County Library

There is of course no county library system currently, but if the municipality of Greensboro wishes to continue operating a public library with funds from Guilford County then oversight of this system by the county should be seriously considered. Citizens of Guilford County who do not live in the city of Greensboro should not be forced to fund a public entity over which they have no control over. (See my position on Governance.) While day-to-day operations of the library system could remain under current management, transfer to county control would lend itself to making changes in the system, which could improve the cost/benefits ratio for all taxpayers.

The decision should be made well before the election this fall, but if I were currently on the board, I would recommend that the City of Greensboro pursue one of two options:

1) Charge a fee to non-city residents using the system.

2) Fund the next 9 months in the budget calendar with city tax dollars and the final 3 months with county tax dollars, with the stipulation on the use of county funds being that control and costs of the library system would be transfer to the county over this 12 month budget calendar period. A year to affect this transfer of responsibility and authority is a reasonable period of time for an $8 million dollar a year operation.