Comments on: Washington Park Library

By: Karen McAninch

Karen McAninch — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:50:55 +0000

Hi, George. Full disclosure: I am the union representative for the library. George is the former head of maintenance for the library, now retired. I don’t know where the figures of 8-10% a year for inflation come from. Most figures I’ve seen are more in the range of 4-5%.
Library Reform Group is calling for an escape clause in the contract between the library and the city so that the city is not required to continue to contribute $3.5 million (with cost of living increases) for what the library considers a “sustainable system”, which seems pre-ordained to be a library system with fewer services and branches than what exist now.
The library has projected a worst case scenario deficit of $1.3 million for this fiscal year and the letter to city councilpersons calls the library contribution towards that to be a “gift” from the library. This deficit is in large part due to a federal requirement to more fully fund the pension plan up front (thus decreasing expenditures down the road), but provides no incentive for the library to rein in expenses. Indeed, it includes a new IT Coordinator position (salary?) in addition to several new positions added last year.
Meanwhile, grant money in the budget has been severely reduced, leading to layoffs of literacy and other grant funded positions and donations are non-existent (any donations appear to be used to pay for fundraising expenses, including the library’s lawyer Dan Prentiss and Dyana Koelsch, the library’s lobbyist).
Library Reform Group is also calling for a timetable for Washington Park Library to reopen now that the city has repaired the building.

By: matthew

matthew — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:21:37 +0000

I think services can be maintained, yes, if the library made any effort to do its own fundraising and if it stopped pouring all of its money into foundations in order to avoid public oversight.

By: George Westerlund

George Westerlund — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:57:10 +0000

The City agreement specifies level funding over a four year period. That does not account for inflation. The U.S. Government inflation numbers of 4% to 5% do not take in all factors so that the U.S. Government payouts such as Social Security can be kept low. Real inflation is currently in the range of 8% to 10%. Can the Library maintain curent services when inflation increases costs at the current 8% to 10% a year? We need to see fair assessments of the situation on the part of both the City and The Library Reform Group.

By: George Westerlund

George Westerlund — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:49:01 +0000

See comment above

By: George Westerlund

George Westerlund — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:48:03 +0000

The City agreement specifies level funding over a four year period. That does not account for inflation. The U.S. Government inflation numbers of 4% to 5% do not take in all factors so that the U.S. government payouts such as Social Security can be kept low. Real inflation is currently in the range of 8% to 10%. Can the Library maintain services when inflation increases costs at the current 8% to 10% a year? We need to see fair assessments of the situation on the part of both the City and The Library Reform Group.

By: Dave Segal

Dave Segal — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:51:17 +0000

Duane!