Seb Council Opposes Local Funds to Restore Libraries. What Do You Think?

​It has been more than two years since Sonoma County libraries suffered an unprecedented 25% cutback in hours, locking their doors on most evenings, and on Mondays, for the first time in a century. Here in the 12^th wealthiest county in California, we are now into the third year in which more than 100,000 of our fellow citizens, including young children like my own, seniors and the needy without Internet access at home, and readers countywide, are met with either overcrowded facilities, or locked doors.

Meanwhile, our local government seems unwilling to do anything about it. Last June, our Board of Supervisors refused to even discuss my request, backed by more than 1,800 Sonoma County citizens who signed our petition, that the County fund the restoration of hours. Now, just few weeks ago, at a sparsely attended City Council meeting, Mayor Michael Kyes joined City Council Members Robert Jacob and Patrick Slayter, in shocking local library advocates by opposing local augmentation to basic library hour—the most likely prospect citizens have to restoring normal library service in Sebastopol starting next July.

Their reasoning was that they are committed to “equitable” service countywide. The draft of a new Joint Powers Agreement (“JPA”) governing County libraries had calls for a base level of service for all libraries—the 40 hours we now have (reduced from 52 hours two years ago). But the draft JPA allows, for the first time, local funders or city taxes to augment funding and fully restore these hours. In Sebastopol, this would cost about $110,000 annually. On October 15, three of the four Council members demanded that this possibility (not obligation) be removed from the JPA.

Vice Mayor Robert Jacob was first to insist that, for our City to sign the JPA, the clause be removed. He said, “I have a significant problem with community based funding for us to create rich library districts versus poor library districts, for us to ensure that Roseland kids don’t have as many hours as Sebastopol kids. For us to engage a process that would engage our county in that way for me is going backwards. And it is not something I can support.”

I admire Robert, and actively supported his candidacy. And I strongly support our Council’s unanimous support for a long term countywide solution, likely a new parcel tax, to adequately fund the hours and services for all libraries in the County one (and if) it passed and is implemented YEARS FROM NOW. But I disagree with him, and the other Council Members, about giving up this short term local funding option. To me, it feels like a “spoiler” argument. This “everyone must suffer together” approach simply leaves everyone with 40 hours including the 18,000 taxpaying citizens in our widely supported Sebastopol, library branch.

If Sebastopol’s tax surplus (and we have an unheralded but significant tax surplus many times larger than $110,000) can restore those hours next July, why wait two or five years until there is Countywide solution? Why should thousands of us, our neighbors, our children, our seniors, and our poor, be deprived of this essential service any longer than absolutely necessary? Could the same argument not be made about funding to maintain our police force or public parks? Why should we be able to water our city's lawns if Santa Rosa cannot afford to? Why should we have adequate police protection if Cloverdale, a poorer city, cannot afford this?

I sense that I speak for a majority of my fellow citizens. But honestly, I don’t know. That’s one of the reasons I am writing this; and why I have asked Wacco to allow me to poll you, Wacco readers, on this issue.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Please vote in this poll on the top of this thread on the website. Respond here on Wacco with YOUR thoughts.

And, if this concerns you, let our City Council members know how you feel. You can email them directly:

Michael Kyes , [email protected]
Robert Jacob [email protected]
Patrick Slayter
, [email protected]
and John Eder, who was medically unable to attend this Council meeting and has yet to weigh on on the JPA clause, at [email protected]

with a copy to our City Clerk with a request that she enter it into the city record at
Mary Gourley [email protected]

I believe that a countywide parcel or sales tax initiative is the right solution, not only to restore library open hours but to pub the library on a sound financial footing. Such a measure would require a 2/3 vote. I believe it is realistic, as evidenced in ballot measures shown below. It would probably be possible to get this on the ballot in June 2014.

This would mean that the funds realized would be used only for the library, and therefore the libraries would not be competing with other interests on the County budget.

Those interested should contact Sebastopol City Council members and ask them to lobby their counterparts in other cities. Here are results of ballot measures from 2010 through 2012.

