Outstanding Winnebago County Agreement/Plan Issues

Issue #1: Disposition of 2005 Omro payments to Oshkosh Public Library

As you know, the City of Omro has decided to discontinue payments to Oshkosh Public Library for non-reciprocal borrowing for 2005. The Winneconne library continues to make their payments. At this point in time, Omro is in arrears for 3 payments for 2005 amounting to $7,745.83 of the $9,956.58 that they owe.

The current 2005 Winnebago County Library Service Agreement/Plan contains the following provision (Sec. 6d, p.6 of the 2005 Agreement):

6d. The funding sources for the net non-reciprocal transaction shall be the library's county reimbursement and/or local library budget funds. If these should prove insufficient, the System may be expected to make up the difference by utilizing the owing library's System Enrichment Grant or other System funds.

The final quarterly Winnebago County payment to Omro amounts to $13,621.75. Staff need to know whether the 4^th quarter payment to Omro should not be debited by the amount they are in arrears for non-reciprocal payments in accordance with the current County Agreement/Plan. Discussion. Action Requested: provide direction to staff on this issue.

Issue #2: Disposition of Sec. 6 (page 6) in the proposed 2006 Winnebago County Library Service Agreement/Plan

When the proposed Agreement/Plan for 2006 was taken to the Winnebago County Board’s Agriculture & Extension Committee, they were advised that since there was a mediation process planned to attempt to resolve non-reciprocal reimbursement issues between Omro and Oshkosh, that they should table action on the Agreement until we came back before the end of the year with a recommendation on that section. I’m in a quandary about how to proceed with the Agreement/Plan for 2006 and need your help. As of this moment, I would expect that most of the library directors in the county would prefer the language be deleted and that Oshkosh Public Library would not. If the language is removed, it does not preclude any library from attempting to charge another for non-reciprocal usage or from negotiating independently. The net effect is that any solutions will be piecemeal, may vary from library to library. I’m including a document prepared by Mark Arend which describes what is done in the rest of the state about non-reciprocal issues and what the trend appears to be. Discussion. Action Requested: decision on what to do about Sec. 6 in the 2006 Winnebago County Library Service Agreement/Plan.

Issue # 3: Winnebago County 2006 Funding

Tom Widener and Patrick Brennand (Winnebago County Supervisor from the OPL Board) introduced an amendment on the County Board floor to restore full funding for the Winnebago County libraries ($57,230). Thanks to them for their efforts on behalf of libraries. But, the amendment failed on a 22-7 vote (the voting record is attached for your information). Tom has suggested he may make another try with the County Executive to reintroduce the amendment, but they would need a 2/3 vote this time to prevail and lots of supervisors would have to be contacted to change their minds. Discussion. Action Requested: support an effort to obtain full funding?