Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Budget topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Carlsbad Library seeks two full‑time staff and expanded operating funds in FY 2025–26 budget request
Summary
Library staff presented the department's FY 2025–26 budget request, asking for two full‑time positions (a production technician and a genealogy/local history librarian), 3 paid interns (1.5 FTE), and additional operating funds for training and utilities. Staff also summarized non‑general fund support from donations and endowments.
Fiona Everett, senior management analyst for the library department, presented the Carlsbad Library and Cultural Arts department's finalized FY 2025–26 budget submission to the Library Board of Trustees on April 23.
Everett told trustees the department submitted a base maintenance-and-operations budget of $2,037,394 and asked for roughly $266,000 in new personnel funding and just under $200,000 in additional maintenance-and-operation funding. "We are requesting 2 additional full time staff in this budget submission, and we are requesting 1.5 part time new part time staff," Everett said.
The personnel requests are two full‑time positions — a production technician to support auditorium and event production and a librarian focused on genealogy and Carlsbad history — plus funding for three paid interns (presented as 1.5 part‑time FTE) to support digital initiatives, local history digitization and production work. Everett said staff are asking for an additional $25,000 annually for department-wide training and also requested supplemental funding to address sharply higher utility costs; Everett said heat, light and water expenses increased about 76% over five years and water nearly doubled.
Everett outlined non‑general‑fund revenue that supports library activities: the Friends of the Carlsbad Library annual gift (about $100,000), Friends of the Arts ($25,000–$35,000), and several endowments and donations. She provided specific recent gifts: a Falkenstein endowment of $861,000 for local history; a Sutton family gift of $50,000 to support community programming; a $100,000 gift from George and Constance Crowell for reading furniture and large‑print materials; and a $387,000 gift from the Gammon Trust to expand homebound services.
Everett also described federal and state grant programs the department tracks closely, noting that changes at the federal level could reduce state pass-through funding. She identified the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and state-administered programs — including adult and family literacy grants, California Revealed digitization funds, and consortium purchasing through Califa and the SARA Cooperative Library System — as possible points of impact if federal support changes.
Trustees asked clarifying questions about the liability and interdepartmental service costs that have driven some operating increases, the likely lifetime of newly purchased equipment (discussed earlier in the meeting), and recruiting for paid internships. Everett said the city spreads costs for risk management, vehicles and IT across departments; the library is seeking to restore training funding paused during the pandemic and to make progress on digitizing local history collections.
Everett noted two upcoming public budget milestones: the City Council presentation of preliminary budget requests on May 20 and a community budget workshop on May 22. Final budget adoption by the City Council is scheduled for mid‑June; Everett said she will report back to the trustees after those meetings.