Nov 2012
	Measure C-Shoreline Unif School Dist Parcel Tax	2/3s Required
	Extension of $184.70 / yr for 8 years, with 2% annual increase
	Yes	724	63.20%	FAILED
	No	421	36.80%
	Measure K-West Sonoma Co School Dist Parcel Tax	2/3s Required
	$48/parcel for 8 yrs
	Yes	19,514	73.60%	Passed
	No	6,991	26.40%
	Measure L-Fort Ross School Dist Parcel Tax	2/3s Required
	$48/parcel for 8 yrs
	Yes	247	69.20%	Passed
	No	110	30.80%
	Measure O-Sebastopol Un School Dist Parcel Tax	2/3s Required
	School Dist Parcel Tax
	$76/parcel for 8 yrs
	Yes	4,797	72.30%	Passed
	No	1,842	27.70%
	Measure X-Petaluma Fund Park and Recreation	2/3s Required
	$52/parcel for SFH / up to $500 for MR -15 years
	Yes	16,158	61.90%	FAILED
	No	9,950	38.10%
	Measure Z-Rancho Adobe Fire Dist Special Tax	2/3s Required
	Fire Dist Special Tax
	$60/parcel for 8 yrs
	Yes	5,443	62.80%	FAILED
	No	3,222	37.20%
June 2012
	Measure D-Cotati-Rohnert	2/3s Required
	Park Unif Schl Dist Tax
	$89/parcel - 5 years
	Yes	6,929	66.90%	Passed
	No	3,430	33.10%
April 2012
	Measure C - Coast Life Support District Spc Tax	2/3s Required
	replace $32/unit of benefit with $44/unit
	Yes	637	81.80%	Passed
	No	142	18.20%
March 2012
	Measure A-Sonoma Valley Health Care District	2/3s Required
	Health Care District
	$195/parcel extended 5 years
	Yes	7,354	73.20%	Passed
	No	2,699	26.80%
Aug 2011
	Measure A - Kenwood School District	2/3s Required
	Completed Precincts: 5 of 5
	Renewal of $52 parcel tax
	Yes	1,388	81.00%	Passed
	No	326	19.00%
Nov 2010
	Measure V – Forestville Fire District Special Tax	2/3s Required
	$75/parcel
	Yes	2,130	73.70%	Passed
	No	760	26.30%
June 8, 2010
	Measure F-Russian River Fire Dist. Special Tax	2/3s Required
	$70 - $350 parcel tax
	Yes	2288	71.20%	Passed
	No	480	29.80%

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Posted in reply to the post by Peacetown Jonathan:

​It has been more than two years since Sonoma County libraries suffered an unprecedented 25% cutback in hours, locking their doors on most evenings, and on Mondays, for the first time in a century. Here in the 12^th wealthiest county in California,...

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Please vote in this poll on the top of this thread on the website. Respond here on Wacco with YOUR thoughts.
...

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While I agree with Helen that the best long term solution is a Countywide tax, I believe that the best interim term solution is for our City to dedicate a portion of our city's budget surplus to restore library finding in the coming fiscal year, starting July 1. I will work with our local library champion, Council Member Sarah Gurney, and dozens of others in Sonoma County to pass a Countywide meaure. But its success is far from assured--the 2/3 majority threshold is a challenging one, and the parcel tax measures Helen shows above are local districts, requiring far fewer voters than this would take. Still, Santa Clara County recently got 81% of its voters to back a library tax, and we can do the same.

I do, however, do not understand why preserving this OPTION--not mandate--for interim financing by our city would be a bad thing.

At the Council hearing October 15, Don Schwartz, the County analyst responsible for integrating City Council concerns into the new Joint Powers Agreement (JPA), expressed surprise that Council Members Jacob, Kyes and Slayter each spoke against the local funding augmentation clause of the JPA. He noted that the most vocal support for this clause, from the beginning, CAME FROM SEBASTOPOL.

He may have been referring to council Member Sarah Gurney's dedicated involvement in this issue. As well as the letter that former Mayor Guy Wilson wrote to Sonoma Library Director Sandra Cooper in April of 2010, on behalf of ALL THE COUNCIL MEMBERS then in office (and of Progressive Sebastopol, which asked for the letter), requesting that we be allowed to fund those library hours that were soon to be reduced. Here is that letter

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The revised JPA draft would allow Sebastopol to restore library hours if the County did not. At the Council hearing, Mayor Michael Kyes disagreed that this would be a good thing. He directed Mr. Schwartz to note his objection to the clause, saying, "I would like to clarify one point he had and I think our only issue is local funding... and that as much as we might like to do it ourselves we feel that it wouldn't be equitable for us to do it and not have it done to the rest of the county. And from my perspective I don’t care about anything else."

Council Member Patrick Slayter concurred. In a response to my written questions about why he objected to local funding, he wrote,

"I firmly believe library hours should be expanded and in no way were my comments to the contrary. What I don’t believe is good for library patrons, and our entire county community, is a situation where one branch is able to raise funds locally, be it through donations or local taxes, and expand operating hours for that single branch. I believe this would create a situation where the wealthier county communities could support their libraries and the lower income communities could not. These lower income communities are already underserved by our county library system and creating a system whereby this inequality is compounded is unpalatable to me. To think that the Sebastopol branch is more important than the Cloverdale branch is shortsighted and egotistical."

