County district, firm bid for library contract

The city of Spokane Valley asked who wants to provide library services and two entities answered by Tuesday evening’s deadline for proposals.

The Spokane County Library District and Maryland-based Library Systems & Services LLC bid on the contract, which will last for up to five years. A second company, Library Associates, had been interested in the contract but didn’t have time to submit a proposal, that company’s president said.

The city council opened up the library contract to competition to find the best services for the lowest price, council members have said. The district currently has a contract with the city to run the Valley library and give residents access to its other branches.

The county district posted its proposal online. It can be read at www.scld.org.

The district proposes to base the annual contract amount on its regular property tax levy rate ($.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value) multiplied by the total value of property in the city. Using that model, the district estimates the 2005 contract amount to be $2.27 million.

That’s about $170,000 more than the council has discussed spending on the library contract during preliminary 2005 budget talks and about $270,000 more than the city paid this year for its services.

The district had tried to base its 2004 contract on property values because that’s how residents in its other jurisdictions pay for access to the libraries. But the city successfully negotiated a contract based instead on the cost of services.

“Because everyone we serve enjoys and benefits from the same services and programs and because by state law our tax levy must be uniform throughout the district … we must apply the same funding model for each political jurisdiction we serve,” the district’s proposal reads.

LSSI declined to provide The Spokesman-Review with a copy of its proposal.

The council is forming an ad hoc committee of five citizens and two council members to review the proposals and recommend which one to accept. The deadline to apply to be a part of that group has passed. The city’s staff will make a separate recommendation to the council.

Although the library district’s proposal is online, citizens who wish to see LSSI’s proposal must submit public records requests to the city. For more information, contact City Clerk Chris Bainbridge at 688-0177.