THEATRE CLASSES AT THE DCPA

have responsibility for managing city-wide projects.” e rst project of this nature will be the Enterprise Resource Planning system project, for which Gent will represent the city manager’s o ce as they work to upgrade nance and human resources systems across the city.

Gent comes to Littleton with over 12 years of municipal government experience, including several public works positions and his current role as the deputy city manager of Surprise, Arizona.

“In his time there, he has worked with and led numerous departments across the city,” Becklenberg said at the study session. “One of the things we were looking for was some depth of organizational management, organizational assessment to kind of help us carry through with some of the initiatives that we have.”

Gent has a doctorate in social work from the University of Southern California, a master’s degree in behavior change after eliminating nes. Experiences from many libraries support this idea.

In some cases, Allen said, returns actually increase after nes are eliminated because people feel they can return materials without shame.

Allen also said a lot of libraries have discovered that it costs more to collect nes than it adds to the libraries funding. In 2022, the city only gained $9073.55 in overdue nes, which made up less than 0.1% of the city budget.

“By the time you add in in time spent interaction with the person at the desk, labor costs, bookkeeping, all of those things — you’re actually losing money, charging nes,” he said.

Eliminating late fees increases usage, increases social equity, is scally sound, improves customer service and builds goodwill with library users, Allen said.

“We want people in the door, that is what we want,” he said. “People who su er most from overdue nes

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From the outside looking in, Gent said it was easy to recognize that Littleton had “all the ingredients needed to sustain and enhance the great quality of life enjoyed by residents, business owners and visitors.”

“I applied for this opportunity to be the deputy city manager here because I want to be a part of that,” he wrote in an email. “During my public service career, I have been fortunate to work in great communities as part of very talented teams, learning many lessons along the way and now want to use those skills and experiences to have a greater impact on the community I serve.” are low-income families, people of color — we don’t want to block access for anybody, but especially for people who are already struggling with social inequity.”

Gent will join Becklenberg and assistant city managers Samma Fox and Kathleen Osher in the city manager’s o ce.

Mayor Pro Tem Gretchen Rydin said she loved the idea because it’s backed by research, saves money and is better for the community.

“It’s thinking about making services available to everyone and taking into account variant circumstances, which I think we need,” she said. “I also love that this assumes the best in people and I think you’re right — we’re assuming trust. And that means so much in terms of creating healing connection in our community.”

Going forward, Allen said there will still be charges for lost and damaged items and the library will still send out overdue notices.

Library items that are 30 days overdue will be considered lost and will place a freeze on a person’s ability to check out materials, he said.

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