An interesting debate, for sure!

I would appreciate hearing what others in our community think of this...pleaser take the poll, or reply below.

I agree we should restore the Sebastopol Library hours ASAP. Here's the email I sent yesterday to the City Council, edited for this thread:

Dear City Council,

I'm writing to urge you to restore the Sebastopol Library hours to their previous levels.

I admire the democratic impulse behind your concern that funding our local branch's hours would create rich and poor library districts within the county, but I don't agree. I would say instead that by restoring the library hours, Sebastopol will actually set an example for the rest of the county and provide impetus and inspiration for other districts to follow suit. Far from being an elitist move, restoring the hours will demonstrate the kind of enlightened, progressive leadership this Council has consistently shown on other issues.

Sebastopol may be a comparatively rich city, but many of those who depend on the library are struggling to make ends meet. In an age of privatization and cutbacks, the library with its wonderful educational resources remains open to all regardless of their wealth. It is an endangered public institution and I believe it is incumbent on all municipalities who can afford to do so to keep their libraries fully funded.

Sincerely,
Peggy Karp

This is one of the most saddening "community watchdog" subjects that I have posted on. I have enthusiastically supported many of the actions taken by Mayor Michael Kyes, Vice Mayor Robert Jacob, and Council Member Patrick Slayter in the past.

But when it comes to their insistence that our city oppose the best shot that we, its tax-paying citizens have for restoring hours for our beloved library, it upsets me. And prompts me to question the other priorities that our Council has instead chosen to fund.

On behalf of Progressive Sebastopol and responsive local government, I participated as a member of the public in the budgetary discussions and priorities for the Council last May and June. Like most, I was pleased to learn that our City would have a budget surplus of more than $1 million. Most of the surplus went to restoring our reserve fund, perilously depleted during the downturn of 2008.

But I was surprised to hear that $250,000 was being earmarked this fiscal year, and another next fiscal year, in a special $500,000 reserve earmarked to expand our modern, and seemingly efficient, fire station with a new fourth bay addition.

To put this figure in perspective, the $250,000 was four times as much as the city will spend this year on much-needed bicycle lanes. And it went entirely unmentioned during the last City Council elections, while bike lanes were among the most widely supported needs articulated--and promised.

This $500,000 allocation would be sufficient to restore library hours on Mondays and evenings for the thousands of us, FOR THE NEXT FOUR YEARS, by which time, a countywide solution for sufficient funding for all libraries--like the bond measure many of us support, will likely be in place.

During the budget hearings last May, I asked, in writing, what unmet need necessitated the expansion of the fire station? Has there been an increase in fire emergencies? On behalf of the public, could I receive statistics on this (nationwide, urban fire emergencies continue to drop)?

I am still waiting for these answers. I was informed by the City that minutes of the Fire Chief's request for the allocation during Budget Commission hearings were not kept. Council members would not discuss these questions, except to say that the money would not be spent until the city's finances were healthy enough to afford it.

Now three members of our Council are telling me, and thousands of parents and library users who voted for them, that the principle of "equitable hours" for all libraries in the County is more important to them than providing citizens with the OPTION to restore these hours should the County not do so.

I find this to be the largest failure of the practice of Responsive Government since the current Council was elected. I do not think that a majority of our taxpaying citizens would prefer a little needed addition to our fire station more urgently than the restoration of our library hours, which are, shamefully, the shortest they have been in the history of our City, for the third year running.

Please vote in the poll at the top of this page: Libraries or fire station expansion?

And let our Council members know, by email (see earlier post) how you feel about this issue. There will be an opportunity to address this during public comment at next Tuesday's Council meeting. The Council's most recent directive to the JPA review committee is that it objects to the clause allowing cities the option of funding additional hours. We have about one week before the JPA Committee meets again, during which time we can request that those who articulated this objection reverse themselves.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. If the community needs more library hours then the surplus isn't really surplus is it? It's funds that should be spent on more library hours but is being held back.

Mayor Michael Kyes, along with Council Members Jacob and Slayter are actively opposing a city budgetary augmentation option clause in the new library Joint Powers Agreement, on the grounds that taxpayers in Sebastopol should not have the option of restoring library hours because, they say, this would be unfair to residents of less affluent cities in the County, like Cloverdale.

This position surprised many library supporters, who feel that local funding is the only likely interim solution for restoring hours next July--after three long and difficult years of unprecedented closings on Mondays and evenings. These three of our five Council members say that until all the libraries are able to increase their schedules beyond the 40 hour base now budgeted, thousands of Sebastopol residents will have to suffer with overcrowded libraries and scaled back services.

