Short Answer: The City of Ferndale collects taxes from its residents and distributes to the agencies to which tax funding is owed.

Long Answer: For efficiency. To prevent residents receiving and having to pay separate tax bills to multiple individual agencies, the city collects all municipal taxes paid by its residents, regardless of which agency those taxes fund. The city then distributes the collected funds to the respective agencies. The library is one of those agencies.

Short Answer: 95% of the library’s budget comes from the current millage, which is set to expire June 30, 2027.

Long Answer: The breakdown below doesn’t change very much from year to year. For the current fiscal year, the breakdown of revenue is:

• 95.1% of funding is from the library millage

• 2.7% is state aid in the form of direct state aid from the Library of Michigan and through the small business taxpayer exemption (SBTE) reimbursements

• 1.7% collected fines and fees, including non-resident card fees and fines for replacing lost items

• 0.3% is federal aid, in the form of the e-rate program

• 0.2% is direct donations and honorariums.

Short Answer: The Ferndale Library cannot function after June 30, 2027, without a new operating millage in effect. We will ask again if the ballot measure fails in August 2026.

Long Answer: If the operational millage does not pass, the library has two more chances to ask again for an approved operating millage. Same with the capital millage.

If the operating millage does pass, but the capital millage does not, the library will have to make some very hard decisions about how to keep the building functional and safe without sufficient funds to continue the current levels of hours, services, and staffing. To afford to maintain the building, they will consider:

• Reduced hours: the library is currently open 7 days a week; if the millage(s) doesn’t pass, it will be open fewer days a week and/or hours may be reduced. 

• Halted programs: right now the library offers dozens of free programs, many of which patrons have asked for and/or have come to expect; if the millage(s) doesn’t pass, the library will significantly reduce the amount of programs offered and/or charge folks to attend them.

• Subscriptions: the library offers various digital subscriptions for free; if the millage(s) doesn’t pass, these will be canceled

• HVAC: the HVAC system is working currently but is being maintained by band aid repairs; if the capital millage doesn’t pass, the library will close when the HVAC is not able to keep the building between 68-76 degrees.*
  

*Michigan building code requires that public buildings be at least 68 degrees to be open to the public; there isn’t a high temperature cut off, but the hottest the building has been tolerable has been 76 degrees.

Short Answer: Headlee rollbacks have required the library to levy less than what voters approved last millage cycle – voters approved 3.5 mills, but we are currently levying 2.7 mills.

The increase in voted millages from what was approved by voters in 2016 to the total the library is asking for today (from 3.5 to 3.81 mills) is 8% if both millages are approved.

Most expenses have increased significantly (more than 8%) over the past 10 years, and some expenses we have now didn’t exist in 2016 (including all free digital resources).

Long Answer: In 2016, Ferndale voters approved 3.5 mills for library operations over the next 10-years. The money from that millage expires June 30, 2027. At that point, 95% of the library’s income effectively stops. The plan all along was to reassess and come back to voters in 2026/27 to ask for renewal or restoration of those funds. While the 2016/17 millage proposal took into account the bond payment for the building, it did not seek to cover implications of an aging building and systems in that millage – that’s what would be addressed with the .5 mills capital millage.

The proposed operational millage is asking to renew 3.31 of the current voter-approved millage of 3.5 mills; this would restore the funding that stops June 30, 2027. Together with the capital millage, it would be a slight increase over current funding because the library is currently only levying 2.7 mills of its total allowable 3.5 mills due to tax rollbacks. The reason the library is asking for a total of 3.81 mills is because of annually compounding increases in staffing costs, rising health insurance costs, inflation, addressing the needs of the aging building, and state mandated Headlee rollbacks.

Short Answer: The current library budget as currently constituted cannot absorb the repair and replacement costs without cutting budget lines that impact patrons: cutting staffing, cutting collections, cutting programming.

Geothermal systems do generally keep utility bills lower than traditional boilers and furnaces, while also producing less pollution. A conservative estimate is that they reduce heating and cooling costs by 20%. However, they are more complex systems than traditional HVACs, and fewer manufacturers produce the equipment.

Long Answer: The library currently has quotes totaling $559,000 for HVAC repairs, including replacing mechanical parts as they fail and repairing broken heating pipes in our entry vestibules. There are additional HVAC-related repairs we don’t have quotes for yet, including repairing radiant heat systems in the study rooms and Program Room and creating better ventilation for the internal study rooms. By having a capital fund set aside for repairing and maintaining capital assets like HVAC, we ensure that the library continues to provide the same level of services to our patrons without deferring needed maintenance to the building.

Short Answer: Geothermal HVAC systems are more efficient, reduce carbon impact and, and reduce energy costs. While the underground component of geothermal systems can last a lifetime, aboveground motorized components must be replaced for the system to continue operating.

Long Answer: Geothermal is made up of two parts: the geothermal ground loop and the mechanical equipment. The ground loop is the network of underground piping buried beneath the property. This closed-loop piping circulates a water and antifreeze solution through the earth, where it naturally absorbs heat in the winter and rejects heat in the summer. The ground itself is a thermal battery, allowing the HVAC to heat and cool efficiently. Because the ground loop has no compressors, motors, or moving mechanical parts, it can last 50 years or more. Our ground loop system is running well and does not require repairs at this time.

