Library promises better vetting of books

By John Labriola - The Citrus County library system has announced plans to improve its book vetting process after the recent discovery of a pornographic book in the Lakes Region Library's Young Adult section, which is for children ages 12 to 18.

The book "Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts)" was one of 26 books recently challenged by a Floral City resident. It was removed from circulation after Commissioner Diana Finegan obtained excerpts from the book and distributed them at a July commission meeting to her colleagues, who agreed it was pornographic.

At the county's first budget hearing on Wednesday, Community Services Director Eric Head said library staff is beefing up its review process for Young Adult books. 

"They're working on some additional steps so that with that genre specifically, that we add some additional review measures, especially if it's a questionable material or if it might fall into that kind of range, it gets extra eyes on it," he said, adding that the county's Library Advisory Board is working on raising the age designation of the Young Adult section. 

But commissioners declined to cut funding for new book purchases. 

Several residents had requested reducing the $312,000 line item for new books in the proposed budget, which translates to approximatley 1,300 books a month. 

"There's no way to vet this many books a month," said April Wnuk of Hernando. "We don't need to spend money uselessly."

Commissioner-elect Janet Barek agreed. 

"If you can get it on the Internet, why would we as a county be purchasing that many books?" she asked. 

But Commissioner Diana Finegan said she's going to give the library system's new book vetting process a chance to work without cutting the library's $5.3 million proposed budget.

"I don't know that the dollar amount is the issue. I think it's the vetting process, because even if you took the money away that you suggested to slow it down, they may be able to do it [at] the full amount," she said. "I think that the Library Advisory Board is hearing you and working on getting things the way they should be."

The county's proposed total budget for 2024-25 is $475.2 million, a 2.79 percent increase from the current year. The proposed millage rate is 8.9302, which is the same as the current year but represents a 6.5 percent increase over the rollback rate, which would be the rate required to keep taxes the same. The difference is because of the increase in property values. The final budget hearing will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 24, at 5 p.m. The millage may be cut at that time after staff reviews the entire budget to look for savings.

Commissioners also requested that the sheriff's budget be frozen at this year's level until Sheriff-elect David Vincent takes office on Jan. 7. In the meantime, the proposed 3.6 percent increase in the sheriff's budget will go into reserves. The commission took the action because of reports that outgoing Sheriff Mike Prendergast has refused to meet with Vincent to prepare a transition since his election loss on Aug. 20.