I wonder whether this new City Council policy of "equitable services for all" Sonoma County cities will be extended to other city services? Since Santa Rosa's Council has pulled funding to water its lawns, does that means that our Council feels we ought to stop watering our park lawns until they restore this service? And since Cloverdale has less police protection funding than we do, will they be suggesting a reduction of police services until Cloverdale can afford the levels of staffing we have in Sebastopol?

Many cities, like San Rafael and San Francisco, fund their libraries through city budgets. Sebastopol residents pay a portion of our real estate taxes for libraries, but it has proven insufficient. While I join many library advocates, and all the members of our City Council, in supporting a countywide ballot initiative to raise additional taxes for library services for all libraries, I understand that this is likely to take years to implement--and may not pass the required two-thirds majority vote at election time.

Meanwhile, I feel that a majority of our citizens want to support restoring hours sooner--and not suffer with reduced library hours for years and years based on Council Member Kyes', Jacob's and Slayter's "equitable service" principle. They ought to al least allow the Joint Powers Agreement to afford cities this OPTION, and then ask We, the People who pay the taxes that they manage on our behalf whether we would like to sue some of our surplus funds to restore hours.

If you agree that this position does not represent you, as a constituent and taxpayer, please contact the Council members who are opposing this option, and tell them how you feel. Or come to the City Council meeting this Tuesday November 4, at 6:15 pm at the youth annex next to the Community Center, and speak to this issue during public comment. And please, vote in the poll at the top of this page.

We have another week and a half until the County Committee meets to discuss on the revised draft Joint Powers Agreement. Let's not lose the best chance we have of restoring library hours in the coming year.

During the past two weeks, I have spoken to dozens of other Sebastopol citizens- many of them parents and seniors, about whether our city should finance the restoration of library hours as an interim solution until there was sufficient countywide funding to bring all libraries back from the current, unprecedentedly short, 40 hour week to 52 hours.

I only wish that Council Members Kyes, Jacob and Slayter had done the same, before they announced their opposition to the JPA clause that would allow cities to augment the county's base level of library hours.

Every person I spoke with was upset by the cutback in hours. Every person I spoke with believed that Sebastopol ought to be able to fund the restoration of hours, and "lead the way" as an example for other cities to do the same. Not a single person agreed with the principle of "equitable hours for all or improvements for none," the argument expressed by Council Member Keyes, Jacob and Slayter.

And not a single person was aware that Sebastopol ran a budget SURPLUS of more about $1 million last year, or that our Council has earmarked $500,000 for an expansion of our modern fire sttaion. Not a single person knew that Sebastopol would be able to fund the restoration of library hours next year using just a fraction of our projected surplus in the coming year,. Or by waiting to expand our Fire Station until after this very real degradation of service, affecting thousands of us, especially seniors, young children, and the needy, has been alleviated.

What's more, everyone I spoke with was surprised that progressive campaigners like Robert Jacob would take this shockingly regressive position, which negatively impacts the neediest in our community more than any diminishment of local service in decades.

This is understandable. I supported Robert, as week as Michael, when they ran for election. And while I listened to them speak on numerous issues, I never once heard them say that "equitable" financing of services for every city in Sebastopol was more important than providing Sebastopol's taxpaying citizens with the city services we have received for decades, and expect in the future (such as Libraries that can afford to stay open).

We did not elect our City Council Members to refuse to fund the restoration of library hours!

Please take the poll above, if you have not yet (there is yet to be a single vote agreeing with their position on Wacco). Please speak up at public comment at the Youth Annex for the City Council meeting at 6:15 pm Tuesday, Nov 5, on Morris Street. In ten days, the Library Review committee will go over city changes to the JPA, and, unless we convince our Council to reverse their unpopular position, the OPTION to add local funding for our libraries will be REMOVED FOREVER. This means that due to the unresponsive, unilateral, and unexpected decision by these three Council members this month, if a countywide ballot initiative fails to pass with a 2/3 majority, we could end up with cutback library hours for decades. And that future city councils will not be abe to do anything about it.

Please call or email Our Council Members let them know how you feel. Because as far as I can tell, sadly, they are not caring enough about this vital public service to ask us.

Please join me at our City Council meeting this evening, Tuesday, November 5, at 425 Morris St, for public comment about 6:10 pm, to ask our Council Members to reverse their opposition to allowing our city the OPTION to provide funding to restore library hours. :waccosun:

I plan on coming. Hope others do too. We need to come out and show the Council that a lot of us care about restoring the hours. This is public comment time so you won't have to hang around at the meeting forever.

