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Commissioners decline to reopen Lexington Park library on Sundays; ask staff to align compensation decisions
Summary
Library trustees had closed Sunday hours in FY2012; commissioners indicated they would not approve restoring Sunday hours while neighboring counties do not offer them and reserved judgment on merit/step and health‑insurance allocations pending compensation discussions.
St. Mary’s County commissioners decided Monday not to reopen the Lexington Park branch of the county library on Sundays as part of the FY2013 budget, while leaving compensation‑related budget lines for later consideration.
Library staff requested $43,060 to reopen Lexington Park Library for four hours on Sundays and an additional $10,000 for materials to support Sunday operations. The library’s FY2013 total budget request was presented as $3,407,032, an increase over FY2012. The library materials also included personnel‑related increases (anticipated health insurance and step/merit and a 2% cost‑of‑living line) and a line for the employer share of state retirement (a potential pension cost shift dependent on state action).
Commissioners debated the Sunday‑hours request. Several members noted that neither Charles County nor Calvert County operates library Sunday hours and that other local library systems reported higher Sunday staffing costs when they previously offered it. Commissioner Lawrence Djarbo and Commissioner Cynthia L. Jones said they would not support restoring Sunday hours while nearby counties remain closed; Commissioner Daniel L. Morris likewise said he would not go along with reopening Sundays. The chair took the direction as the board’s position for the budget packet.
Commissioners left merit/step and health‑insurance cost items in the library request for further consideration and indicated these compensation matters would be addressed in the next day’s budget discussion of county compensation and sheriff’s department items. Library staff noted that pay and step proposals were included only if the county approved comparable compensation for county employees; the library aligns its merit and COLA requests with county decisions.
The board did not adopt a final appropriation for the library; commissioners instructed staff to reconcile the stipend and Sunday‑hours accounting lines and to report back at the follow‑up compensation session.
