REQUEST FOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION
SUBMITTED TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
SUBMITTED BY: Al Zelinka, City Manager
VIA: Chris Slama, Director of Community & Library Services
PREPARED BY: Jessica Framson, Community & Library Manager
Subject:
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Approve the discontinuation of Library Services overdue fines as recommended by the Community & Library Services Commission, and waive all accumulated unpaid overdue fines
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Statement of Issue:
The Community & Library Services Department (Department) has historically assessed fines on overdue items in accordance with the City's Master Fee and Charges Schedule. While these fines constitute a very small percentage of the overall Department revenues, their assessment creates barriers to library access for residents, inequitably impacting the lowest income residents of Huntington Beach.
Financial Impact:
The Library purges expired accounts, including accounts with late library material overdue fines that are over seven years past expiration, including accounts with lost items. Based on this process, the amount of accumulated unpaid overdue fines totals just under $139,000. In February 2019, the revenue from fines dropped significantly with the introduction of automatic material renewal. Due to the closure of the Library during the pandemic years, the impact of the automatic material renewal system is challenging to determine, but staff estimates eliminating the overdue material late fines would result in a General Fund annual revenue loss of $22,000 - $25,000.
Nonetheless, staff simultaneously anticipates that this annual loss would be offset by a corresponding reduction in lost material replacement costs. The estimated cost of accumulated lost materials is $267,000. While it is not possible for staff to estimate what the offsetting amount would be, based on the experience of other libraries that have eliminated overdue late fines, material replacement costs decreased considerably. This is...
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