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Posted in reply to the post by Peacetown Jonathan:

Please join me at our City Council meeting this evening, Tuesday, November 5, at 425 Morris St, for public comment about 6:10 pm, to ask our Council Members to reverse their opposition to allowing our city the OPTION to provide funding to restore library hours. :waccosun:

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Thank you Peggy! You are right. Come at 6:15 and you are sure to be able to speak and leave within a half hour. It is easier than waiting three hours for our three minutes of public access to our elected representatives.

I am hoping you can read the letter you wrote above? You provide a very positive frame for this debate. I am really saddened by the absence of leadership among ANY of our Council members on this issue. Not a single one of them , including Sarah Gurney, will even speak up for the POSSIBILITY that our city might use its surplus funds to restore hours this coming July.

Sebastopol had a surplus of more than $1 million this fiscal year. It is expected to be at least half that much, or $500,000, this year. Just $110,000 a year can restore library hours for thousands of us. It astounds me that our City Council members are actively opposing a clause in the existing Joint Powers Agreement draft that will allow us to restore hours if a countywide measure fails to do so, in time for next July, or, possible, ever.

Imagine ten, or twenty more years of reduced hours. The new normal. All because our Council today is opposing the option that we can take local responsibility for restoring this vital service to thousands of our neediest citizens, by using just 1/10 of our budgetary SURPLUS to restore what our local government has managed to provide our community for decades.

I think it is honorable and thoughtful for politicians to have a well-rounded view and for them to take into consideration the circumstances of all concerned. My objection to the City Council vote remains what I perceive as an inordinately well-funded and staffed police department when compared to the needs and level of crime in this community.

I contend we need to restore library hours - not to mention the restoration of income to the library staff - we do not need NEW police cars!! The police department has a new fleet of vehicles. Clearly, this community has the funds and it comes to a simple choice of where we spend our money. SUPPORT our libraries and REDUCE the Sebastopol police force.

In the interest of transparency, accountability, and responsive government, I am adding new replies to this Wacco post to provide a record, for the future, of what each Council Member has said about removing the “library hours augmentation” provision currently in the draft Joint Power Agreement. This post includes Council Member Sarah Gurney’s emailed written response to five questions that were asked, via email, of each Council member.

At the October 15 Sebatsopol City Council meeting with a County representative, all four Council member shocked library supporters by officially requesting that the JPA draft be revised to REMOVE the following section:

Clause X (B.) 2 of the JPA draft begins:
Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed as prohibiting a Member, person, or other entity from providing additional funding to a particular regional branch library for the purpose of allowing an increased level of service at that branch, including but not limited to an increase in the baseline hours of operation …
Removing this clause from the library’s governing agreement will mean that for decades into the future, neither our city government, nor private donors in the area, will be able to fund the restoration of library hour in Sebastopol. Meaning that if a countywide funding measure fails to pass, the “new normal” of hours for Sebastpol’s hours, for the rest of our lives, is likely to be the 40 hours of scaled back service we have had for the past two years, which is the lowest level of service Sebastopol’s libraries has ever offered. And local citizens, or future city councils, will be powerless to change this.

This concern was the impetus for this post, and these questions:

1) Do you support a countywide parcel tax increase to fund restoration of hours and shortfalls?

Sarah Gurney: Yes, I support a county-wide parcel tax increase to fund restoration of hours and to address other financial liabilities of the regional system, such as being short of staff, for instance.

2) Do you support an interim financing plan to restore library hours starting next fiscal year July 1, with funds coming from the County using County general tax funds?

Sarah Gurney: Yes, I would support an interim financing plan to restore library hours, regionally, starting July 1, 2014. I would prefer long-range financial strategies that would insure the regional system's success. I hope that the JPA Review Committee will task the new Commission with reviewing and analyzing the current budget practices and next fiscal year's budget to find [some] money to reduce the system's financial woes and thus restore Monday hours. I believe that neither the County nor any individual City will dedicate General Funds to do this.

3) Do you support an interim financing plan to restore library hours countywide that is funded half from the County and half from the respective city's general revenue funds (including Sebastopol’s) to restore library hours starting next fiscal year July 1?

Sarah Gurney: I cannot project that there will be funds available in our current budget to dedicate to our branch. Nor can I foresee funds in our next fiscal year to do this, and the various scenarios in five-year projections show deficit years. The priority for our funds is to provide basic City services to our residents, not regional services to citizens throughout the County.

(4) Would you prefer to allocate $450,000 during the next few years on a fourth bay for the firehouse, or to restore library hours in Sebastopol for the next four years in an interim basis? Why or why not?

Sarah Gurney: The answer choice forced your question is an artificial one that you have constructed. Public safety is an urgent priority of our municipal government. Access to the our branch library is a responsibility of the regional library system, over which the City has had no governance power nor financial responsibility, other than to be a landlord/benefactor. I would prefer that our libraries be open on Monday, have adequate staffing, be able to enrich the collection, respond to the financial liabilities to its retirees, etc.

