photo by: Richard Gwin

Lawrence Public Library, pictured Aug. 20, 2015.

Seated inside his office on the lower level of the Lawrence Public Library on Thursday, library Director Brad Allen said the new, award-winning facility, finished in 2014, was “transformative for this town.”

But without adequate staff, “a building is just a building,” he continued. And library employees are enduring what Allen called “substandard,” “below market” and “out of scale” wages.

“This building will not continue to be transformative if we do not continue to have fantastic people working at it,” Allen said. “The building is just part of the equation, and the other part of the equation is this amazing staff that works here. You have to pay a fair wage to keep a good and decent staff.

photo by: Richard Gwin

Cameron Beals, a material-handling assistant at the Lawrence Public Library, sorts through some books on Thursday, June 2, 2016.

“For me, it’s a social justice issue, frankly. We have people who are barely at a living wage, and it doesn’t have to be like that.”

When Allen started as library director in 2012, its five librarians earned $12.50 per hour, Allen said. By eliminating a position and working in an increase in 2015, that’s grown to $17.10.

Now, he’s looking to offer more raises across the board, especially for “frontline” staff — those working at the accounts or welcome desks, for example. Those employees currently make $12.75, and the library wants to increase the wage to $15, or approximately 17.7 percent, over the next three years.

To start that increase in 2017, Allen and the library Board of Trustees are requesting from the city an approximately $300,000 increase, or 8 percent, in funding for next year.

The total amount it’s requesting from the city is $4,050,000. A total of $2,450,000 would be spent on employee wages in 2017, compared with the $2,277,171 budgeted for wages in 2016. And $15,000 more would be spent on benefits than is allocated in 2016.

The library was funded in 2016 mostly through a levy of slightly more than 3.75 mills in property taxes. City Finance Director Bryan Kidney said a $300,000 increase in 2017 would equate to about one-third of a mill.

A Lawrence ordinance sets a 4-mill maximum on what the library can receive. Kidney said if the increase were granted, the city would “possibly” need a new ordinance on the matter. There is an extra half-mill allowed through the ordinance for paying the library’s social security tax and contributions to KPERS.

“If you’re looking at the 4-mill cap, that would put this over,” Kidney said.

Allen sent the request to the city last month, and commissioners are scheduled to discuss it at a June 14 budget session.

During a public comment period on the 2017 budget at the May 24 City Commission meeting, about a dozen people spoke on behalf of the library, asking for a funding increase. Many raised concerns about staff pay.

After the meeting, Allen, Kidney and City Manager Tom Markus sat down to discuss the funding request, Allen said.

Markus said that after the discussion he “walked away with the conclusion that some adjustments need to be made.”

“It’s pretty clear there needs to be some work done on their pay plans and adjusting them upwards,” Markus said.

In the library’s materials submitted to the city, Allen included a breakdown of what employees earn compared with other libraries. Those weren’t always fair comparisons, Allen said. The Topeka library, for instance, has a much larger budget, and higher wages, but it is also responsible for its debt service, unlike the Lawrence library.

To reach a clearer comparison, Allen studied cities where library staff was considered city employees. He found what other city positions were in the same pay grade as the library positions in those cities. He then looked to those same pay grades in Lawrence to come up with what library employees would earn if they were considered city employees.

In one of his examples, the frontline staff that makes $12.75 per hour at the library would be considered in the city’s “administrative support” pay grade, based on his research, Allen said. Those Lawrence employees make $14.62 per hour.

Overall, the breakdown led Allen to the conclusion that library employees were paid 80 to 85 percent of what city employees were.

Allen admitted the methodology was “somewhat messy.”

“We’re just trying to help people get an understanding,” Allen said. “For me, it’s demonstrating we’re out of scale, and the reason it’s dangerous to be out of scale is it becomes difficult to recruit, and it becomes even more difficult to retain.”

Markus said he didn’t “make any judgments” on whether the pay of library staff was fairly compared with city employees. Kidney said Lawrence’s human resources department is looking into it.

“At this point, my impression is that he’s done enough homework,” Markus said.

To Allen, the funding request is “modest,” and it would help recruit employees to the library’s top coordinator positions, which currently earn about $43,000 per year.

He said it would also help those now making $12.75 per hour to avoid taking on second jobs.

“We’re so lucky to have this building, and we’re doing the best we can,” Allen said. “But I can’t help but think, what would this place be like if we notched the salaries up a modest level? We’re trying to move the needle, and maybe that will give staff some hope that we’re going to get where we should be.”