ORANGE : Official: Library Not Applying Volunteers

Councilwoman Joanne Coontz told her colleagues on the City Council that she is concerned about possible waste of volunteer talent at the library and asked the city manager to investigate.

Several residents who wanted to volunteer at the library during the past year had been told that the most they could hope to do is stack books, Coontz said during Tuesday’s council meeting.

“I think some of these people have qualifications that extend beyond stacking books,” she said.

Community Services Director Gary Wann was in the audience and said afterward that he was “shocked” by the charge. Volunteers are needed for a variety of tasks, he said.

“We’re on a campaign to get as many quality volunteers as possible,” he said. “They are going to be a significant component of how we deliver service.”

The city has cut deeply into the library’s budget and the staff has dropped from 82 to 42 in the past year and a half, Wann said.

Coontz said that the city is relying more heavily on volunteers in every department, from City Hall to the Police Department. “But the success of the program has a lot to do with what they are going to let people do,” she said. “We have to change our attitude.”

Wann said the library has procedures for accepting volunteers and that the staff may not have explained those adequately to people who offered help.

The need and desire for qualified volunteers to help in a number of areas has only grown, he said.

The library will be particularly dependent on volunteers when it extends by 12 the weekly hours of operation at each branch starting in August. “We are going to cover every area,” he said.”