5) Do you believe that a majority of Sebastopol’s citizens would prefer to allocate $450,000 during the next few years on a fourth bay for the firehouse, or to restore library hours in Sebastopol for the next four years in an interim basis?

Sarah Gurney: Again, you are forcing a choice that is not real. I know our citizens want our library open on Mondays and I believe that they support the same services for all library users. Our citizens believe in and support the public library system as a bastion of democracy.

Sarah Gurney: To close, I believe you and I want the same goal - restoration of the library to its more glorious days, including Monday service. I have participated in the discussions over the last year and am concerned that individual libraries will not be extended the ability to fund-raise for themselves. Were that to become our situation, then I strongly advocate for a regional revenue measure that will allow the entire system to upgrade.

I am posting below Robert Jacob’s new email to constituents, in which he lays out his thinking on restoring library hours, and requests feedback from Sebastopol voters, by emailing him at [email protected]. Please consider sharing your views with our community by posting this as a reply to this thread.

In my opinion, as someone whith extensive familiarity with the County Library system, Library Foundation, County and City budgets, as well as the ballot initiative process, I think Robert is way off base when he suggests this is a choice between countywide or local funding.

I support, have worked for, and will continue to work for a countywide funding solution so that all libraries can restore their service back to 52 hours from the 40 hour “baseline,” that it the new normal that tens of thousands of library users have had to suffer with for more than two years, WITH NO CHANGE IN SIGHT next year. I am saddened and frustrated by what I feel is a colossal failure of local government to do what local government has done, through various funding mechanisms, for more than 100 years on Sonoma County: keep our libraries open Mondays and evenings.

This is not a choice about what we PREFER. It is a choice of whether we, the people of Sebastopol the taxpayers whose money Robert manages on our behalf, will EVER have the OPTION to restore funding, should a countywide initiative to restore funding for all libraries in the county FAIL.

PLEASE ASK ROBERT: WHAT IS HIS CONTINGENCY PLAN IF A BALLOT INITIATIVE FAILS?

AND HOW LONG DOES HE THINK WE LIBRARY USERS NEED TO WAIT UNTIL WE GET THE LEVEL OF SERVICE WE HAVE ENJOYED FOR DECADES BACK?

Five years? Twenty-five years? Whatever it takes to serve his belief that “no restored service for anyone until everyone in the county can get more hours?”

Remember, friends, by removing this OPTION from the JPA, as Robert, Patrick and Michael insist that we do, we are removing the OPTION to augment the base 40 hours of service for ALL COUNCILS in the future, for decades to come. Why not ask them to preserve this option, in the event that countywide hours cannot be restored soon, or ever?

As for Robert’s belief that we might fall back upon donations to the Library Foundation, what George Bush Senior called the “thousand points of light,” of voluntary funding to replace what has been taxpayer financed services provided by government, it surprises me that he demonstrates little adherence to the notion of what services that our government, as a Great Society, ought to use taxpayer money to provide.

Here, in his own words, is what Robert wrote in his emailed newsletter today:

"The Sonoma County Library has suffered as much or more from the recession as any other governmental agency, and in fact still does not have full service. There are a number of citizens working to restore access, but with two distinctly different strategies. Both strategies involve amending the library Joint Powers Agreement (JPA).

The first strategy is one that would allow for individual branches to independently secure funding in order to restore service hours. This approach would be similar to how non-profits have 'adopted' certain state parks when California was forced to close down many of our state parks due to a lack of funding. In this scenario, some parks benefited, while others remained closed.

The second strategy is one that would allow the JPA to put a revenue generating ballot measure on the Sonoma County ballot in order to restore funding to the entirety of the Library District. This strategy is one that may not happen as fast as if the community were to self-fund library restoration for our local branch, but in the long-run would seem not only more equitable but more sustainable in terms of generating ongoing revenue for our entire system.

I, for one, am inclined to advocate for a system-wide solution to reinstating our library system's operational hours. I am concerned that some communities may not be able to come up with the additional funding needed to pay for extending their branches hours. Poorer areas of our community, where our libraries' services are needed most, would no longer have the same access and level of service as the communities that could afford to support their branches individually. Looking to the future, I believe that this may set a bad precedent.

What do you think? I would really like to hear your opinion on this issue. Please email me and share your thoughts.

I also believe that the Sonoma County Public Library Foundation (SCPLF), which is dedicated to raising funds for the entire library system, could play an important role in helping to solve this issue (visit their website here). Do you have any other ideas that could help our library system?"

