Interlocal Agreements - Service Agreement
This agreement should include:
-
Information about who is entering into the agreement. Generally you will see something like City of ___________________or Board of County Commissioners of _______________________ and the _____________________________ Public Library Board.
-
WHEREAS clauses that cover what the library will provide – for example library services to the county or city or both
-
WHEREAS clauses that cite relevant portions of the Montana Code Annotated.
-
MCA 22-1-309 that gives city and county library boards the right to contract with others (should be used by city or county created libraries)
-
MCA 22-1-707 that gives independent public library districts the right to contract with others (should be used by independent public library districts created under 22-1-702)
-
MCA 22-1-315 that gives city libraries the right to contract with county commissioners to provide library services to county residents (should be used by city libraries that assume the functions of a county library system)
-
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED clauses that state something like:
-
in return for funding the library will provide services to the residents of the city and/or county
-
the city or county will provide $X dollars and/or mills. This is the most importance piece of the agreement if you wish to protect your funding. You may wish to add something about inflationary amounts such as “the county agrees to provide the library with $100,000 each year plus the inflationary factor figured according to MCA 15-10-420 each year thereafter.
-
the length of the agreement – can be annual, a certain number of years, or automatically renewed unless one of the parties wishes to revisit the agreement.
-
a statement about revenues being available. This is standard language that the city and county uses in their contracts.
-
Other NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED clauses you might see
-
A commitment to not double tax the people residing within a city where the city library is providing county library services
-
Insurance waivers and/or other requests the city or county has for the library
-
A dissolution clause if either of the two parties wishes to end the agreement. Consider asking for a significant amount of lead time in the case of dissolution. Some agreements will state 60 or 90 days. Two or three months probably isn’t enough time for the library board to make alternative plans for providing library services. Please consider asking for 6 months to a year if allowable. MCA 22-1-315 which applies to city libraries that assume the functions of a county library are entering into an agreement where either party can terminate the contract by giving 6 months’ notice.
-
Signature space for the county commissioners and board. Sometimes all that is listed is the chair of the county commissioners and the chair of the library board.
Example of a Service Agreement
NOTE: Montana State Library staff are providing these examples for your assistance however we are not attorneys, cannot provide legal advice, and make no claim or representation that these particular examples are appropriate for use by public libraries.
