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Library board asks Morris City Council for $24,233 to cover legal fees and avert circulation cuts
Summary
Melanie Fo, chair of the Morris Public Library Board, asked the council for $24,233 to balance the library’s 2026 budget after nearly $30,000 in legal fees were charged to library funds and a wage study raised personnel costs, leaving a $48,155 shortfall.
Melanie Fo, chair of the Morris Public Library Board, told the Morris City Council on Aug. 26 that the library faces a budget shortfall caused mainly by legal fees charged to the library’s operating fund and increases from a recent wage study.
Fo said legal fees are “nearly $30,000 and rising,” and that the library has reduced discretionary spending, including circulation lines, to try to absorb the cost. She told the council the library’s wages and benefits increased by $75,585 after the city wage compensation study, while the additional income allocated to the library was only $27,430, leaving a $48,155 gap. To balance the library’s operating budget for 2026, the library board requests $24,233 from the council.
“We asked that the city provide the $24,233 necessary to balance our budget for 2026,” Fo said. She emphasized the library’s community role, noting roughly 900 participants in summer activities and that non-personnel budgets had grown only about 6 percent since 2019 — well below inflation.
Council members acknowledged the request and thanked Fo for the written backup she provided; no decision on the request was recorded at the meeting.
