In January 2015, a new Executive Committee was voted in at the Kennett Public Library Board of Trustees. This team agreed to the following strategy: Expand literacy, balance budgets, work with total transparency

We have been working since January to change our budgeting in order to reflect “best practices” for nonprofits of our size. We have begun to provide comprehensive financial data to the library’s various stakeholders, including providing quarterly financial statements to the public and our township and borough supervisors, publish our budget on our website, and soon plan to provide an annual report to all of our donors and the public at large. All of this was done while simultaneously developing a new strategic plan with staff, boar, and community input (“Vision 2020”), completing a library makeover and rebranding campaign, hiring a development director, and contracting for a website overhaul.

The annual operating budget for the library is roughly $750,000, slightly over half of which comes from the financial support of six of the seven townships we serve and the Borough of Kennett Square. In our annual budgeting, we also draw funds from specific investment accounts as needed. This is allowed based upon the various donor-specific restrictions placed on these accounts, which is specified in our bylaws. As of June 30, 2015, the investment account totaled $2,931,356 and is divided into four separate accounts: investment, restricted, Exelon and McMullan.

The fund balances of each of these accounts as of June 30 are as follows: investment, $1,664,542; restricted, $808,438; Exelon, $100,937; and McMullan, $357,439. According to our bylaws, “The principal of the ‘investment’ account may be used for capital expenditures in support of the library. The income of this account may be used to support the operations of the library. The ‘restricted’ account is comprised of gifts (other than those given by Exelon) to be used for building a new library. The ‘Exelon’ account is to preserve principal and to provide a separate accounting of the value of these monies. Both principal and interest are restricted to the building of a new library. The ‘McMullan’ account is to provide operational support to the library from the income earned by the principal.”

In early 2014, two library board members resigned. They had both been working diligently to change the operating practices of the board but quit in frustration over the seeming inability to make these needed changes. Since the new board leadership took over in January 2015, three board members have resigned.  The previous board president resigned at our April meeting after which we received a letter of resignation from three additional board members. It was later determined and confirmed, however, that one of the three board members who wrote the letter of resignation never resigned and that the other two board members – one of whom was a Kennett Township appointed representative – had signed this board member’s name without his knowledge or permission.   So yes, we have lost a total of five board members in two years, not 10 as Scudder Stevens has claimed.

The name change from Bayard Taylor Library to Kennett Public Library, completed in April, was a staff-driven initiative and was decided after receiving input from many of our customers. We realize that some members of the community are unhappy with this decision. Although we felt it was well-researched, we acknowledge in retrospect that we should have done a better job communicating this decision to our various stakeholders and should have included wider public discussion in this decision. For this we apologize.

In May 2015, the KPL Board was asked to meet with Kennett Township and borough officials to again discuss the possibility of keeping the library in the borough. (The library had voted a little over a year ago to build at the Waywood Road property purchased 12 years prior). Over the course of these two meetings, the borough team, led by Joey Scalese and Leon Spencer, were clearly trying to get the library to a win-win solution. The township team seemed to have a different agenda, which became clear when the President Scudder Stevens said, “I have some people who are going to drop an atomic bomb on you.” This statement was heard by several people at that meeting and can be confirmed. Scudder Stevens also stated that he did not want the library in Kennett Township.

Despite claims to the contrary by Scudder Stevens, the library board members who were at these two meetings with borough and Kennett Township representatives never promised to commit to moving to the borough. What they did promise was to approach the library board to open up discussions (once again) of staying in the borough, which is exactly what was done at our June 16 KPL Board meeting in executive session.  This real estate discussion was also the only time we have used executive session, as allowed by our by-laws, since the new board leadership began in January.

As a result of that board meeting, a written request from the library board to Kennett Borough Council for a formal offer of moving to the borough was sent within 48 hours, on June 18. Since that time, we have been in constant productive communication with the borough leadership about building a new library in the borough.

At the July 15 Kennett Township meeting, Supervisors' Chairman Scudder Stevens  read a four-page, single-spaced statement about the library and the board that was full of wrong/false/twisted versions of real events and actions. The library director and three other board members who were in attendance that night – the president, treasurer, and chair of our Board Development Committee – had come to welcome the two new Kennett Township representatives who were being voted on that night and had no idea that such a statement full of false charges would be read. As a result, they had no prepared statement to read and thus did their best to respond “on their feet” to his statement. What follows is our board’s opportunity to respond in more detail to his charges.

