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Libraries FAQ 1
What is the relationship between the library board and the governing body? Who has authority over what?
This subject is covered extensively in
Libraries 47-R1 which was published as a legal comment in the February
2014 issue of the Municipality. For legal citations, please request
that legal comment. It can also be viewed on our web site for one year
after posting.
Library boards are established by
municipalities to administer municipal libraries. Questions often arise
concerning a library board’s powers in relation to the municipal
governing body.
State statutes give library boards a
higher degree of autonomy than most other boards and commissions. This
sometimes creates tension in the relationship between the governing body
and the library board. Some governing bodies have inquired whether the
municipality can assert greater control over the library board by
enacting a charter ordinance. While a governing body may be able to
adopt a charter ordinance asserting greater control over a municipal
library, the enactment of such a charter ordinance probably would lead
to a reduction or withdrawal of state aid or expulsion from a public
library system.
The establishment and operation of public
libraries is governed by ch. 43, Stats. The provisions most relevant to
municipal library boards are found in Wis. Stat. secs. 43.52 (municipal
libraries), 43.54 (municipal library board composition) and 43.58
(powers and duties of library boards).
Section 43.58 gives the library board
exclusive control of the expenditure of all moneys appropriated by the
governing body or donated to the library fund. This power of the
library board to control funds has been interpreted by the attorney
general to include the authority to contract for necessary goods and
services for the public library.
Although the library board has exclusive
control of the moneys appropriated for the library fund, the board does
not make actual disbursements from the appropriation. Rather, the board
audits and approves vouchers for expenditures and forwards these to the
municipal clerk, who follows the ordinary procedure for disbursing
municipal funds under sec. 66.0607 or 66.0609 if adopted.
Thus, under the scheme set out in the
statutes, the library board has control over the use of the money
appropriated to the fund, but it does not sign the checks or maintain
physical control over the actual dollars and cents appropriated to the
fund.
Library boards probably have disbursement
authority, however, with respect to donated funds held in trust by the
library board under sec. 43.58(7). The library board is authorized to
receive, manage and dispose of gifts and donations for library
purposes. When a gift or donation is made to a public library, library
board members are considered special trustees of such property. The
library board may pay or transfer the gift to the treasurer of the
municipality or county in which the public library is situated, may
entrust any funds therefrom to a public depository under ch. 34 or may
pay or transfer that gift ... to the library board’s financial secretary
or, if certain conditions are met, to a charitable 501(c)(3)
organization whose purpose is providing financial or material support to
the public library. The financial secretary may invest the funds as
provided in Wis. Stat. sec. 66.0603.
The League has interpreted the above
provisions to mean that if a library board deposits gifts it receives in
a public depository, the board may write checks disbursing such funds
on its own without involving the municipal clerk.
Section 43.58 also grants the library
board exclusive control and custody of all lands, buildings and other
property given or granted to, or otherwise acquired or leased by, the
municipality for library purposes.
The library board may, if authorized by
the governing body, have exclusive control over the purchase of a site
and the erection of a library building. Otherwise, the municipal
governing body, in the absence of a specific grant of authority to the
library board, has the sole right to purchase or acquire sites or erect
buildings for library purposes. However, in the case of a gift for a
library building, the library board has the exclusive right to select
and contract for the purchase of a site.
With respect to the library board's authority in the area of library employees, sec. 43.58(4) provides in part as follows:
[T]he library board
shall supervise the administration of the public library and shall
appoint a librarian, who shall appoint such other assistants and
employes as the library board deems necessary, and prescribe their
duties and compensation.
It is apparent from this that the library
board has control over the hiring, firing and fixing of wages of
library employees. Thus, we have concluded in the past that it is the
library board, not the municipality, which negotiates with a union
representing library employees. The Wisconsin Employment Relations
Commission has concluded similarly.
On the other hand, municipal governing
bodies retain some control over the number of library employees and
compensation paid to such employees by virtue of the fact that they
control the purse strings. Chances are good that a municipality's annual
appropriation constitutes a substantial portion of the library fund,
and probably is the main source for the payment of library salaries.
In years past, a municipality's ability
to control the number of library employees and their salary by a
reduction in funding was limited by a requirement in sec. 43.15(4)(c)5
to fund libraries at a level not lower than the average of the previous
three years in order to retain membership in a public library system and
remain eligible for state funding. See sec. 43.24(3). The “maintenance
of effort” requirement was repealed by 2011 Wis. Act 32, sec. 1173.
In addition, while it is clear that the
library board has control over the hiring, firing and compensation paid
to library employees, we have concluded in the past that library
employees are municipal employees and therefore subject to the same
terms or conditions of employment that apply to other municipal
employees.
Support for this conclusion exists in a
1939 attorney general opinion which concludes that library employees are
"municipal personnel" for purposes of the municipal civil service
system statute (then 66.019 but since renumbered to 66.0509). Further
support for this proposition can be found in the fact that the
legislature amended the statute after the attorney general's 1939
opinion to permit municipal governing bodies to exempt any librarians
and assistants from a municipal civil service system.
Relying on the above, we have opined that
a library board cannot enact a rule for library employees which is
inconsistent with the terms and conditions of employment established by
the governing body for all municipal employees. For example, in an
opinion written before the legislature limited municipal residency
requirements, we concluded that a municipal governing body’s enactment
of a residency requirement for municipal employees would apply to
library employees.
Likewise, we have concluded that library
employees are subject to the same rules concerning vacation schedules
that apply to other municipal employees. The basis for that conclusion
was that such regulations relate to the terms and conditions of
employment, as opposed to compensation levels, and therefore are outside
the purview of the library board. However, municipalities should be
aware that the State of Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
(DPI), Division of Libraries and Technology, takes the position that the
public library board determines the benefits for its employees and that
these benefits can be the same as, greater or less than, benefits
received by other municipal employees.
Although the governing body controls the
purse strings and the terms and conditions of employment for library
employees, municipal library boards have nearly autonomous powers with
respect to the operation and administration of municipal libraries.