Bessemer, Alabama: This Paycheck's on the Library

Link to November 22 Birmingham News article, "Bessemer library money used to make city payroll late in former Mayor Ed May's term".

Excerpt:      Three-quarters of a million dollars in property tax proceeds earmarked for the Bessemer Public Library were transferred into the city of Bessemer's general fund to cover payroll in the last two months of former Mayor Ed May's term, new Mayor Kenneth Gulley said.

An examination of the library fund conducted early this month uncovered a $300,000 transfer to the general fund on Sept. 20 and a $450,000 transfer on Oct. 14, Gulley said.

"Both times, this was done to cover payroll ex­penses," Gulley said.

The two transfers de pleted the fund by about half, Gulley said, taking the balance from $1.5 million to $764,987.

City Council President Jesse Matthews said the previous council was not aware of the transfers from the library fund to the general fund and that the council did not approve the moves.

Gulley earlier this month alerted the City Council that the city was $750,000 short of being able to make payroll for November. The council authorized him to transfer money from the city's emergency 911 and municipal court funds to cover the shortfall.

Help me out here, someone. This paragraph from the above-cited article doesn't make a bit o' sense to me.

Two weeks ago, Bessemer Public Library officials told City Council members they had just recently realized the existence of the library fund, and they asked for the city to increase their monthly allocation from $47,000 to $77,000.  (Which factors out from $564,000 to $924,000 on an annual basis.  And there was $1,500,000 in the library fund?  I need an accounting seminar, please.)

Bessemer Public Library

Local Income 1998-2003

Source:  Alabama Public Library Statistics

                                 1998    1999    2000     2001     2002     2003

And then there's this paragraph from the "About Us" page.

In April 2000, the residents of the City of Bessemer passed an ad valor tax referendum to fund the building of a new library. In order to renovate and expand the library building, the library underwent a $4.5 million expansion from 15,600 to 43,200 square feet. Bessemer Public Library moved to a temporary site at 701 9th Avenue North in August 2001. It was only in August 2008 that the library was able to return to its new state of the art, three-tier facility.

7 years to complete a building project?

I have a headache.