For information on how the Seattle City Council candidates responded to our questions on Library budget issues, see the FSPL website for the 2009 edition of our newsletter.
We didn’t receive responses from mayoral candidates Joe Mallahan and Mike McGinn in time for newsletter publication, but here’s a link to a Seattle Times article about their positions.
As the election for new Council members and a new mayor is being decided, important decisions are being made daily at Seattle City Council. On November 2, City Council began considering 4 options to partially restore library funding. If there is no funding restoration, The Library will have to cut 330 weekly service hours to comply with the Mayor’s 5% reduction in the endorsed 2010 library budget. 21 libraries would close on Friday and Sunday and be open after six only twice a week. Among many other services, this will impact nighttime classes, community meetings and homework help programs.
If Option A is adopted and the 330 hours are restored, The Library will still close for one entire week in 2010 and will sustain considerable cuts to its Capital budget. Option A, the best case scenario being considered, would still mean a 3% reduction in the library’s budget.
Board member Tony Provine and Vice President Jennifer Johnson-Fong represented the concerns of many patrons when they spoke to Council members yesterday. Provine said, “As a part of the proposed budget cuts of $2.6 million from the previously adopted budget, the Library is preparing to reduce service hours at 21 of 27 branches. These service hour reductions account for $1.2 million.
To disenfranchise any communities and restrict service in those areas penalizes those citizens who do not have the good fortune to reside in another community. Many who utilize our libraries are unable to travel to the few branchess open on Fridays and Sundays, and since all branches will be closing earlier, afternoon and evening activities will be significantly restricted. All of this comes at a time when Library services are more in demand than ever.”
The Gates Foundation’s $50,000 grant to The Seattle Public Library, announced this week, will strengthen the services of The Job Resource Center located at Central library. The Center, opened on June 29, 2009 with initial grant money from Friends of The Seattle Public Library, operates in partnership with WorkSource Seattle-King County. It features six computers with generous two hour time limits and enhanced job search tools. Chance Hunt, Assistant Director of Public Services for the library, announced during National Friends of The Library week that 1000 people used the Job Resource Center in September ’09.
Sylvia Rolle spoke on KUOW about her positive experience with the Center. “…it’s really just changed my whole outlook on getting a job in this tough climate,” she said.
“I don’t have a computer,” Selena Wimmer told us in our library value survey, ”I’ve been able to work on developing my writing skills because of the access the computer lab offers. In addition, I was able to find a job using the job resource area.”
Southwest patron Judith Parlin writes, “I am recently unemployed after 33 years at the same company. I use the computers to research for jobs and to sign up for my weekly unemployment checks.”
Several people, responding to our library value survey, cited the library as their primary location for job resources including Misha, a Capitol Hill and U District branch library patron, who writes, “I have many friends like myself who have given up paying for internet services at home. After being laid off for over a year one friend can’t even afford an internet cafe & sold her lap top, so the library computers are her only option for applying for jobs, as the nearest worksource office is two (recently increased fare) bus rides away from where she is staying.”
In many neighborhoods, library branches are the only convenient and free location for computer access and job hunting services.
Josephine waited 2 1/2 hours tonite for an opportunity to ask council to “think outside the box” to find some way to keep our libraries open. She suggested that The Seattle Public Library try to fund itself like King County Library. Weeks ago, during the Library’s Budget Presentation, Councilmember Conlin wondered if there were some way to change the library’s funding structure. Right now, the library is classified as a “non-taxing authority” and, as such, can’t levy for operational money. All operational money must come from the City of Seattle’s General Fund. Capital maintanence, funds which are also deeply impacted by the budget crunch, must come from the City’s REET (Real Estate Excise Tax). Because The Library is bound to get funds from these sources it is always in competition with other essential services during tough economic times. Changing the funding structure, however, may be a difficult task.
Johnson-Fong sorts the petitions
Jennifer Johnson-Fong presented 2000 petition signatures gathered on Facebook and from The Friends of The Seattle Public Library petitioning drive at branch libraries. She said, “Tonite I’ve brought you petitions from: Northeast, Ballard, West Seattle, Wallingford, Greenwood, and Broadview libraries. My experience while collecting signatures has been consistent. I speak to people who use their neighborhood branch for a variety of reasons and I speak to people who depend on their neighborhood branch either for access to public computers that they can get no where else or for access to the free WiFi. Out of 26 branches and Central 21 neighborhood libraries are proposed to be closed Fridays and Sundays and only open 35 hours a week.” Johnson-Fong closed by asking Council to help all the branch libraries that would be impacted by restoring library hours.
