Hold discussion on the Library Board Recommendation regarding overdue fines, and provide direction to the City Manager.
Item 42: Library Fines
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Responses to Mayor provided by Diane Insley, Library Director:
What about cases when the item is never returned? For items not returned, patrons would receive a bill for the cost of the item(s) and a processing fee. Patrons would be expected to return or pay for these items. Once a patron has a balance on their account, they would not be able to check out additional items.
That's not addressed here that I can see. Are we looking to forgive those also? No. We would only be forgiving the fines incurred in the past and we would not charge fines going forward. We also expect that we would change our timing of overdue notices and a send out bills earlier in the process.
Also, for the total amount of fines for last year, do we know how many cards were involved? As in, how many people was that? Our library automation system can produce the number of people that have a balance, but it is not able to determine if the charge was from overdue fines, lost items, damaged items or misc. charges.
What about cases when the item is never returned? For items not returned, patrons would receive a bill for the cost of the item(s) and a processing fee. Patrons would be expected to return or pay for these items. Once a patron has a balance on their account, they would not be able to check out additional items.
That's not addressed here that I can see. Are we looking to forgive those also? No. We would only be forgiving the fines incurred in the past and we would not charge fines going forward. We also expect that we would change our timing of overdue notices and a send out bills earlier in the process.
Also, for the total amount of fines for last year, do we know how many cards were involved? As in, how many people was that? Our library automation system can produce the number of people that have a balance, but it is not able to determine if the charge was from overdue fines, lost items, damaged items or misc. charges.
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