In the interest of transparency, accountability, and responsive government, I am adding new replies to this Wacco post to provide a record, for the future, of what each Council Member has said about removing the “library hours augmentation” provision currently in the draft Joint Power Agreement. This post includes Council Member Patrick Slayter's emailed written response to five questions that were asked, via email, of each Council member.

Tomorrow, November 14, the Countywide JPA REview Committee will hear that our City Council, like some other cities in Sonoma County, voted, through their collective, articulated request, that the JPA draft be revised to REMOVE:

Clause X (B.) 2 of the JPA draft:
"Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed as prohibiting a Member, person, or other entity from providing additional funding to a particular regional branch library for the purpose of allowing an increased level of service at that branch, including but not limited to an increase in the baseline hours of operation …"

Removing this clause from the library’s governing agreement will mean that for decades into the future, neither our city government, nor private donors in the area, will be able to fund the restoration of library hours in Sebastopol. unless it is part of a countywide fund-raising endeavor. Me​aning that if a countywide funding measure (which I support and will work for) fails to pass, the “new normal” for Sebastpol’s hours, for the rest of our lives, is likely to be the 40 hours of scaled back "base level" service that we, and all libraries, have had for the past two years. This is the LOWEST level of service Sebastopol’s libraries has ever offered. And local citizens, or future city councils, will be powerless to change this.

This concern was the impetus for this post, and these questions. Patrick can be reached at [email protected]:

The questions: In Sebastopol’s response to the JPA, do you support, and will you request, a City Council expression of support for:

1) countywide parcel tax increase to fund restoration of hours and shortfalls?Patrick Slayter (responses in blue): Yes, I have already done this wholeheartedly. The library is a county-wide system and should be robustly funded thusly.

2)An interim financing plan to restore library hours starting next fiscal year July 1, with funds coming from the County using County general tax funds?
As a Sebastopol City Council Member I can inquire and lobby for this, but really have little influence over the final county budget.

3)An interim financing plan to restore library hours countywide that is funded half from the County and half from the respective city's general revenue funds (including Sebastopol’s) to restore library hours starting next fiscal year July 1?
I would need to see some financial projections prior to making this commitment; I do not know what amount of money this would take.The library is a county-wide system, and without a county-wide plan to offer equal hours of operation to all branches, I don’t believe it is fair to the taxpayers of Sebastopol to prop up the entire system.

4)Would you prefer to allocate $450,000 during the next few years on a fourth bay for the firehouse, or to restore library hours in Sebastopol for the next four years in an interim basis? Why or why not?
In the 2013/2014 budget a portion of the $450,000 for an additional firehouse bay was set aside in a reserve fund with a tentative earmark for this use. However, it was made clear these funds are available for other uses, but remember, the option of using these funds for library operation is not even potentially open to the City until a new JPA is in place.

The funding of our Libraries is of the highest priority to me, but so is our volunteer fire department’s ability to serve the residents of Sebastopol. I don’t believe this to be an all-or-nothing scenario for either civic function.

I would like to allocate $450,000 to the library; $450,000 to the firehouse expansion; $5,000,000 to the renovation of Ives Park; $2,500,000 to the Streets Maintenance Fund; $1,000,000 to bicycle and pedestrian improvements; and the list continues. Obviously, there are many competing and worthy facilities, services and programs in our community which would be bettered with additional funding.

5)Do you believe that a majority of Sebastopol’s citizens would prefer to allocate $450,000 during the next few years on a fourth bay for the firehouse, or to restore library hours in Sebastopol for the next four years in an interim basis?
I have no way of knowing this at this time, but my feeling is the majority of citizens would support a compromise which would allow both of these worthy projects to move forward.

Patrick thoughtfully provided this further personal assessment of the situation. I thank him for answering these questions for the public.

I do not oppose local funding augmentation for the libraries. What I oppose is unequal access for all users of the county library system....

I firmly believe library hours should be expanded and in no way were my comments to the contrary. What I don’t believe is good for library patrons, and our entire county community, is a situation where one branch is able to raise funds locally, be it through donations or local taxes, and expand operating hours for that single branch. I believe this would create a situation where the wealthier county communities could support their libraries and the lower income communities could not.

These lower income communities are already underserved by our county library system and creating a system whereby this inequality is compounded is unpalatable to me. To think that the Sebastopol branch is more important than the Cloverdale branch is shortsighted and egotistical. The children and seniors in Cotati and Rohnert Park should be able to visit their local branch on Mondays, and just because Sebastopol can (possibly) afford to provide the funding to expand hours doesn’t mean that the residents of Guerneville can, even though both branches are of equal import to each community.

