Library materials budget reduced by $500,000 to pay for pilot after-school program
By Anna Daniels
City Council Public Budget Hearing
Monday May 19, 2014 6pm
City Council Chambers 202 “C” Street San Diego 92101
Library supporters across the city breathed a collective sigh of relief when Mayor Jerry Sanders was termed out. Faced with a tanking economy and structural deficits, his top down leadership style coupled with the demand for centralized control and uniformity had a uniquely savage and disproportionate impact on the library department.
Children in low income neighborhoods were left without computer access when the hours were cut; seven neighborhood libraries were threatened with closure; material budgets were slashed and staff was cut to the bone. By 2011 the library budget had been reduced 22.2% from 2007 levels, while the police department had realized a 9.6% increase in funding and fire a 14.4% increase in that same period.
When Bob Filner was elected, his proposed library budget included additional hours of library operation. This was part of his platform of shifting General Fund support back to neighborhoods. It appeared that Sander’s vindictive, out of touch brand of cronyism carried out by capo Kris Michell and spinmeister Gerry Braun had ended. A more cynical explanation provided by a city council member was that the economy was improving and that explained the additional hours.
It is budget time for fiscal year 2015. Filner is gone as well as Sanders. We are now getting a glimpse of the budget priorities and management style of our third strong mayor, Kevin Faulconer. City General Fund revenues have continued to increase and it is now time to divvy up the pie. And yet again, the library department is getting a raw deal from newly elected Mayor Faulconer.
The good news spin for the library department is that the proposed budget has been increased by $1.4 million over the current budget. Library hours will be increased by four hours at all of the branches (48 hrs/wk)and five hours at the Central Library (54 hours/wk). Twelve branches will have an additional half hour on Sunday and three hours on Saturday (55.5 hrs/wk).
It is misleading to characterize this increase as anything more than a paltry re-institution of hours that had been drastically cut between 2003 and 2009. When you drill down into the “good news” you find that in 2003, the Mission Valley branch library was open 76 hours/wk. That is 20.5 hours more per week than the proposed FY’15 budget. In 2003, the Central Library was open 64 hours/wk—10 hours more than the proposed budget.
The proposed budget includes expenditures for a new after-school pilot program–Do your Homework@The Library. The program utilizes library facilities and materials to provide afterschool homework and general learning assistance to children in elementary through middle school. The branch library locations were selected in communities where at least one school maintained an Academic Performance Index (API) score under the minimum target score of 800 and was in close proximity to multiple other schools. The eighteen libraries are divided into North and South areas.
The cost of this pilot program is $500,000. Instead of increasing the library budget accordingly, there is a $500,000 offset–a reduction in library material funds. There is no other general fund department that has sustained this kind of offset to a departmental increase.
The Office of Independent Budget Analysis (IBA) notes that San Diego’s books/collection budget in 2012 was $2.48 per capita. In comparison, other benchmarked cities had a budget of $5.22 per capita. What the IBA report didn’t mention is that the $2.48 figure in 2012 is less than San Diego’s $2.88 level in 2006.
By both internal and external comparisons, the materials budget is inadequate. It is a real head scratcher to read in the IBA report that the demand for materials will somehow be offset by providing access to materials previously stored during the transition to the new Central Library, which opened last year.
This is a shell game and we have seen Faulconer play it before. When Sanders proposed closing seven branch libraries in Fy’09, library supporters across the city staged rallies, inundated the city council with emails and phone calls and packed the budget hearings. The message was clear and no libraries were closed.
There was an offset however and that offset came from the library budget– $3.1 million in Library System Improvement funds. Kevin Faulconer was on the city council at the time and voted to raid a fund that was part of a long term plan to provide operation and facility funding for libraries.
These improvement funds were budgeted for the facility aspect. Faulconer also voted to waive the Library Ordinance, which would provide the General Fund stream for operations. In his capacity as mayor, Faulconer is proposing to waive the ordinance again this year.
