Company underbids library district

A private company says it can provide Spokane Valley library services for about $150,000 less a year than the Spokane County Library District can.

But Mike Wirt, the district’s director, says service will decline if the company takes over.

The city opened up the library contract to competition this year and received bids from two providers: Library Systems & Services LLC (LSSI) and the district. The City Council is expected to decide by the end of the year which bidder will win the more than $2 million contract.

“The people on the council, when talking about it on the dais, said they want at least the same level of service or higher,” Wirt said. “If they want to reduce the level of service, they could choose LSSI.”

The city made LSSI’s proposal public this week after reviewing it and editing out any proprietary information about the company. The district revealed its proposal Sept. 28.

LSSI says it can run the library next year for $2.165 million, or about $105,000 less than the district proposed. The bidders both proposed providing library services in Spokane Valley for the next five years, although the district gave a second option – contracting with it for one year and having voters decide whether they want to annex to it in the future.

Both proposals show costs going up each year, but after five years the city would save a total of almost $750,000 by contracting with LSSI.

LSSI spokeswoman Terri Armand said Friday that patrons would see positive changes at the library if her company were picked.

“What they would find is that they would have tremendous customer service,” she said. “They’d also find a weeded collection, where there were a lot more best sellers. More books that were higher in demand.”

Citizens surveyed earlier this year gave the district library high marks for service.

LSSI is proposing to staff the library with 20 full-time positions – 4.5 positions fewer than the district’s Valley branch has now. Wirt said it would feel like even fewer people than 20 were working because some of the positions in LSSI’s proposal are similar to jobs the district uses to serve the whole 10-branch system, and aren’t counted as Valley branch positions.

LSSI suggests the city try to acquire the district’s capital assets, including the building at 12004 E. Main Ave. and the books, newspapers and other materials inside it. Doing so would make the transition to LSSI go more quickly, it said.

But LSSI’s proposal doesn’t assume that will happen. Its bid is based on leasing a building nearby and the materials that will fill it.

The proposal suggests several buildings where the library could move, but the city edited out the details about those locations.

LSSI made two suggestions for the size of the library collection, but the bid amount is based on the smaller option: starting the library with 80,000 items and then adding 10 percent each year.

The district has about 107,000 items in the Valley branch now, and patrons have access to about 285,000 items from the district’s other branches and 564,000 items from the Spokane Public Library. The district adds about 16,000 items a year to the Valley branch collection, Wirt said.

LSSI said it would try to set up borrowing agreements with those districts, too, but it couldn’t guarantee it. If the city went with the company and a borrowing partnership weren’t formed, households could pay $80 a year to use the district libraries or $42 a year to use Spokane’s system.

LSSI would keep the library open at least 54 hours a week, which is how much it’s open now. It would maintain or expand the outreach programs that the district runs now, the proposal said.

Some citizens have expressed concern that if LSSI takes over, the library would be closed for a while as the company sets up. LSSI’s proposal said it would need 90 to 120 days to be fully operational from the time the contract would be inked if it went into a new building. If the city acquired the current library building, it would take considerably less time.

The city’s staff is reviewing the two proposals and is expected to recommend a bidder to the council on Oct. 26. A committee of five citizens and two council members also is reviewing the proposals and is scheduled to make its recommendation Nov. 2.

The committee’s meetings are held at City Hall, 11707 E. Sprague Ave., and are open to the public. The next is Wednesday at 7 p.m.