The mechanical equipment, which includes the water-source heat pumps, water-to-water heat pump boilers, circulation pumps, energy recovery ventilators (ERVs), humidification equipment, and building controls work together, in conjunction with the energy available from the geothermal loop to condition the air throughout the library. Unlike the underground piping, these pieces of equipment contain compressors, pumps, motors, electrical components, refrigerant circuits, and electronic controls. As with any commercial or residential HVAC system, these components experience normal wear and aging. Mechanical equipment has an expected lifespan of 20 years. At this time, we are 16 years into that lifespan, and several elements of the mechanical equipment need to be replaced. Over the course of the next millage, all of the parts can be expected to fail.

Short Answer: No, FADL has 14 full-time or regularly scheduled part-time librarians including the assistant director and director (who are librarians although they mostly do administration, not librarianship). The library has more staff because more people use the library. Not all of the staff is full time or has benefits.

Long Answer: In addition to the full-time and part time librarians, the library also has seven substitute librarians, which allow the staff to go out on leave for parental time, medical leave, or other needed time off without leaving them short-staffed.

Subs have no guaranteed hours, no benefits, and are not in the union. Some are still in library school; others are retired from full-time work. Across a two-week pay period, subs work an average of five hours per pay period.

Having subs also allows full-time librarians to lead programs or do outreach off-site while ensuring that reference desks are always covered, ensures that patrons do not have to wait very long when checking out materials or getting a new library card made, and allows them to process interlibrary within three hours of the materials arriving at our library. Many other libraries don’t employ their own subs (they use a consortium service where there is still a labor cost but they don’t count subs as their employees), or they close the reference desk or put a non-librarian on the desk if in a crunch. Our library never has to do that. Additionally, having subs allows our regular staff to have sufficient time off to prevent burnout and allows staff to take advantage of the time off negotiated under the CBA.

Ferndale’s overall staff size is larger because FADL provides more hours serving more patrons with more services and with more items circulated than other similarly sized libraries, which requires more staffing. Based on Ferndale’s population size, we are a class four library for state reporting purposes. Comparing us to other class fours helps explain our staff size.

• More hours: FADL is open seven days a week, year-round. Only 25% of class four libraries are open all week.

• More patrons: average annual library visits for a class four is 61,402. FADL had more than 120,000 visitors in 2025. Average number of active library cards is 6,470, we have 7,954.

• More collection circulation: average total annual physical circulation for a class four is 84,322; FADL’s was 218,065.

Source: https://www.michigan.gov/libraryofmichigan/libraries/admin/statistics

Short Answer: A millage is more flexible and better for taxpayers.

Long Answer: Bonds are very useful when you need a large amount of money all at once for major renovations. Bonds require that the borrower pay interest and processing fees, and the overall cost to obtaining the funding will be higher than a regularly levied millage. FADL needs to make repairs over time, not all at one time, and needs to save funds for larger repairs (such as replacing the roof) that will be needed over the next several years.

Using a millage means that the library can determine how much is needed and only levy the amount we need. That is how FADL has been leveraging our operating millage to date: first we create a budget, then we determine what to levy.

This means that the library does not have to levy the full voted amount: we only levy what we need. That isn’t an option with a bond.

Short Answer: A separate millage for a capital fund is required for state reporting purposes, and also to ensure transparency and clarity in the library’s financial reporting.

Long Answer: By keeping a separate account, the library will be able to provide full financial reporting every month on both operating expenses and capital expenses, without it looking like the library’s operational expenses are rising when actually the library has reduced operating expenses over the past two years. The library will continue to publish full financial reports every month for both funding streams, allowing the public to see how the library is practicing good stewardship over public funds.

Short Answer: The library director, board and staff have taken intentional measures to reduce costs over the last two years. Those reductions don’t change the fact that income ends June 30, 2027, however.

Long answer: Before determining how much of a millage the library needed to ask for, they first worked on reducing operating costs. This included:

• Systemic review of all long-term service contracts and negotiating down costs where possible;

• Reviewing the use statistics for all digital resources and cancelling contracts for databases and e-content that was not being used frequently;

• Reviewing the use statistics for all paper and digital periodicals and cancelling contracts for periodicals not used frequently;

• Creating a full digital inventory of all craft and programming supplies the library owns to stop duplicate supply purchasing; and

• Conducting a position control review of all staff hours to determine when it was appropriate to reduce staffing at desks during less busy hours and reducing total staff hours accordingly.

Short answer: The library reduced the operating budget by half the amount of bond payments and need the remainder in operating funds. Otherwise, the library can’t keep up with inflation and will need to look at cutting 1) collections (especially digital resources like Overdrive, Libby and Hoopla because these are increasing in price more rapidly), 2) staff benefits, or 3) staff. 

Long Answer: The bond is paid out of the operating millage, not out of a separate debt service millage. The retirement date will be May 31, 2027. We have $395,000 left to pay off this upcoming fiscal year.

When the Board discussed how to structure our millage requests, paying off the bond and the resulting operational savings was a consideration.  The library reduced the requested operating millage to account for half of it. The currently voted operating budget is 3.5 mills, the library is asking to reduce it to 3.31 mills. That .19 mill reduction, at current property values and MRF rates, is $195,600. The remaining 200k ish amounts to 6.9% of next year’s budgeted expenditures.

Contracts that increased by more than 7% in the past few years include health insurance (28% in two years, 15% in the past year), cleaning (9% in two years), salaries (3% a year, totaling a 9% increase over the three years of the CBA), Overdrive/Libby (12% in one year). In other words, the remainder is intended to cover inflationary growth or union contract commitments that have increased in the past few years. 

The library is asking for 3.81 mills total for both operating and capital, which is .31 mills more than the currently voted operating millage.