By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
On Monday night in Ellis, a meeting to discuss a potential Ellis County library brought together more than 30 public leaders and sometimes featured heated exchanges.
Several Ellis representatives shared their concerns about changes they believe could lead to a loss of services and local representation.
The Ellis County Commission has taken steps to designate an Ellis County Library. The hope is that money going out of the county to a regional library system could be kept in Ellis County and distributed to the county's public and school libraries.
The change would also result in the creation of a local library board, which potentially could result in more local control of the funds.
In March, the Ellis County Commission voted to put the question of establishing and maintaining a county library before the rural voters of Ellis County on the Aug. 6 primary election ballot.
The county library would be an entity with a locally appointed board that could use Ellis County taxes to contract with Ellis County libraries for services.
Only voters in the rural portions of the county and Victoria would vote on the question. Residents of the city of Hays and Ellis already pay separate mill levies to support their city libraries.
The county commission's decision gives the Ellis City Council the option to present the question to voters who live inside the city limits and allow the Ellis Public Library to become part of the proposed Ellis County Library.
Currently, the taxes collected in rural Ellis County and within the city of Victoria, about $300,000, are distributed to the Central Kansas Library System, a regional library system based in Great Bend.
The Central Kansas Library System covers 17 counties in northcentral Kansas. The Hays and Ellis Public Libraries and the Ellis, Hays and Victoria school districts are a part of the system.
Although Ellis County has one of the larger populations in the system, it has limited representation on the Central Kansas Library System board.
At Monday’s meeting, 34 members of the Ellis County Commission, Ellis City Council, Ellis Public Library Board, Hays Public Library, and USD 388 Ellis School District met at the Ellis Knights of Columbus Hall in Ellis to discuss the proposal.
Gail Santy, Central Kansas Library System administrator, was also present at the meeting to answer questions.
Most of the questions during Monday’s almost one-hour and 30-minute meeting revolved around whether the Ellis Public Library would opt out of the Central Kansas Library System.
If the resolution is approved by voters, the process of creating a taxing district and the Ellis County Library, with a five-member board would begin. The taxes that are currently paid to the Central Kansas Library System would still be collected but would go to fund the Ellis County Library.
According to a memorandum of understanding presented to several members of the meeting, if the city of Ellis presented the question to voters and it was approved, the Ellis Public Library would be required to leave the Central Kansas Library System.
However, according to Ellis Public Library Board Chairperson Tracey Andrews, who presented the board’s list of what it considers important points to consider in making the decision, it is only up to the library board to decide whether they leave the Central Kansas Library System.
“The city commissioners cannot withdraw our board from CKLS,” Andrews said. “Only our board can withdraw us, and I can't speak for all of us, but I think we've kind of been in an agreement that we are not withdrawing from CKLS. It’s not anything that we want to do.”
If the Ellis voters were to get the chance to vote on the resolution and vote in favor of the change, Andrews said they believe some of the benefits would be the money staying local and a reduction in taxes for the city of Ellis. However, they also said losing funding from the Central Kansas Library System and the dissolving of their seven-member local board would be a negative.
The loss of what the Ellis Library Board considered local control was a big sticking point coming from the memorandum of understanding.
The memorandum of understanding would guarantee the city of Ellis one seat on the Ellis County Public Library Board.
“But it's one of the five, maybe two or five, not the majority,” Andrews said. “The board that you're looking at today will dissolve. We will not be here. We will not have a local voice, except that there are one or two people on that board.”
The five-member board would be appointed by the Ellis County Commission through a nominating process.
The board would be responsible for setting the tax levy and setting up the library services and contracts.
No residents from the city of Hays would be eligible to serve on the board because the Hays Public Library is funded by city of Hays taxpayers.
At Monday's meeting, it was pointed out that if Ellis voted to join the county library, Ellis residents could secure all five seats and control the entire library board.
The Hays Public Library, which serves a majority of Ellis County residents, has set itself up as a potential entity that would partner with the county library to provide services. The library would get a portion of the taxes collected in the rural area for providing those services.
That is something the Ellis Public Library could also do, Ellis County Commission Nathan Leiker confirmed at Monday’s meeting.
Ellis City Attorney Olavee Raub said while the Ellis Public Library Board members expressed concern that if Ellis voters approved the resolution, the library and all its assets would potentially have to be given to the city of Ellis, including the physical location, that is not the case.
Raub said even if the voters approve the county library, it does not consume the Ellis Public Library.
“The county library could be elsewhere. It could potentially be contracted with the city of Ellis to be placed in our facility,” Raub said, “but it doesn't necessarily have to be.”
“We as an entity (and) you as a library board don't have to agree to allow them to take over the Ellis Public Library,” Raub said. “Now, what does that look like? That's the real question.”
Hays Public Library Director Brandon Hines questioned how something like that would work. Because if Ellis elected to join the county library, the city of Ellis would be a part of that taxing district.
Raub said the city of Ellis would have to fund the library or they would have to apply for funding from the county library.
Leiker also stressed that the county library could be in a number of places.
“It would be a board that can be housed in pretty much any office, that would house it,” Leiker said. “It would contract to the CKLS, or Hays public or even Ellis Public Library Services.”
“So, it would be more or less be local control of the local dollars,” Leiker said. “It does not have to provide materials other than the contracts, so you can go into Ellis, Hays and wherever else and get your materials.”
So, if the Ellis Public Library and Ellis City Council elect to put the question before the voters, it does not mean that the city of Ellis and the Ellis Public Library are joining the Ellis County Library and leaving the CKLS.
Attendees at Monday’s meeting also raised concerned about the timeline of this process.
The Ellis Public Library board members said they were informed the Ellis County Commission was going to consider a vote on issue on March 4.
The Ellis County Commission approved the resolution on March 19.
No decision was made at Monday's meeting. The Ellis Public Library Board and the Ellis City Council have until the first week of May to decide if they want to present their voters with the same question to join the Ellis County Library.