to fund the library system. I could almost see the gears grinding in the mind of Bell-Rivera and I imagine she wanted to ask, “Can I call a friend?” Instead, she answered, “I’ll have to get back to you on that.” I was present in 2012 and 2013 during the transition. The intent then was to use the library property tax to pay for library facility maintenance and capital improvements. To hear Bell-Rivera now describe how the money is being spent or misspent, something does seem very much amiss. Pensacola should review the original Interlocal Agreement and amendments and audit how the money has been spent. Also, Bell-Rivera described that library money is being used to pay the salaries of county staff. If true, perhaps a better approach would be to transfer the library-funded positions from the county to the library where the library board can provide oversight. Since FY2013/2014, the library has been funded outside of the county’s general fund using a dedicated Library Municipal Services Taxing Unit (MSTU). The amount taxed has greatly increased from $4.8 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2013/2014 to $12.3 million in FY 2025/2026. On March 23rd, Bell-Rivera said Escambia County uses the zero-based budgeting method, a point she also made during her in-person interview on February 20. If true, its hard to see how the Brownsville Library survives the next budget axe. Every time I have been there the staff outnumber the users. According to Bell-Rivera, its non-librarian branch manager has now asked for money to hold ballroom dance classes, in a mostly bookless facility just across the parking lot from the Brownsville Community Center. Something is very wrong. Bell-Rivera also said she hired a “senior librarian” at the downtown librarian. To do what? If the library board is responsible for the budget, did it know about the new hire? Also, Wall expressed concern about two vacant board seats that should have been filled in February. Bell-Rivera said that “she” has sent the agenda item to County Administrator Moreno but he has yet to approve it. Approve what? That makes no sense. The names and resumes should have been sent to the BCC in February so they could pick two. It’s all pretty crazy. The case for the city terminating the interlocal agreement just gets stronger and stronger.