So yes, the proposed library budget is an increase over last year. But that increase remains disproportionately less relative to the other General Fund departments. It also papers over the level of funding the library would be receiving–6% of the General Fund budget–if the Library Ordinance was implemented. The library’s $45.2 million proposed budget (3.8% of General Fund) would be $70.7 million (6%).
The library is being thrown a bone and citizens should pitch a fit. Join with the Community Budget Alliance and Library Friends at the Monday May 19 evening budget hearing before the full council. Ask that the council restore the $500,000 proposed reduction to the materials budget. And ask the council to implement the Library Ordinance.
If you cannot attend the meeting, call or email your council representative and Mayor Faulconer.
Author’s Update: The final FY’15 budget hearing is Monday June 9, 2pm in the City Council Chambers. The IBA (Office of Independent Budget Analysis) has recommended re-instituting the Library’s materials budget and has identified funding sources outside of the Library budget to do so. Keep the calls and emails coming.
Anna Daniels
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Thank you for this, Anna. The tutoring program must come from the general fund and the materials allocation must remain at $500,000. We have a new, world-class library and we are cutting funds to stock it as well as our branches? Where are all the mayor’s campaign promises of being “FOR” neighborhoods? We need the tutoring program and we need a healthy new materials allocation. The money is there for both.
It just seems so San Diego. We build edifices and cheat on services.
We represent, we don’t do.
And, we don’t pay those who offer the services. Libraries require intelligent
people — there’s no digital substitute for a good reference librarian; they
serve people who don’t enjoy their own personal staff to do the search for
fact. That service apparently is not of high value to Faulconer; he’s got his
own staff already.
One staffer less per city council district office would make up that $500,000 that’s being bled from the library system to pay for a pilot program. And believe me, no one in the neighborhoods .20.11303
One less staffer from each city council office would pay for the $500,000 due the library system. Given the kind of service provided by Council staff to neighborhoods, we won ‘t miss that person at all.
Thanks to intelligent writers like Anna Daniels, the public sees behind the curtain of City Hall. Anna’s article and visuals are a must read for each City Council member and staff, Mayor Faulconer and his staff, and the leaders of the San Diego Libraries. Please do your part and share this article with your councilperson and hiz honah! June 9th is coming up soon.
A library lover
Thank you Anna for telling people about this. Library Administration is perfectly content to go along with the Mayor’s shell game.
Thank You for this astute analysis of the shell game played by our GOP mayors to siphon money away from the neighborhood library system and toward the usual knee-jerk sham of law-and-order and edifice complex.
Our beautiful library holds so much promise , sad to see it being underfunded! This could be a treasure of the community and the San Diego region. let’s fund it enough to make it a vital and thriving community center.
Great News. See Pages 18-20 for today’s June 9, 2014 afternoon City Council Hearing for Item 200 the FY-2015 Budget where Mayor Kevin Faulconer and the City Council are requesting the Resinstatement of $500,000 for the Library Materials Budget.
http://tinyurl.com/20140609a
Your voices were heard.
Why do we need more libraries? Seems like a waste of money in the modern era of computers
Not everyone has a computer. Even if everyone had a computer, “everything” is not available on computers. What is available on computers is not necessarily free. And finally, people with computers call the library for professional assistance in determining whether a site is trustworthy and up to date.
Tell that to the children of Logan Heights and Barrio Logan who fill the local branch library during all hours it is open. Libraries may not be needed for the more affluent but in my neighborhood libraries are a necessity.
The computer vs library debate is a nonstarter. I have two computers, two Kindles and I still check out books ALL THE TIME from my local library. It should never be an either/or everyone benefits from a both/and response.
Anna:
Great in-depth article on Library budget changes. Let me just say that yet another change in the damn “Hours of Operation” is ludicrous. The public at large is already confused on who’s open what days and until when. Never mind the proposed hours are so convoluted it is highly possible that staff like myself, will be unsure. What a sin to take that money from the collection. I have personally kept track of many titles over the last 18 months that are not being purchased. I cannot see that less money will change this fact. That project of homework help will be a boondoggle and have huge overhead expenditures. It is a waste.