Mr. Stevens claimed that the board is not financially transparent and that we did not have “up-to-date financial records” and that “members of the township volunteer staff with significant accounting and financial acumen requested whatever could be generated. . . . after four efforts, documents were produced by the treasurer that appeared to meet standard accounting requirements.” The library director received a letter from the Kennett Township manager on June 4 requesting a number of financial documents within 15 days. All of the requested documents and some additional ones were sent via email from our treasurer on June 14. Kennett Township has had all of these documents since June 14 and yet not a single request for additional information was made until these charges were levied at the July 15 meeting. At the township meeting, Mr. Stevens also asks for details about the library’s investment accounts, the answers to which were in the documents that were sent him, leading the treasurer to believe that he had not even read them.

Mr. Stevens also claimed in his statement “the library board created a formula for ‘fair share’ and then manipulated its by-laws to control under what circumstances municipalities can appoint board members.” First, the fair share formula was developed long before the tenure of everyone on the current library board and was developed jointly by both the library and the townships we serve. The current library leadership has explicitly and meticulously followed our by-laws.  We are actively seeking at-large representatives from Pocopson Township, we recently elected a representative from Kennett Borough, and although we cannot change our bylaws overnight, we will be working to review, update, and revise them in terms of the requirements for appointed representatives on our board.

Mr. Stevens also claimed that the library is miscalculating the number of patrons served in our programs, saying he has learned that “those numbers may be misleading. I am advised that students are counted both coming into the library and leaving.” Director Donna Murray responded to this charge at the meeting and in the following statement: “The charges that I am inflating the number of visitors to the library and the program attendance numbers are completely made up. I am troubled, disappointed, and surprised that someone in an official capacity would feel free to criticize the library so severely, and to personally attack my professionalism, integrity, and competence with these false charges in a public forum, without making a single attempt to determine whether there was any truth whatsoever to those charges.” She then explained, “Visitors to the library are counted electronically; there is a device at the front door installed and maintained by Chester County Library System technicians. Program attendance is charted by staff members who run a class or event, according to guidelines set by the county library system and compiled monthly.”

At that meeting Stevens also claimed that the library board told “the world” that 100 parking spaces for a new library are “mandated by state requirements for grants and funding.” One hundred parking spaces refers to the recommended number of spots for a new library of our ideal size of 22,000 square feet.  We also realize that this number would not be achieved if we build in the borough. However, there are many good reasons to build in the borough, and we realize that if we do so, then this would warrant a compromise on the number of parking spots needed.

Scudder Stevens also said, “If the library refuses to seat the two representatives of Kennett Township to be appointed to serve on this board, the consequences will be significant to the library board.” We would remind him that the library director and three other board members were at the Kennett Township meeting that night to meet and welcome the two new KT representatives.

Also at their July 15 Kennett Township meeting, a majority of the Kennett Township Supervisors voted to remove one of their appointed library board representatives. It is true that she had initially informed the supervisors that she was planning on a career-related move and thus would be stepping down from the board. However,  upon later informing them that her plans had changed and that she very much wanted to continue representing Kennett Township on the board, the supervisors instead voted two weeks later to remove her. This board member is a very prominent Latina in our community and represents the heritage of 55 percent of our customers who visit KPL. Our board will vote at our Tuesday, July 21, meeting to reinstate her as a “member at large” on our board. Indeed, one of the 14 goals of the library board this year is to build board diversity. We firmly believe that a more diverse board makes better decisions and better reflects the community we serve. To this end, we recently elected another prominent Latina and are looking to further diversify our board in the upcoming year.

In closing, the KPL we would like to make the following statement:

1) We are not perfect. We are volunteers. But we are a group of working professionals – many of whom are long-term residents in this area – qualified to provide oversight and support in the running of the library.

2) Our agenda and priorities have never changed - see above.

3) We have no personal financial interest in the library, although many of us have given to recent fundraising campaigns, all our children have used the library’s services, we work hard to insure the library’s financial viability, and we know the valuable resource it provides to our community.

We thank the public for your support, and the Borough of Kennett for your flexibility. We refute EVERY single claim made by Scudder Stevens at the July 15 Township meeting - they were all wrong/ false/twisted versions of real events. All the meetings we held were minuted, and we have copies. We are very disappointed with the current Kennett Township leadership and hope that our efforts to share the true story will bring an end to the misinformation that has been spread.

Kennett Public Library Board of Trustees