Susan Adkins, Seattle Public Library Foundation president, relayed the words of Sue Nevler, Executive Director, E.B. Dunn Historic Garden Trust, who wrote, “As an active and committed library patron I am compelled to plead that you do not make these most damaging cuts of funds to our Seattle Library system. Just last year my husband, George Nevler, was honored posthumously for his participation in the Libraries for All campaign. An ardent reader, he visited all branch libraries, save one, before he died unexpectedly at age 50. Our two boys, one with a diagnosis of autism, are both avid readers. My hope is that their futures, though now diminished by the absence of their father, will continue to be shaped by the wealth of knowledge available to them in the sacred space of their library. I ask you to please reflect and do not make these severe cuts which will have a profound impact on the many citizens of Seattle who have their own unique stories tied to their library.”
She also quoted award winning author, Richard Farr, “every citizen needs libraries. More important still: every child who grows up in a great and (even today) wealthy city deserves a community that would simply be too ashamed to consider library closures as a budget fixing option.”
“Please,” he wrote, “for the sake of the city itself, let’s be too ashamed to do this. Do not cut the library’s budget. That Seattle “aspires” to be a “world-class city” is very nice, but the stark reality is this: as everyone has known since the Babylonians, a city in which you cannot go to the library is no city at all.”
The last opportunity to publicly speak to elected officials in support of The Seattle Public Library system’s hours is on Monday, Oct 26 at City Hall, 5:30!
If you’re planning to attend, rsvp to advocacy@friendsofspl.org and we’ll send you background and preparatory information. We urge you to attend. It makes a big difference.
Can’t attend? You can call in. Calls count as public testimony even though they’re not heard by the full council. The call in number is: 206-684-0481. Calls are taken by Council member Jean Godden between 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. This format is more conversational, so be prepared for a followup question. This is different than the format for testimony in City Council chambers where Council members only listen.
Your support Monday will make a difference in your ability access to your library in 2010.
You can also email your comments anytime to budget@seattle.gov, though we encourage you to mail each Council member individually.
Don’t have email, prefer the telephone, or want a longer conversation with your Council members?
Tim Burgess 684-8806, Sally Clark 684-8802, Richard Conlin 684-8805, Jan Drago 684-8801, Jean Godden 684-8807, Bruce Harrell 684-8804, Nick Licata 684-8803, Richard McIver 684-8800, Tom Rasmussen 644-8808
Friends of The Seattle Public Library board member Tony Provine gives a “thumbs up” to the sign for tonight’s City Council meeting about the 2010 proposed budget. A crowd of approximately 30 sat in the auditorium of Whitman Middle School along with seven of nine members of Seattle City Council until shortly after 7 pm talking about the budget.
Library supporter Gloria Butts asked the Council to imagine the 13 million people who are relying on The Library for services. Unfortunately, imagination is what the Council will have to rely on if Library supporters continue to stay home. Only one community member joined Friends board members in asking for restoration of the 17,000+ service hours that will be lost if the proposed 2010 budget is adopted.
Your presence or absence at these hearings makes a tremendous difference. 21 of our libraries are in danger of closing twice a week and operating on greatly reduced hours. Please take one short evening to come out and tell City Council that you care. These hearings are lightly attended and involve an approximately two hour time commitment. RSVP to advocacy@friendsofspl.org for more information.
The recession has caused the proposed 2010 budget to be downsized. On 5 Oct, Friends of The Seattle Public Library were in City Council chambers to hear The Seattle Public Library present its plans for coping with downward adjustments. City Council will now hold three public hearings for comment on all 2010 proposed budgets. They will then deliberate and adopt a budget on 23 November. You can view the library’s budget presentation online at Seattle Channel. Select “council briefing Oct 5″ and start watching at 83:00.
Some highlights: Council member Licata introduced The Library’s presentation by stating that the original 2010 budget for The Library was $52.7 million but the downward adjusted 2010 proposed budget allocates $50.1. “A substantial cut,” he said.
Susan Hildreth, City Librarian, explained that “the good news in this budget is that materials is held stable at approx $6 million but we’re still not ideally where we’d like to be, which is $8 million.” She said, “It’s a challenge to reduce library hours when demand is soaring.” She said furloughs and closures are not sustainable but she hoped when the economy improved that the city-wide infrastructure taxpayers invested in would again be strongly funded.
Council member Burgess led questioning. “What was the public’s reaction to the furlough in Sept?” If we wanted to restore some funding (to The Library) ”which would you choose, a furlough or reduced branch hours?” “How do our library open hours compare” with other libraries of our size? The City Librarian said that, if The Library’s proposed budget is adopted, “Seattle would drop to a much lower level than that of our peer libraries.”
Council member Clark acknowledged all the practical needs libraries meet and continued to pursue the questioning about how “a partial restoration of funds might be used.”
Dwight Dively, Finance Director for the City of Seattle, said The Library’s proposed capital budget “is not sustainable.”
In conclusion, Council member Burgess invited library analysis on scenarios involving partial restoration of funding and said, “Right now, I lean heavily toward addressing the reduction in hours.”
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