Imagine a situation where a west county library district was created, a tax measure was passed, and the Sebastopol Branch suddenly had plenty of money, hours were fully restored, a new facility was constructed and filled with the latest technology, services and programs (sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?). But, all of this happens and there is still no branch in southwest Santa Rosa, a part of our community which has one of the highest population percentages of children in the county.
I’m sure our local community would not view it as such, but to state something slightly absurd; after our “city on the hill” facility was in place for several years and drawing users from outside the special district, those within the district may begin to question why they are propping up the entire system.

The proposed JPA includes language about each branch being able to set their own operating hours; while certainly not the highly desired ultimate goal of full restoration of hours, perhaps this clause can be used to tailor each community’s desire for library access.

Would it be possible to designate part of the surplus as a "Help our county neighbors" fund, as the US government has a "Help our global neighbors" (though not even 1/100 as large as the "kill our global neighbors") fund? I.e., could one $110,00 amount be used for the Sebastopol library and another each go to the library nearest Roseland (which I think is the downtown SR library) and the one in Cloverdale? If anyone reading this speaks with someone who suggests libraries and schools are mainly for children and teenagers and that, since they have no children that age, they ought not to have to contribute, tell them to spend 2 weeks in the southern US and see what trashing education does to a society.

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Posted in reply to the post by Peacetown Jonathan:

​It has been more than two years since Sonoma County libraries suffered an unprecedented 25% cutback in hours, locking their doors on most evenings, and on Mondays, for the first time in a century.

If Sebastopol’s tax surplus (and we have an unheralded but significant tax surplus many times larger than $110,000) can restore those hours next July, why wait two or five years until there is Countywide solution? Why should thousands of us, our neighbors, our children, our seniors, and our poor, be deprived of this essential service any longer than absolutely necessary? Could the same argument not be made about funding to maintain our police force or public parks? Why should we be able to water our city's lawns if Santa Rosa cannot afford to? Why should we have adequate police protection if Cloverdale, a poorer city, cannot afford this?

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Please vote in this poll on the top of this thread on the website. Respond here on Wacco with YOUR thoughts.

And, if this concerns you, let our City Council members know how you feel. You can email them directly:

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This was my letter in today's PD...


EDITOR: The struggle to restore the level of library service that local government managed to provide for a century took an Orwellian turn as our supervisors rejected an effort to allow local cities to do what they have utterly failed to do during the past three years: take responsibility for adequately funding our libraries (“Varying library hours opposed,” Wednesday).

Library hours have been cut nearly 25 percent, with all branches closed Mondays. When our Campaign to Restore Library hours presented a petition from 1,800 citizens requesting that the supervisors provide $1 million in interim financing to restore hours until a longer-term financial solution could be implemented, they refused to even discuss the matter. Meanwhile, they unanimously approved $240,000 from reserves for the sheriff to fund a sixth marijuana-eradication officer. This came on top of a $12 million increase in funding for the sheriff and probation departments.

Libraries provide an essential and unique service to more than 100,000 of our neediest citizens, especially children and seniors. That we cannot keep them open is a monumental failure of our supervisors to practice responsive government.

Next month, we will ask the supervisors to support a ballot initiative for dedicated tax revenue to adequately fund our libraries, which receive a third per-capita of what San Francisco's libraries get. Let's hope they listen.

JONATHAN GREENBERG

I understand that there may be a short video coming out in support of library funds, I'll keep this post updated with any news I hear.

Libraries are critical but they are something in the taxes contract from years and years, like roads, education, infrastructure. If "county government" chooses to divert infrastructure into their own pockets (defined benefit pensions, secret negotiations) then it is not for cities to make up the difference. That just encourages more diversion and is not sustainable. A fairer system is to maintain the percentages of various types of expenditures out of the tax revenue - unless a popular election revises the percentage.

Initially, I said Sebastopol would do well to fund libraries, but you make a good point (for a "dummy"!--I also got your response by email; BTW, who's your ventriloquist?) Besides making good oversight happen, local governments need to press the state legislators to enact a "cap tax," a tax on oil taken out of California land. We're the only state in the US without a cap tax, and a 1% tax would still make ours the lowest, thus attractive to petroleum businesses, yet give us plenty for libraries, extracurricular school programs, tiny apartments to end homelessness in California, etc.

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Posted in reply to the post by Tom95472:

Libraries are critical but they are something in the taxes contract from years and years, like roads, education, infrastructure. If "county government" chooses to divert infrastructure into their own pockets (defined benefit pensions, secret negotiations) then it is not for cities to make up the difference. That just encourages more diversion and is not sustainable. A fairer system is to maintain the percentages of various types of expenditures out of the tax revenue - unless a popular election revises the percentage.

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