Oakland Township, Rochester negotiate with library in an effort to retain services

ROCHESTER/ROCHESTER HILLS/OAKLAND TOWNSHIP — Oakland Township and Rochester are negotiating with the Rochester Hills Public Library for new contracts for services after voting against putting a library millage proposal increase on their ballots.

Library Director Juliane Morian said the costs to run the library have risen over the years, but the library’s millage rate has not changed since it was approved by voters in 1924.

When the library was first formed, the millage rate was set at 1 mill in perpetuity. However, the Headlee Amendment, which was introduced in the 1970s, places a constraint on how much a public entity can tax its residents so that the revenue earned from taxes cannot outpace inflation. It was designed to protect homeowners from steep tax increases due to market fluctuations.

In Rochester Hills, the 1 mill is currently levied at 0.73 mill due to the Headlee rollback — which Morian said amounts to approximately $3.2 million for the library. On Aug. 6, Rochester Hills voters approved an increase of 0.39 mill for 10 years. One mill is $1 per $1,000 of a home’s taxable value. The annual cost for a home with a market value of $300,000 — which typically would have a taxable value of $150,000 — is $109.50 per year for library service. Because the proposal passed, homeowners will pay an additional $58.50, for a total of $168 annually, according to the library’s website.

The millage increase will generate an additional $1,724,195 in funding for the library, allowing the materials budget to expand to over $1 million annually, with priority given to popular materials and e-books. Library officials said Sunday hours will be added year-round, program offerings will increase, building renovations will begin  — with the exploration of a possible new café — the building will obtain greater Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility, the roof will be replaced, the heating and cooling systems will be modernized, and new bookmobiles will be put into service for the 70-square-mile service area.

The library serves the residents of Rochester, Rochester Hills and Oakland Township. While all three municipalities pay tax money to operate the library, the communities of Rochester and Oakland Township do not have a vote on the library board, according to the charter, since they contract with the library for services.

In the two contract communities, Morian said, the annual payment adjusted for Headlee is also currently levied at less than a mill — 0.68 mill for Rochester, which amounts to nearly $610,000 from the general fund in Rochester, and 0.57 mill in Oakland Township, which provides over $1 million from the township, paid for via two millages.

“Part of our goal was to modernize our agreements and bring our rate for paying for operational services at the library into parity,” Morian said. “Now that the city of Rochester Hills has approved a 10-year increase in the amount of 0.39, that changes the amount of revenue that community is raising. The library board let both of our community partners know that if the millage was approved in Rochester Hills, a proportional ask would be made of each of the contract communities.”

However, the Rochester City Council and the Oakland Township library board each voted to not put the millage proposal on their primary or general election ballots.

In Rochester, Mayor Stuart Bikson said the city decided not to ask its residents for a millage increase because it funds the library services out of the city’s general fund.

“We are 100% pro-library. Our City Council wants to support the library,” said Bikson. “We’re going to work very hard to assure that we support our library and that our citizens can continue to use that library.”

As for the contract, Bikson said the city is currently negotiating with the library.

“There are details we need to work out, but I’m confident we are going to work it out. We support the library, and our citizens want to be there, but we want to look at the numbers and see how we work it out,” he said. “I am very confident we are going to work it out and keep our library access the same as it’s always been.”

In Oakland Township, Michael Tyler, the township library board’s former president, voted to put the millage question on the ballot, while board members Mark Gerhard, Marisa Kallie and Shirley Frazier voted against it. Board member Henry Carels, who also opposed the millage, was absent.

Kallie said she doesn’t see a significant financial need for additional revenues for the library. Frazier suggests allocating funds from the interest fund to support library projects as they arise, instead of an increase in the millage for the residents. Carels said he researched the library budget and had issues with slated expenditures being unnecessary and extravagant.

“We agree on 90% of things,” Gerhardt said of the township library board and the RHPL library board. “What it comes down to is there are a lot of questions about costs and expenditures — those need to be ironed out in an open forum. If they can’t, we’ll turn them over to the lawyers to do their thing.”

The contract between the township and the library expires March 31, 2025, while the contract between the library and Rochester expires June 31, 2025.

The library sent a letter to township residents notifying them they will lose library privileges on April 1, 2025, without a mechanism for meeting terms of the new contract.

The library also sent a letter to Rochester residents notifying them they will lose library privileges July 1, 2025, unless a new contract can be negotiated.

The letters, according to Morian, were “largely a technicality.”

“In order for us to propose a new library agreement, we had to give notice that we were ready to cancel the current agreement. But the letter is very quick to point out that this is a two-part process. One, get the technicality out of the way that we were ready to sunset the old agreement, and two, establish a new agreement moving forward.”

The library anticipates presenting new agreements to both Oakland Township and the city of Rochester by Nov. 8 — which, if passed, would go into effect Jan. 1, 2025.

The township’s library board is responsible for negotiating a new contract with the library. There are currently four active members — Carels, Gerhard, Kallie and Frazier. Andrew Parker resigned in June when he moved out of the township, and Tyler resigned in late September.

Gerhard was named the new township library board president, and since then, the township library trustees have allocated more than $47,000 to hire an attorney and a consultant, and to create a survey for residents regarding what library services they would like to see.

“The survey is, in our view, more important than ever right now,” Gerhard said.

“I think the people deserve to tell us what kind of library they want,” Carels added.

The responsibility of the township’s library board is to provide library services to its residents, Morian said.

“I don’t begrudge their desire to understand what we’re offering, as a provider of library services, but if they choose, they could contract through a different community. We would like to believe that our services are high-caliber and provide the best, most enriching library experience for the greater Rochester community, but their charge is to figure out with whom they should contract for library service.”

The township, she added, relies on both of the township’s library millages to provide the necessary revenue to fulfill the contract terms with the library. To keep things status quo, they would have to still renew the expiring mileage, separate from any talk of an increase.

“This is a very real and necessary thing that they need to consider doing,” Morian said.

“It would be a tremendous loss to the library, not only because of revenue, but also because we take great pride in serving the greater Rochester area. … My goal is that we reach a mutually agreeable contract that allows us to continue serving all of the greater Rochester area.”

Gerhard noted that the township library board continues to meet with the Rochester Hills Public Library board and has “no intention of breaking its relationship” with the library.

“I think we can come to an amenable agreement with them. I’m very confident it’s going to happen before their stated Nov. 8 deadline for doing that. I think this will be in motion this month at some point, and I think we’re going to be in good shape. There’s no animosity there,” he said. “Rest assured the library is not going away, so if you’re reading the Nextdoor, Facebook, or whatever social media craziness out there, just know that that is absolutely not true.”

On Nov. 5, 11 candidates are running for the township library board’s six open seats — including Carels, Gerhard, Frazier, Kallie, Tyler, Jim Kiefer, Heidi Miller, Kathy Pritchard, Kristin Syverson, Margaret Willard-Traub and David Youngman.  However, the only name that will appear on the ballot is Jim Kiefer.

The Oakland County Clerk ruled Frazier, Kallie, Parker, Tyler, and two other candidates disqualified from appearing as library board candidates on the November general election ballot due to an oversight on the affidavit of identity form that each submitted. The law in question is an amendment to 1954 Public Act 116, section 558, which states that an affidavit of identity must contain the date of the election in which the candidate wishes to appear on the ballot, but the amendment does not give provisions for library boards, which could potentially appear on the primary or the general election. The amendment was signed into law in 2021. Officials said candidates for library board in several other townships were similarly disqualified and must run as write-in candidates in the Nov. 8 election.

For more information, visit www.rhpl.com.